Perseus and MSI Wind Netbook

Prior to ordering the Perseus I was conflicted with what kind of computer I would need to successfully DX with the SDR. None of the computers I use at home run Windows (I prefer linux), and none are modern enough to successfully utilize the Perseus to its full potential (full bandwidth recording). Not wanting to spend a lot of money on a new computer just for this purpose, I decided to buy a MSI Wind U100 netbook strictly for using with the Perseus. My decision was based on a favorable review by Guy Atkins using the U100 with the Perseus.

I picked up a U100 from Newegg for a nice price and upgraded the ram to 2GB and did the bios update. The bios update allows me to over-clock the machine for maximum performance during recording sessions with the Perseus.

This is all outlined in Guy’s review on his blog. In addition to the above, I’m using a hack that allows the netbook to be over-clocked while running off the battery – no more RF noise from the Wind’s AC power supply.

With my setup, I’ve found it performs best when over-clocked 8%, and this is only needed when recording at the high 2000 kS/s sampling rate. O/C is not needed when playing back the same file and only needed during recording. As it happens, my Wind is very unstable when over-clocked the full 24% despite using quality ram and disabling the on-board memory.

Ready for DX! Perseus SDR & MSI Netbook

2 thoughts on “Perseus and MSI Wind Netbook

  1. I picked up an Asus EEE netbook, a model 1005HAB from Best Buy. I’m using a program called SetFSB for overclocking, it allows you to incrementally adjust the clock so you’re not limited to just 8/16/24% speed increases. I’m finding I can overclock to 1.936 GHz reliably on battery power, and 2.026+ on AC. It might work on the Wind as well; it autodetects all sorts of clock generators.

  2. Thanks for the tip. The only time I need to o/c is when I record & playback at 2000 kS/s, and the 8% seems to work decently.

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