[byama36]

Just bought my Mini12 and overall I am satisfied with the product. The slim size and the long battery life( I got the 9 cell battery) is something that I was looking for. Of course in any forum there is always a "BUT" coming and here it is...

I understand it is an Intel Atom processor, but it really is sluggish. I tried a number of things like limiting the number of programs booting during start-up to only the essentials, cleaning up the registry, etc....aside from upgrading the hardware...(oh wait...I can't!...stupid no panel on the underside...) is there any other things I can do to maximize performance?

[mini12user]

Are you running XP? Mine runs XP pretty snappy, like a normal computer. I find the main issue with the Mini and speed comes down to software. If your using heavy bloated software it will run slow. What Programs are running Sluggish for you?

There are also many posts about upgrading the hard drive to SSD. Look on youtube, there plenty of videos showing netbooks on atom processors running fast and multitasking.

Speed is perceptual, one person's fast system is slow on another. Like how people think webpages load faster if they see something come up quick at first, even though it can take the same amount of time.

I usually run Windows 7. Even though it's a little slower than XP I like the look and features. The speed is still acceptable for me. Check the Linux threads as well, they say it runs Ubuntu Netbook Remix fast.

[byama36]

I am running XP and I mainly use it to run MS Office. (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc.)
My main complaint is when I am running Power point or any other graphic intense software (Photoshop, Publisher, etc). Whenever I am editing or creating PowerP presentation the performance really slows down. I read the upgrade forum about ebootsr and may give that a try. There was also a discussion regarding CPU perfromance difference in when plugged in with a power cord and with out. I had considered swapping the HD with a SSD but, unfortunately I'm unsavvy with the modification of electronics. What I would like is some advice from veteran computer enthusiasts...I'd appreciate any advice I can get.

[marcusdiddle]

Hate to say it, but if you needed a system for Photoshop, you bought the wrong one. That's simply not the kind of thing this system was designed for. Internet, e-mail, basic office apps...anything beyond that probably will lead to disappointment.

[geneb]

My mini 12 is about 3 weeks old now and I must admit its a "pretty good buy". I also must admit its not the fastest computer on the block - but my demands for it are not that great and its speed meets my needs. Yes, I'd like it too be faster but for searching the Web, writing text and taking notes, it does the job well within my comfort zone !

Since I am not a geek I have worked on the mini 12 just a minor bit. Got rid of the McA anti-virus and installed the free AVG. Did the same for MS Works and installed OpenOffice. Have not done anything to the start-up programs yet but will have a geek friend help me slim down the start-ups.

I could not agree more with mini 12 owner who posted "Speed is perceptual, one person's fast system is slow on another"

No it does'nt heat up with use. May be a bit "warm. The six cell battery should last for a coast to coast flight. I had planned to buy a DVD/CD writer but will buy a 16 MB thumb drive instead and use my desktop for making CDs (for the time being).

I have the 1.6 version. and use it with WindowsXP. One additional comment - a 12" screen is better than a 10" screen and that fact alone makes it worth the buy.

[byama36]

Thanks for the many advice. I don't think I made a mistake purchasing the mini12. The heavy duty program I seldom do and in most case I do it on my desktop. I am please with all other uses ( like email, web browsing, etc....). I wanted some more configuration advice to maximize performance.

[marcusdiddle]

Originally Posted by byama36

I wanted some more configuration advice to maximize performance.

You may want to start with a different AV than what comes pre-installed (McAfee). Try ESET NOD32...very small footprint and doesn't use a lot of resources.

May also want to take a look at which apps are running on startup and disable a few. Go to Start > Run and type msconfig and hit enter. Go over to the Startup tab to see what's loading when Windows starts. Be careful in here, as Windows needs some of these things to operate. If you don't know what it is, don't uncheck it.