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.