Upgrading e1705. Ram/HDD/CPU

Hey all,
Spending significant time tonight, looking through many tutorials, this site often being the one I visited the most, I've decided to upgrade my e1705.

-My current system is
Windows7Professional 32bit (Full release, was able to get through school)
Intel T2300
Bios-A06
1GB RAM
50 GB 5200 HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400

-What I want
Better overall performance
Faster overall speed
Less Lockups
I am an engineer and use this computer for 3D modeling, Data Processing, Video Communication, and slight gaming.

-My situation

-The computer is now almost 4 years old and stock beyond the OS upgrade
-WIN7 action center reminds me daily that there are disk errors
-CHKDSK has been run to fix the errors w/ no improvement
-Some programs will not install correctly (AIM/MCAFEE) but I believe these are a combo of WIN7 and the hard disk errors​

-Questions
Which upgrade, RAM/HDD/CPU, will give me the most bang for my buck. I'm currently leaning towards HDD and RAM since I could go to 4GB Ram and 160GB 7200 RPM HDD for the same price as a T7200 Core 2 Duo. Also it seems I have a failing HDD so that would need to be replaced soon anyway.

Greg Ross, a member here, on another post put some numbers up about the increase in performance of the CPU upgrade, specifically 10-12% from a T2400 to a T7200. Can anyone confirm this as well as percentage boosts of the CPU plus the upgrade from 32-64bit?

Would I see a larger increase in performance with the HDD and RAM over the CPU? I have found a T7200 for $150 so the HDD/RAM would be maybe $70 less with the price of the AS5 for installation of the CPU.

This laptop has served me extremely well throughout my student and professional career. Even stock it ran games very well. Never had an issue with modeling or anything else for that matter. The battery died maybe 7 months in and it has turned into a desktop and the power cord has blown twice, the screen is coming off but now I use an external monitor. It's really hanging in there. I think of it now as needing a hip and knee replacement to get it running smoothly again. So doctor's please advise.

 

In my haste to post and here from yall I believe I posted in the wrong section. If this is the correct section pls ignore this. If this post is more appropriate in the inspiron/studio section would a moderator pls move it?

Thanks

 

I have an E1705 as well as a new M4400. I still love the e1705, and even with inferior components to the M4400, it still boots just as fast and runs cooler.

I looked at the T7200 upgrade and even have them tagged on my ebay searches. But I have reconsidered so many times that there has never been any commitment.

I think bang for the buck the bottleneck in the system is surely the hard drive. I would bypass the 7200RPM units and head straight to the SSD's though. I plan on picking up an Intel X25-M G2 80GB for the M4400. They can be found for around $230 USD on-line. My E1705 won't be seeing any new hardware though as I have the m4400...

Next on my list for the E1705 is Windows 7 64 bit. Bang for the buck I'm putting it over ram even, though I only have 1gb of ram which is the minimum you can have for W7.

You need to hit an electronics store and play with W7 if you haven't used it yet. Really a big improvement over XP. Faster too. Try using Mozilla Firefox instead of internet explorer, kind of the same change as W7 vs. XP and you can do that from home

 

Doh, just realized you did say you were running W7... sorry