For what I know, slowness may come from metacrawler, just move /usr/bin/metacrawler to /usr/bin/metacrawler.disabled (as root).

Instability comes either from a device that was set to usb host by flashing (this would cause indeed a reboot at least once a day for me), or from a lack of memory. Add virtual memory.

I use 2007he and am very happy with it. Very stable, fast enough for my needs. If you have a few dozens of dollars to spare, buy a microsd card and build an adapter (google this forum about that, you need to change the kernel etc). I use a 8BG card.