Gateway Solo 1450, HDD Capacity + RAM

hey guys, i've got two questions. I used the gateway.com documentation, but i'm not satisfied with what i found there. I got an old Gateway Solo 1450 for free for using it as an office notebook. i bought a new battery, but i'm thinking about buying a new HDD and RAM (512 MB is installed). It's running Win XP Home.

1. HDD Capacity
I found a sheet at gateway.com telling that the Solo 1450 accepts only HDDs up to 30Gb. The newest BIOS is installed, can it really only handle 30Gb? The current HDD is very slow, about 20 MB/s read speed, i guess it would give me a nice performance boost with a new one.

2. RAM
I know which RAM to install, but would an upgrade from 512Mb to 1024Mb increase the performance? On the other site, SDRAM is too costly for a once in a while used office notebook. Both slots are used (2*256Mb).


thank you for your time!

 

Let's assume that it does only accept HDs up to 30GB. You could always go with an SSD and external HD combo.

You know what I doubt it only accepts HDs up to 30GB. Look at this: Hard drive controller


* Integrated in Intel 82801CAM I/O Controller Hub 3 (ICH3-M)
* Bus Master capability and synchronous DMA mode
* 100 MB/s maximum data transfer rate
* PIO mode IDE transfer rates up to 16 MB/s

Hard drive


* User removable
* 2.5-inch diameter
* 9.5 mm height

from
Specifications for the Gateway Solo 1450 Notebook

 

I recovered the sheet i've mentioned before:
Notebook Maximum Supported Hard Drive

I doubt the restriction to 30Gb too, but i have no possibility to prove otherwise without buying a new 2,5" HDD. I hoped someone heard or even tried this before, google does not give a clue about this.

A SSD is too expensive, since i could nearly buy a netbook for the price. I just wondered if a normal IDE HDD would be better than the old one, considering the age in matter of speed and data safety.

nevertheless, thank you