It appears the Asus Eee PC 900 will sport the same 900MHz celeron processor as the current 701 series. ZDNet was apparently the only site that bothered to check the clock speed of the units on display at CeBIT this week.

I was kind of hoping for a processor bump to go with the storage boost and the larger screen. But since I also want to see Asus keep the price as low as possible, I guess I want too much.

ZDNet also reports that the 12GB model will run Linux while the 8GB model runs Windows XP, but I think it's much more likely that this just happens to be the configuration of the individual units on display. I'd be surprised if we didn't see Asus offer a choice of configurations in the future.

While there are several variations of the Eee PC, with different amounts of storage and RAM, each Eee PC ships with a relatively slow Intel Celeron processor. One Eee PC owner who goes by the name of Gurywha decided that the he wanted a bit more juice in his tiny laptop. So he popped out the 900MHz Celeron chip and soldiered in a 1.2M Pentium M processor.

Keep in mind, this is not an easy modification to make. I know you're all proud of the fact that you were able to upgrade your RAM, but it doesn't mean you're qualified to attempt this hack. But if you know your way around a soldering iron and a miniscule circuit board, it's apparently possible to replace an Eee processor.

The ULV PM 753 1.2G 2M L2 chip that Gurywha chose uses a bit more electricity than the Celeron chip it replaces. But it provides a lot more power. Using the 801 version of the Eee PC BIOS, Gurywha reports that the chip runs at 840MHz, but he's working on a way to improve performance without frying his system.

[via Blogeee]