Upgrading a laptop

Jagdpanther · 19th May 2008, 7:15 PM

Hey

My friend just bought herself a $500 approx acer that was on special at officeworks and was whinging about how slow it was with Vista:

Celeron 540 1.85 Mhz (Merom)
512MB DDR2 553
80GB HDD
GMA X3100

If I plonk in 2GB of DDR2-667 for her is that enough?

thanks

EpHeSuS · 19th May 2008, 7:16 PM

The memory will help greatly. Upgrade that

SLATYE · 19th May 2008, 7:24 PM

Even just adding a 1GB stick (1.5GB total) would help a huge amount. Vista really doesn't like running on 512MB of RAM, especially with a slow laptop HDD.

kingyubbo · 19th May 2008, 7:27 PM

Also will get better graphics power with that extra RAM!

Jagdpanther · 19th May 2008, 7:32 PM

She doesn't game. with 2GB of ram it should play movies ok yeah?

kingyubbo · 19th May 2008, 7:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jagdpanther

She doesn't game. with 2GB of ram it should play movies ok yeah?

Doesn't particularly matter if she games or not. Vista generally takes a quite a bit of graphics power with all the animations and effects. 2GB for movies is plenty

Jagdpanther · 19th May 2008, 7:58 PM

thanks time to find time to drop into MSY

4wardtristan · 19th May 2008, 8:01 PM

would that notebook take a t7500? if so thats about $285

ram about $50 for 2gb corsair valueselect

runs smooth as then..

busky2k · 19th May 2008, 8:08 PM

Even 1.5Gb is enough for general duties such as surfing, MS Office, Chatting. But memory is cheap, why not!

WuZMoT · 19th May 2008, 8:24 PM

reminds me of a benq notebook i had to RMA at work.
I really don't know what the manufacturers are thinking when they make notebooks with 512MB ram standard, using integrated video and vista.

384MB is pretty useless on XP let alone vista. Shame on you stupid manufacturers. I realise it's designed to be cheap but its ridiculous how slow vista is on 512MB minus graphics ram.
Edit: evidence in the posts above, using so little ram to cut costs really isn't a valid excuse

Quelch · 20th May 2008, 3:42 PM

I bought one of those Lenovo N200 notebook computers from BigW

They come with 1 GB of ram I added another 1 GB and it made a huge differance

Thats with Vista Basic

Some people who have bought these notebooks have installed a total of 4 GB of ram

I suggest you install as much as the computer is designed to use !

I download and watch TV shows and movies and have no problems !

congoh · 21st May 2008, 4:22 PM

Get her extra ram and see if laptop is eligible for xp downgrade offer. Otherwise try to get her a 2nd hand win xp.

deva_da_man · 21st May 2008, 4:30 PM

i assume it's running home basic?

if not and it's home premium, u can turn off all that aero crap to get better performance.

that being said, it's probably basic, and i'd recommend the upgrade to 2gb everytime.

Quelch · 25th May 2008, 8:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4wardtristan

would that notebook take a t7500? if so thats about $285

How do you find out if the notebook can take a t7500 and what is involved in installing it ?

bennyg · 25th May 2008, 11:29 PM

a) a manual telling you exactly what to do and in what order. If you can't get this do not bother, if you bust it you'll stuff your warranty for sure.
b) check on Intel.com if a c****** (dirty word) 540 has the same socket AND FSB as a t7500. FSB is important to distinguish, don't miss it

You do not need to spend another $300 on a T7500 (2x2.2GHz 4MbL2) one component of a $500 laptop, you should be able to get a 2x1.6GHz 2MbL2 socket P (T5470) for sub-$100 on ebay. I got a T7300 (2x2GHz 4Mb) that I run at 1.6Ghz (CPU Rightmark) during games/graphic design most of the time to keep heat down, and honestly I can only tell it's running at slower speed very occasionally.

Really, she should have aksed here and she woulda been told in no uncertain terms to AT LEAST get a dual core and 1GB ram. How they can slap a sticker on it "Vista-certified" or whatever bullshitmarketingterm shows how protective "consumer protection" legislation is.

19th May 2008, 7:15 PM	#1
Jagdpanther Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Melbourne Posts: 175	Upgrading a laptop Hey My friend just bought herself a $500 approx acer that was on special at officeworks and was whinging about how slow it was with Vista: Celeron 540 1.85 Mhz (Merom) 512MB DDR2 553 80GB HDD GMA X3100 If I plonk in 2GB of DDR2-667 for her is that enough? thanks __________________ Photo Gear: EOS 40D \|\| 17-40mm F4L \|\| 70-200mm F4L \|\| 580EX II \|\| SB-800 \|\| SB-24 \|\| 540EZ Successful Trades: Sgt_RaVeN, AMD2400, AJR

19th May 2008, 7:16 PM	#2
EpHeSuS Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bentleigh, Melbourne Posts: 2,674	The memory will help greatly. Upgrade that __________________ Canon 1d MK II \| 20D \| 24-105 f/4L IS \| 50 f/1.8 \| 135 f/2L \| 580EX II \| Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6 EX DC \| 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 DC OS \| 100-300 f/4 EX

19th May 2008, 7:24 PM	#3
SLATYE SLATYE, not SLAYTE Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Canberra Posts: 21,040	Even just adding a 1GB stick (1.5GB total) would help a huge amount. Vista really doesn't like running on 512MB of RAM, especially with a slow laptop HDD. __________________ Main system: Pentium-D 805 \| 1GB (2x 512MB) PQI DDR400 \| Gigabyte 8I865GMK-775 \| Xtreama Radeon 9800Pro with Zalman ZM-80HP-D \| 320GB WD SATA HDD \| Antec SmartPower 2.0 500w Laptop: Compal EL80 \| C2D T7200 \| 320GB Fujistu HDD \| 2GB DDR2-667 \| GF Go 7600

19th May 2008, 7:32 PM	#5
Jagdpanther Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Melbourne Posts: 175	She doesn't game. with 2GB of ram it should play movies ok yeah? __________________ Photo Gear: EOS 40D \|\| 17-40mm F4L \|\| 70-200mm F4L \|\| 580EX II \|\| SB-800 \|\| SB-24 \|\| 540EZ Successful Trades: Sgt_RaVeN, AMD2400, AJR

19th May 2008, 7:58 PM	#7
Jagdpanther Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Melbourne Posts: 175	thanks time to find time to drop into MSY __________________ Photo Gear: EOS 40D \|\| 17-40mm F4L \|\| 70-200mm F4L \|\| 580EX II \|\| SB-800 \|\| SB-24 \|\| 540EZ Successful Trades: Sgt_RaVeN, AMD2400, AJR

19th May 2008, 8:01 PM	#8
4wardtristan Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: brisbane Posts: 600	would that notebook take a t7500? if so thats about $285 ram about $50 for 2gb corsair valueselect runs smooth as then.. __________________ e8400 3.6ghz -- 2 x 2gb 1066 corsiar -- 2 x 4850 1gb xfire -- noctua nh-u12p -- 620hx corsair -- 2 x 500gb raid 1 trades - vathink, foolios, decriptor

19th May 2008, 8:08 PM	#9
busky2k Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Adelaide, SA Posts: 700	Even 1.5Gb is enough for general duties such as surfing, MS Office, Chatting. But memory is cheap, why not!

19th May 2008, 8:24 PM	#10
WuZMoT Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: South Brisbane Posts: 1,236	reminds me of a benq notebook i had to RMA at work. I really don't know what the manufacturers are thinking when they make notebooks with 512MB ram standard, using integrated video and vista. 384MB is pretty useless on XP let alone vista. Shame on you stupid manufacturers. I realise it's designed to be cheap but its ridiculous how slow vista is on 512MB minus graphics ram. Edit: evidence in the posts above, using so little ram to cut costs really isn't a valid excuse __________________ Successful Trades: Isildur, azz, Wilso, yangby, half-cut, syxx, TheAnswer, bAbY_RoG3R, Riku, DRAGONKZ, jason_campbell.

20th May 2008, 3:42 PM	#11
Quelch Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 417	I bought one of those Lenovo N200 notebook computers from BigW They come with 1 GB of ram I added another 1 GB and it made a huge differance Thats with Vista Basic Some people who have bought these notebooks have installed a total of 4 GB of ram I suggest you install as much as the computer is designed to use ! I download and watch TV shows and movies and have no problems ! __________________ CPU - Intel E8400 3Ghz Core 2 Duo, Motherboard - ASUS P5K-SE-EPU (EPU), Memory A-DATA 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800 6400, Hard-drive SATA W.D. 640GB HDD, Graphics Card Gigabyte PCI-E 512MB 8600GT, Case CoolerMaster RC-690 with PSU, DVD RW Samsung SATA 20x Black, Logitech LX-310 Cordless K/B + Mouse, MS Windows VISTA 32bit Home Premium Edition

21st May 2008, 4:22 PM	#12
congoh Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Melbourne, not too far from Monash Uni. Posts: 2,895	Get her extra ram and see if laptop is eligible for xp downgrade offer. Otherwise try to get her a 2nd hand win xp.

21st May 2008, 4:30 PM	#13
deva_da_man Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 207	i assume it's running home basic? if not and it's home premium, u can turn off all that aero crap to get better performance. that being said, it's probably basic, and i'd recommend the upgrade to 2gb everytime. __________________ Win7 Box: GTX260(216) - Ballistix 4GB - HX620 - Q8400 Netbook: Acer Aspire One Mac Mini 2GB - 1.86GHz coreduo

25th May 2008, 11:29 PM	#15
bennyg Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Oztraya Posts: 684	a) a manual telling you exactly what to do and in what order. If you can't get this do not bother, if you bust it you'll stuff your warranty for sure. b) check on Intel.com if a c****** (dirty word) 540 has the same socket AND FSB as a t7500. FSB is important to distinguish, don't miss it You do not need to spend another $300 on a T7500 (2x2.2GHz 4MbL2) one component of a $500 laptop, you should be able to get a 2x1.6GHz 2MbL2 socket P (T5470) for sub-$100 on ebay. I got a T7300 (2x2GHz 4Mb) that I run at 1.6Ghz (CPU Rightmark) during games/graphic design most of the time to keep heat down, and honestly I can only tell it's running at slower speed very occasionally. Really, she should have aksed here and she woulda been told in no uncertain terms to AT LEAST get a dual core and 1GB ram. How they can slap a sticker on it "Vista-certified" or whatever bullshitmarketingterm shows how protective "consumer protection" legislation is. __________________ Successful traders: 3/3: Brax, Zubrick, nvidiaXP Value: $125 Pending:- Coming soon: Asus G51J-A1, i7 720qm, 4Gb DDR3-1066, GTX260M@500/1250/800, 15.6" 1080p, 80Gb SSD, 320Gb HDD Soon-to-be-old lappy: Dell Vostro 1500, T9300/3Gb DDR667/8600GT@550/1200/475/320Gb/15.4" UWXGA \| Older lappy, Dell Latitude D620, T7200/2GbDDR2-667/GMA950/60Gb/14.1"