I have used a netbook in the past, IIRC with very similar specs. The main limiting factor in its use as a "retro" gaming machine - apart from the speed issues, limited memory etc. - I found to be the nonstandard display. Not much software will play nicely with a resolution of 1360x600.

This one is 1024*600 (a 10.1" screen) so I am planning on using it at 800*600 for most games and just getting eyestrain

If you can disable screen scaling and are willing to sacrifice your eyes, why not. I was unable to do it with mine, so trying to use standard resolutions resulted in horrific distortions of the image. The BIOS on this netbook is awful too.

I myself have a Samsung NC210 running Windows XP and I mostly use it for schoolwork. It has very similar specs to yours except for the fact that I upgraded the RAM to 2GB. I have run some games on there as well, but even though many games run quiet well, I wouldn't say it is a pleasant experience, except for maybe some point and click games like Westwood's Monopoly. I also find many of my games to be stretched out because they don't know what to do with the 1024x600 resolution. It is a very nice solution for gaming on the go however. 😀

To answer your question; I remember Microsoft stating that Windows 2000 has great support for older games and software and that you didn't have to worry about leaving the 9x kernel. The truth turned out to be quiet different though and many old software wouldn't run on Windows 2000. They resolved this issue later with Windows XP. In short; I think you might be better of with Windows XP, but I wouldn't recommend you to update further than Service Pack 2, I could be wrong though.

Yes, XP with SP2 should be good enough. The 1024x600 might be severely limiting the UI, though. At the very least turn off the Luna styles and use Windows Classic. At that point XP should not be really heavier than 2000.

However, the very notion of using that particular thing as a gaming machine is just absurd. Have you considered the cramped screen, the useless keyboard and pointing device, the tinny speakers (or is it one mono speaker?)? Do you plan to connect externals? These things were garbage from the second they were released; they are certainly even more garbage now, more than a freaking decade later.

dr_st wrote:

These things were garbage from the second they were released; they are certainly even more garbage now, more than a freaking decade later.

I don't agree with this part of your post at all; they are far from garbage. They are a great solution if you use them for what they were intended for; if you use them for business or school purposes they work just fine. However, as I stated before, though gaming is possible; it isn't a pleasant experience. But of course, these netbooks were never intended to be used as a gaming platform by their manufacturers. 😒

Strahssis wrote:

if you use them for business or school purposes they work just fine.

What can you possibly do, productivity-wise, on a device that has 600 vertical pixels (not even enough to show certain standard Windows dialog windows!) and a CPU that goes into cardiac arrest every time a webpage heavier than VOGONS is loaded?

Any type of work more serious than typing a grocery list in Notepad works just as well on them as running any game more complex than Solitaire. 😀

I won't be doing anything serious on it at all. It will just be for DOSBox, early 3D games, 2D games. It's just a project; I've got proper PCs and a laptop from work for productivity and I have a few proper retro PCs.

I'll play some quake 3 in bed with a wireless mouse or some Open Red Alert (which can do funky resolutions).

From experience, Windows 7 32-bit is going to run too slowly on there, even with things like Aero and SuperFetch turned off, to make buying RAM and an SSD worth it. Consider that the first-gen Atoms perform close to 800MHz Pentium Ms despite running at double the clockspeed, and with HT.

EDIT: removed unnecessary quote.

dr_st wrote:

Strahssis wrote:

if you use them for business or school purposes they work just fine.

What can you possibly do, productivity-wise, on a device that has 600 vertical pixels (not even enough to show certain standard Windows dialog windows!) and a CPU that goes into cardiac arrest every time a webpage heavier than VOGONS is loaded?

Any type of work more serious than typing a grocery list in Notepad works just as well on them as running any game more complex than Solitaire. 😀

You got me there! 😜
Yes, I have to admit it isn't a pleasant experience either, but you can definitely get the job done if you use Linux or Windows XP, but you need to be patient. Besides, 10 years ago the internet was a different place and web pages would be way lighter, so the CPU had a way easier time. Garbage right now? Maybe. But garbage back then? Definitely not! Don't get me wrong; I would choose my Intel Core i5 4460 system over my Samsung NC210 all day long; both productivity- and gaming-wise. 😉

FWIW my netbook above has eventually had Linux installed on it (Gentoo more precisely) very lightweight, no GUI and for the past few years has found a second life as a WiFi bridge/range extender in my home. 😀

Strahssis wrote:

Besides, 10 years ago the internet was a different place and web pages would be way lighter, so the CPU had a way easier time. Garbage right now? Maybe. But garbage back then? Definitely not!

I had the dubious pleasure of using such a netbook a few times at a friend's place, I think circa 2009, and it was already a pain back then. Even if the CPU didn't downright choke on its snot when you showed a webpage with more than 2 images, you still couldn't even see those images without scrolling down for 5 hours. Ugh. 🤣

I have an EeePC Surf 2G (great name, Asus. How many e's are supposed to be in there again?) which is pretty much the lowest spec netbook you could get in 2008. 900MHz P3-based Celeron underclocked to 570MHz (95 FSB), 256MB RAM soldered in & non-upgradable (hi, Apple), two whole gigabytes of solid-state storage also soldered in and non-upgradable, i910GML GPU/chipset. It originally shipped with a cut-down Linux but I have XP on it; the drivers are all available and there was even some official support from Asus. I did turn off all the graphics features and use a solid-color desktop, but it runs totally fine.

I actually love the thing. I use it as a portable "trackbook" for music composing (mostly Schism Tracker and DefleMask), which I can just stuff into any overnight bag if I'm travelling or even keep in my glovebox. I "upgraded" the storage with an 8GB SD card so it has lots of room, and have all kinds of audio editing software installed, like Audacity, Wavosaur, SunVox, AXS, Dreamstation, etc. It even has a line-in for "sampling" although the quality of the onboard DAC+ADC isn't very good.

Despite the limited hardware configuration it has more USB ports than my 2012 Macbook "Pro" and a VGA port for multi-heading (as above) although I usually just use the built-in 800x480 panel.

So yeah, is what it is, but useless? Hell no. Nobody makes anything like this anymore, but these were tablets before tablets went mainstream.

Here I am setting up for a set at Vancouver's biggest chiptune show:

I think that's all that needs to be said. 😜

BTW it took me forever to track this down, so I'll post it here. Attached is a video tweak utility that was floating around back when these things were current. It was made specifically for the EeePC but might work for others that use the same driver package (including GMA950==i945GM.) It allows you to set a higher desktop resolution than the actual panel and pan around that with the mouse, or scale it down. HIGHLY useful.

I also have this modded driver package from here, which has some scaling functionality too & supports a bunch of different iGPUs.

From the EeePC_VGA_Scale_Drivers readme:

Supported Chipsets ================== […]
Show full quote

Supported Chipsets
==================

Target system must contain one of the following Intel Chipsets:

Intel(R) Q35 Express Chipset
Mobile Intel(R) GME965 Express Chipset
Intel(R) Q965 Express Chipset
Mobile Intel(R) 945GME Express Chipset
Intel(R) 945G Express Chipset
Mobile Intel(R) 915GME Express Chipset
Intel(R) 915GV Express Chipset
Mobile Intel(R) 910GMLE Express Chipset
Intel(R) 855GME Chipset (Mobile)
Intel(R) 852GM Chipset (Mobile)
Intel(R) 852GME Chipset (Mobile)

Please check with your system provider to determine the Intel Chipset
used in your system.

Feel free to try either or both of these out & report back if they work on your book. 😉

dr_st wrote:

I had the dubious pleasure of using such a netbook a few times at a friend's place, I think circa 2009, and it was already a pain back then. Even if the CPU didn't downright choke on its snot when you showed a webpage with more than 2 images, you still couldn't even see those images without scrolling down for 5 hours. Ugh. 🤣

I think we have a different personal experience with this kind of hardware then. I honestly don't remember it being that awful and as I said before I still use one on a daily basis to take notes at school and to browse the web, which works just fine for me. It is fine for what it is, but you just shouldn't expect too much from them. 😊

xjas wrote:

I have an EeePC Surf 2G (great name, Asus. How many e's are supposed to be in there again?) which is pretty much the lowest spec […]
Show full quote

I have an EeePC Surf 2G (great name, Asus. How many e's are supposed to be in there again?) which is pretty much the lowest spec netbook you could get in 2008. 900MHz P3-based Celeron underclocked to 570MHz (95 FSB), 256MB RAM soldered in & non-upgradable (hi, Apple), two whole gigabytes of solid-state storage also soldered in and non-upgradable, i910GML GPU/chipset. It originally shipped with a cut-down Linux but I have XP on it; the drivers are all available and there was even some official support from Asus. I did turn off all the graphics features and use a solid-color desktop, but it runs totally fine.

I actually love the thing. I use it as a portable "trackbook" for music composing (mostly Schism Tracker and DefleMask), which I can just stuff into any overnight bag if I'm travelling or even keep in my glovebox. I "upgraded" the storage with an 8GB SD card so it has lots of room, and have all kinds of audio editing software installed, like Audacity, Wavosaur, SunVox, AXS, Dreamstation, etc. It even has a line-in for "sampling" although the quality of the onboard DAC+ADC isn't very good.

Despite the limited hardware configuration it has more USB ports than my 2012 Macbook "Pro" and a VGA port for multi-heading (as above) although I usually just use the built-in 800x480 panel.

So yeah, is what it is, but useless? Hell no. Nobody makes anything like this anymore, but these were tablets before tablets went mainstream.

Here I am setting up for a set at Vancouver's biggest chiptune show:

I think that's all that needs to be said. 😜

That's awesome man; it's good to see there are some more netbook enthusiasts out there and you really found a good use for yours! I love these netbooks way better than tablets; it's like all the possibilities of a full PC in the size of a tablet. Here is a picture of mine! 😀

xjas wrote:

BTW it took me forever to track this down, so I'll post it here. Attached is a video tweak utility that was floating around back when these things were current. AFAIK this is an official utility from Intel; it will work for most iGPUs from this era including the GMA950 (==945GM*). It allows you to set higher resolutions than the actual panel and pan around the bigger "virtual screen" with the mouse, among other things. HIGHLY useful.

Do you mean that I can set a higher vertical resolution with this that my normal graphics driver supports? 😕

^^ You can set higher resolutions than your LCD panel physically has, which is extremely useful (so you can run your Windows desktop at e.g. 1280x1024 on a 1024x600 panel.) IIRC you can also choose to scale it down but the scaling is pretty ugly, I use the mouse-panning mode.

Edit: see above, I was thinking of AsTray+ which is a 3rd party utility that "fell off" the internet. Added that to my previous post. The other link was a modded Intel driver package.

That sounds pretty useful; I might actually try those out later this week; thanks! 😊

xjas wrote:

...It allows you to set a higher desktop resolution than the actual panel and pan around that with the mouse, or scale it down. HIGHLY useful.

If I'm not mistaken, my wife's old EeePC (1000ha or something) has this ability (which I hate 🤣) already built in out of box.