Acer Aspire One not immune to tnkgrl's modding ways, stuffed with Bluetooth and extra RAM

Netbooks have come a long way since the Eee PC 701 hit the scene. Gone are the square miles of emptiness surrounding the screens and keyboards as manufacturers start to put every inch to good use, but that seems to have little impact on folks bent on hacking these mini laptops to pieces -- with the Acer Aspire One the latest subject of such work. Tnkgrl has stuffed a miniscule USB Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR adapter under the palm rest and upgraded the RAM while she was in there. Next up is a hard drive upgrade and then the all-important "how to put the computer back together again." No real show stoppers, but if you've been waiting for reports from the other side before you put your own Aspire One under knife, here they are.

[Evan @ Aug 14th 2008 11:25AM]

Boy, if there was a HD-based Aspire One, I'd be picking that up for sure. The whole "SSD only" thing is really a drag.

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 14th 2008 11:56AM]

In the U.S, Microcenter has the $379 model with 8gb SSD, 512megs of ram and Linux and the $399 model with 120gb HDD, 1gb of ram and XP Home.

I think everyone should buy the $399 model, the Aspire One User forums have shown the HDD model outperforms the SSD model anyways!

They have a store in Houston and I checked out both models, the HDD model has a slight bulge on the bottom on one side to accomodate the hard drive.

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 14th 2008 11:57AM]

Link to both.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0293528

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0292935

$399 model is by far the better deal, I just wish they had the white color instead. : (

[Brad @ Aug 14th 2008 12:05PM]

I've had the 120GB/1GB model with XP for a week stock in almost every Dick Smith store in Australia $AU599 after cashback cheaper online at some places. I've already pulled mine apart and upgraded to 1.5GB RAM and am looking at fitting the Sierra Wireless 880U HSDPA modem into the empty space underneath shortly.

[tnkgrl @ Aug 14th 2008 1:44PM]

Just FYI, the HDD version of the Aspire one is thicker and heavier (it uses a standard 2.5" SATA drive and a modified casing) - otherwise it's definitely worth the extra $30 :)

[CosterMonger @ Aug 15th 2008 12:34PM]

Acer was smart enough not to use 1.8" HDD

[Macro @ Aug 14th 2008 11:30AM]

A girl hacker.. That's hot!

[Ignatius @ Aug 14th 2008 11:41AM]

Knowing full well the history of the Internet, that probably means she's not.

[The Dude @ Aug 14th 2008 12:15PM]

...or that she's really a guy.

[Chris @ Aug 14th 2008 12:18PM]

http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/about/

This should answer any questions you have.

[Have-a-look @ Aug 14th 2008 12:21PM]

You can watch her here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM1wNcnmZO8

And read here
http://tnkgrl.livejournal.com/profile

[Chris @ Aug 14th 2008 12:34PM]

http://flickr.com/photos/tnkgrl/tags/tnkgrl/page191/

[neofolklore @ Aug 15th 2008 8:28AM]

+1 for stereotypes

[Nestor @ Aug 14th 2008 12:18PM]

Hot or not; I want to meet her.... [e-mail] .. .. . .. if anyone knows send me contact info.. .lol... temp address will only last 1 month... I know spam just as bad as the ham...

[The_Steven @ Aug 14th 2008 12:34PM]

I'm betting she's not interested.

[Mark @ Aug 14th 2008 12:57PM]

Amateur soldering!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tnkgrl/2761713249/sizes/l/in/set-72157606718788110/

[tnkgrl @ Aug 14th 2008 1:27PM]

Like you can judge from an out-of-focus picture... It's not the best soldering job, but then again I don't care - It's good enough!

I don't see your mods being picked up by Engadget.

[Evan @ Aug 14th 2008 1:54PM]

She's got a point bro. You don't really have a leg to stand on in this case.

[Mark @ Aug 14th 2008 8:25PM]

Regardless of the amateur out of focus picture it is clear to see for anyone that knows anything about soldering that the basics of soldering has not been followed.

Frankly, I would be embarrassed if I would have achieved something with such quality.

Perhaps we have different views of humility and quality expectations.

As for that I prefer quality over quantity.

[tnkgrl @ Aug 14th 2008 10:37PM]

@Mark, blah, blah, blah

[Chris @ Aug 15th 2008 1:38AM]

@tankgirl

That is not very mature.
Are you sure you are a girl? You don't sound like one!

[thiago @ Aug 15th 2008 2:06AM]

@tnkgrl you dont care about looks I looked at some of your flickr pictures I see what you mean by you don't care and its good enough. lol

[Frosty @ Aug 14th 2008 8:54PM]

wait for the 3g version coming soon....................

[The_Steven @ Aug 14th 2008 9:00PM]

Tank Girl ROX! (thanx for the apple drive mod!)

[PsycoY @ Sep 14th 2008 7:35AM]

Thanks to tnkgrl i found the Ram upgrade slot and the insige to the harddisk mod i have high hopes for "shell"

[The_Steven @ Aug 14th 2008 9:08PM]

tnkgrl ROX! Thanx for the apple drive mod!

[tnkgrl @ Aug 16th 2008 2:24PM]

Here's part 2: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/modding-the-acer-aspire-one-hard-drive/

[tnkgrl @ Aug 16th 2008 3:19PM]

Here's part 2: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/modding-the-acer-aspire-one-hard-drive/

[MaximumMax @ Aug 24th 2008 10:55PM]

I have seen some of tnkgrls video's and they are very good..lucky we have someone helping
instead of being a judgemental menace. Keep up the good work tnkgrl

[JeepGirl @ Aug 24th 2008 11:16PM]

Heya tnkgrl, thanks for the howto's!

My hubby MaximumMax and I picked up the acer aspire one 120gb, pre-installed limpus lite. We picked up the extra Gb of memory and I installed it... Had to be so careful.


We have a question if you can answer it... Could/should we have gone with the 2GB stick for the extra $20?

Also, is there any way to upgrade the graphics? IE: Add-in card, video memory upgrade.

[bugbot42 @ Aug 26th 2008 6:47PM]

Anyone know if it's possible to upgrade an Atom processor once the new dual-cores come out? I'm not great with modding, and I don't know if the processor is soldered on or not. If it's soldered, I don't think I have the ability to upgrade it myself...

[laytonjb @ Aug 29th 2008 2:07PM]

I'm looking at the 1GB Acer Aspire One at Microcenter. It comes with a 120GB HD and XP. Is it possible to upgrade it to 2GB? Has anyone done this?

BTW - after I get one, I want to partition the drive and install Ubuntu :) I'd love to put in a 3G card but I hate to solder anything (I'm horrible with soldering gun). Is there a USB based 3G out there?

Thanks!

[Saheb @ Sep 27th 2008 6:30PM]

I tried doing your mod, first time I tried anything like this it was a nice experience.

I was happy to see it turned on. anyway I had two problems that I couldn't figure out, first the keyboard clips didnt come out once I pressed it in.

Secondly, when I went to install XP it says that the hard drive is not accessible I am guessing this is because the hard drive is bad.
Another possibility is that since I took it out of an IPOD it is in an unknown format.

can anyone help

[snowman @ Oct 17th 2008 4:36AM]

Hi there! Great work I must say. I'm getting one this week, but I was wondering if it was possible to upgrade the RAM to anything futher then the 1,5 GB "max" limit, in any possible way? I'm willing to go far for adding extra RAM, so could be nice if any of you knew a possibility.

[tnkgrl @ Oct 29th 2008 3:29PM]

Here's part 3: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/modding-the-acer-aspire-one-hsdpa/