Reading this thread title I assumed you were already rooted. So you want to get your feet wet and speed up the hero eh? Before you root anything make sure to do some research. There is a program called fresh kitchen, grab the newest version from geekfor.me . All you need to do is hit one button and boom! your rooted. Wish it was that easy for me I had to use the ADB method which allowed me to learn a few things on my own at the same time, but you have to thank Flipz for making things easy for people.
Once rooted you can flash any rom you like; However, studies have shown that there isn't a noticible difference in speed when comparing 2.1 roms against each other. Same goes for the 1.5 roms. But i'm assuming... 1.5 roms are faster than 2.1, unless your running an overclocked rom with JIT and a2sd. Oh and Good Luck Rooting
