My i-opener's been collecting dust for well over a year and I've decided to clean it up and get some more juice in it. My original "hacks" were pretty tame and I still don't want to do any extreme stuff. just make the most of it. I originally put in a 128 meg SODIMM, 6 gig hard drive (with an activity light), and a laptop fan that I paid dearly for. Other than that, I managed to keep it looking very stock. No cuts in the metal or plastic. Modem's still in there. It served me well except for its habit of crapping out during large network file transfers. But now I want to see what I can do to breathe a little more life into it.
I've swapped the 6 gig drive for a 15 gig (stole it from my MP3 player) but I'd like to go bigger. Has anyone tried a 20, 40, or 60 gig drive with the IO? I don't have anything else that needs that much space in a 2.5" drive so I'm reluctant to fork over the money if I won't be able to use it.
I'd also like to bump up the CPU power but I don't want to have to tear a hole in the back and have a big, loud fan sticking out of the case. I should have grabbed a WinChip2 back when they were kicking around on Ebay. I know it won't make a huge difference but I'm balancing power with the stock look and minimal noise. Does anyone know where I could get one these days?
I'm working on getting a working 256 meg SODIMM. I ordered one from TigerDirect last week which had 8 chips per side in the picture. 4 chips per side in reality. RMA'd and ordered another from NewEgg which shows 8 chips per side. Anyone have a source for working 256 meg SODIMMs at a reasonable price? The places mentioned "back in the day" either no longer carry this type or want $80-100+ for a stick. If this one doesn't match the picture, I might give online ordering one more shot before I pay BestBuy's price. They've got a PNY that should work but they seem to charge by the chip.
As for the OS, I'm probably going to put XP on there. I want to run Kazaa(lite) so I'm pretty much stuck with 'doze and, from what I've read, XP has the most stable USB networking.
Which brings me to the last hack. CompactFlash. When reading the "How to add the compact flash socket to your iopener !!" thread, I get the impression that the CF card hack only allows one to add CF storage devices, not every type of CF device. If this is correct, I don't have much reason to bother with that hack. If, however, it is a true CF slot and can accomodate other CF devices (say, a NIC), it might be worth it for the added stability. Can anyone who's done the CF hack verify whether it's a true CF system or just a storage adapter?
Thanks!
