I picked up a Toshiba NB205 netbook shortly after Windows 7 launched and have been enjoying it every since. The netbook shipped with an Intel® Atom™ processor N280 running at 1.66GHz, 1GB DDR2 memory, a 10.1″ WSVGA LED-backlit widescreen display at 1024 x 600 resolution, a 160GB 5400 rpm drive and more. It weighs in at only 2.9 lbs. and is 1.3″ high. The battery offers up to 9 hours of run time. Over all it is a pretty standard package, but at a current price of $399.99 at Best Buy it is a nice machine.

Not content to leave well enough alone, I did three simple mods that have it running better and doing more. I upped the RAM to 2GB, swapped out the spinning platter for an SSD drive and did a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium. The result is a netbook that is quick, quiet and cool… and runs for a long, long time.

Here’s a look at the device and the modifications…