With the release of the new eee keyboard approaching, I’ve decided to dust off an old mod and show you what I did with an original eeepc 701.

It started with a broken 701 which I got from a friend for roughly $30. It had sustained a drop and thus resulted in a broken screen and would not boot up even with a monitor plugged into it. Upon cracking open the case I noticed the ram was knocked loose. Once I put it back in place, the 701 booted up fine with the monitor. With the broken screen getting in the way I decided to just remove it completely resulting in a very slimline desktop alternative.

Besides the broken screen there was also a small crack to the left of the touch pad. I tried putting a sticker over it but that just ruined the aesthetics. So after salvaging the webcam I drilled into the small crack and made a hole that would fit the webcam perfectly.

After relocating the wifi antenna and the speakers I ended up with what I call the original eee keyboard. Nothing fancy but it really stands out sitting in front of my 22” monitor. It functions perfectly and acts as a small desktop alternative.

After a few months of everyday use I decided it would be more suited as a home theatre PC and brought a VGA to RCA cable so I could use it with my 50” television.

I hope you enjoyed this little mod and maybe it could inspire you into doing something similar to an old netbook you have lying around.

Here are some more pictures taken in 2008 with the old white keyboard, enjoy.