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Habey now makes a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator for only $50

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:58:40 +0000

One drawback of netbooks often cited is that high definition video playback can be slow, or impossible. It’s not really a problem if you have a dedicated grahipcs card like Nvidia Ion, but if you are stuck with integrated Intel graphics, you can often add a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator if you have an available PCIe slot. The card servers as a media coprocessor that adds support for HD video playback on computers with slow processors and graphics cards that normally wouldn’t be able to handle high definition video.

Some netbooks are sold with the cards pre-installed, but others have bought the card from eBay and other sources and upgraded their netbooks themselves. Unfortunately Broadcom came out with a second generation of the card, and the original became scare.

But now, Habey is selling its HB-VD904 for $49.99 through Amazon in the States. The card is virtually the same as the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator that it’s based on, and can decode high definition AVC, VC-1, MPEG-2, WMV, and H.264 video. So, let the DIY upgrades continue. Let’s hope a UK distributor gets some of these soon as well.

Toshiba builds first SSDs in new mSata standard

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:55:14 +0000

Toshiba drives featuring the new mSata connector

Up until now, the solid state drives (SSDs) for netbooks have come in all different sizes, shapes and with a mish mash of different connectors. The SATA-IO workgroup however, has just made an announcement that should make your SSD easier though – they’ve launched a new mini-SATA standard called mSATA which should standardize the connector used in future netbook solid state hard drives.

Toshiba’s is the first major manufacturer to produce SSDs using the new mSATA connector, using a 32nm process to create drives in 30 and 62GB sizes. Toshiba is the first but expect to see mSATA drives and machines from all the major manufacturers like Samsung, Dell, HP, SanDisk, Lenovo, STEC, and Toshiba.

DIY Special: Add a touchscreen to your Acer Aspire One

admin — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:44:10 +0000

Add a touch panel to your Aspire One.

The Acer Aspire One, despite all the latest and greatest such as the 1008HA from Asus, still a great netbook. As reviewed here at Netbooks Heaven, it has the familiar and still mostly up to date specs of a 1.6ghz Atom processor, 6 cell battery, 1gb ram and 160gb hard drive.

You can, however, set your Aspire One apart from the crowd, and add some useful functionality by replacing the regular LED backlit LCD screen with a touchscreen. The parts are easily available on eBay for less than 60 quid and there are many detailed guides available online.

Read past the break for a full how-to video guide on adding a touchscreen to your Aspire One netbook.

Step One – Dissambly of the netbook.

Step Two – Hardware Installation

Step Three – Driver Installation and Testing

- A full guide, with pictures at AspireOneUser.com.

- Liliputing on adding a touchsreen to your Aspire One Netbook.

How to Upgrade your Netbook – Part 1, Adding RAM

admin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:07:40 +0000

The Ram Compartment on an Acer Aspire One.

You will be able to add extra memory to a netbook or laptop in under 10 minutes. The Acer Aspire One, one of the most popular netbooks , is featured here, but many netbook have idential or very similiar procedures. Click the ‘read more’ link for the instructions and the full video.

Here’s how:

Unscrew and remove the bottom plastic cover
Locate the empty DIM {definition}
Line up the notch on the memory stick with the notch in the empty DIM
Insert the memory stick into the DIM (slot that the memory stick goes into) at a 45 degree angle
Press the memory down until it is flat against the motherboard and the two side clips “click”
Screw the plastic cover back onto the computer
Power on the computer and verify that the memory is detected