Father of All Mods: The Eee That's Eight Devices Richer

Everybody knows how popular the Asus Eee PC is. I won't even bother mentioning how many units have sold until now, or how much it costs, as these are just some details you Eee lovers already know. I will mention only the fact that its popularity mixed with an affordable price (affordable enough to risk FUBAR-ing it) has made it the main target of the miniature PC modders.

Ivan Cover is one of the greatest craftsmen when it comes to PC modding. Using a regular soldering iron, he managed to bring new and unexpected features to life inside the sub-notebook's casing. You must admit that it's a good darn sold(i)er since he successfully crammed some extra hardware devices inside the small notebook.

Basically, Cover added a USB hub, a GPS receiver together with its antenna, a Bluetooth module, a second SD-HC card slot, a Flash drive, a power switch, an FM transmitter and a standard modem, not to mention the network upgrade that made the Asustek Eee PC capable of working with the 802.11n wireless draft specifications set. Although the 'upgrade' might sound softer than 'replacing', switching to the 802.11n standard was possible by replacing the existing Wi-Fi hardware rather than adding something to it.

The hardware Ivan Cover used for upgrading were cheap, regular peripherals with their plastic cover removed. The tech-enthusiast took the PCBs and the USB sockets and soldered them directly on the Eee's motherboard. Ivan's attempt can be easily labeled as a strange kind of "hardware open-source", since all the modifications are explained in a step-by step walkthrough to be found on his website. Moreover, there is also an image gallery with all the necessary details to transform your Eee into a blade server.

Ivan is a non-conventional user. Apart from its hardware modifications that morphed the Eee into a decent notebook solution, the enthusiast is running Windows XP rather than the notebook's original operating system.