Your brand new mini-notebook is cool, compact and connects wirelessly to the Internet – but it's not as powerful as it could be.

What if we told you that for just a tenner, you could add another gigabyte of RAM? Or that you could gain 16GB of storage for only £35?

And if you've got a bit more spending power, you could add true mobile connectivity to your machine by connecting to the internet at 3G speeds.

We've been investigating fast, fuss-free ways to upgrade your netbook, from easy upgrades to plug-in expansions, as well as some more extreme options for more dedicated upgraders. Whatever the extent of your ideas, read on to find out how you can squeeze every last possible drop of power from your miniature marvel.

Voided warranty

First, a word about your warranty. By upgrading the internal hardware in most computers, you void the standard warranty that comes with the machine, and the same is true in the case of most netbook upgrades. However, there are some exceptions.

Owners of Asus Eee PCs are allowed to upgrade memory in their machine without losing their warranty service. Though its position was initially different, the company made a statement in December 2007 saying that upgrading RAM wouldn't affect your rights.

If you want to upgrade the memory in your MSI Wind, though, the issue is a little more complex. "The end user will need to contact MSI UK first, and we will approve case by case," an MSI spokesperson told hardware website bit-tech.net.

"If end users choose to upgrade themselves, we will provide them with an instructional guide and list of approved components to use, plus a new modified warranty sticker. If they follow this procedure, then their warranty will remain valid. However, they will lose the global travel warranty." Curiously, you can add RAM to the Advent 4211 netbook from PC World – which is based on the MSI Wind – without affecting the warranty at all.

It's worth pointing out that these exceptions apply to memory upgrades only. Upgrade your hard drive, wireless card or any other internal components and you'll definitely lose the protection of your warranty.

Upgrading the RAM

As most netbooks ship with a free memory slot, upgrading memory is one of the easiest ways to add extra power. However, there's an issue with netbooks running Windows XP; putting more than 1GB of RAM in will contravene Microsoft's OEM license.

The company created a special build of Windows XP Home for inclusion on the new wave of diminutive laptops, but its license forbids its use on computers with more than 1GB of RAM installed. Industry buzz suggests that the limitation is there to stop distributors from installing the netbook version of XP onto full-blown notebooks or desktop machines because Microsoft would prefer them to ship with Windows Vista.

Although the XP license says that you can't add more RAM to your machine, there are no coded limitations in the software itself or the hardware configuration of the devices. There have been no attempts recorded to enforce this limitation, either.

Still, it's important that you understand that adding an amount of memory that takes the machine's total above the 1GB limit effectively voids the conditions of your Windows license. Remember that netbook computers running variations of Linux have no such licensing issues.