Hacked Eee PC Sells for the Price of a MacBook Air

The extremely popular Eee PC sub-notebook from Asustek has reportedly been modded once again. This time we're not talking about carbon fiber lids or 802.11n Wi-Fi capabilities, but rather of a whole new set of features, previously unknown to the toy-like gadget.

The new version has shown up on eBay and sells for an incredible price tag of $3,200, which means that you'll have to pay more than the actual price of a flagship notebook, such as MacBook Air, Lenovo X300 or Sony VAIO TZ-series.

Dave, the creator, claims that the starting point for his Eee on steroids is a standard 8G model. The device is then subjected to a serious face lift that turns it into an extremely powerful, yet ultra-portable device, with an additional 32GB Patriot XT drive, 2 GB of system RAM, a touchscreen and an updated Wi-Fi card that can work with the 802.11 a/b/g/n standards.

As if this were not enough, you get even an FM transmitter that allows you to connect the device to a car radio, then stream audio content to the car speakers. The whole system runs smoothly, powered by Microsoft's Windows XP operating system with the third service pack pre-installed.

The biggest issue with the device is its unbelievable price tag. Dave also admits that the $3,200 tag is a little too much.

"Yes I think the price is a little high. But reasonably so, Parts cost was right around $1200 USD and the time invested into hardware hacking it, installing all the appropriate software and testing all functionality, was well over 30 hours. Around $50.00 per hour in labor", the modder claimed.

All the new modifications are more or less interesting (except for the FM transmitter mod, maybe), but they are sure to suck the 4400 mAh battery dry in an instant. In fact, this is the least documented part of the hack and we can easily imagine why.