A205-S4607 upgrade help

I have a Satellite A205-S4607 that I am going to upgrade... it is a little slow and I am having long wait times for certain programs to load (Photoshop CS3 is real bad). I am wanting to put a WD 320 GB hard drive in but nobody seems to know if it will work properly. I am guessing that it will physically fit but I am not sure if all the specs are correct. Is there a guru here that knows for sure if this will work or should I stick with a smaller slower drive

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=482

I am also upgrading from 2 to 4 gigs of RAM

 

I think the WD3200BEKT/Seagate 7200.3/Hitachi 7K320, will be good upgrades - depends upon which you can get cheap.

Which CPU+GPU has the system got ?

You can upgrade to 4GB RAM and stick with a 32-bit OS, but only 3.5GB RAM will be usable.

 

Good questions!

Andy could you pop in here as your help might be needed...thanks

 

Hmmmm, info from the .pdf that came with it. Is this want you requested?

I really apppreciate the help, this is a great forum. I wish I had found it a year ago.

Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology featuring:
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T53003
o 1.73GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB with 64-bit C1
• Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Chipset
• Integrated Wi-Fi® compliant wireless LAN
Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11a/g/n)
Memory
• Configured with 2048MB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM (both memory
slots may be occupied). Maximum capacity 4096MB
Hard Disk Drive
• 200GB (4200 RPM); Serial ATA hard disk drive; 9.5mm height; user
removable

Graphics
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 8MB-256MB dynamically
allocated shared graphics memory

 

that's a good spec already.

Do you have only problem loading software or opening pictures in photoshop?

 

no... I just am getting a little laggy feeling. I use PS and Dreamweaver, w/ Rhapsody streaming music and downloading torrents at the same time.

I also go to PCPitstop and it tells me my disk in in the bottom 40% (I am guessing that is due to it being a 5400 rpm drive)

"I feel the need, the need for SPEED!"

 

The best upgrades are --> Replace a single 1GB module, with a 2GB Module DDR2-533/667. (The DDR2-667 will downclock to DDR2-533)

And get a 250GB/320GB Seagate 7200.3....Here is a list of the Retailers in the US and Canada.

You can also checkout similar Hitachi (7K320) and WDC (BEKT) HDDs.

 

My plan is to get the WD 320 and upgrade from 2GB to 4GB (actually 3.5GB) but I wasn't sure if the WD3200BEKT would work... I needed some reassurance since Toshiba wouldn't give me a definite answer and WD support is non-existent as far as I am concerned (phone goobers reading from manuals).

Thanks for all your input...

I will be back again I am sure (especially when I take it apart)

 

WD3200BEVT/BEKT will work. My notebook has similar specs.
4GB is fine - at least you'll get the dual channel adv.

When upgrading, buy from a place which accepts returns/replacements.

 

I agree with Andy just replace one of the 1GB module with 2GB. The reason doing so, you'll certain to have 3GB usable ram. If you go with 4GB you could be able to use anything between 2.5GB and 3.1GB max
Check this link out. It wil help you decide if 4GB are worth it.
http://blogs.msdn.com/hiltonl/archive/2007/04/13/the-3gb-not-4gb-ram-problem.aspx

 

I agree with Andy just replace one of the 1GB module with 2GB. The reason of doing so is you'll certain to have 3GB of usable ram. If you go with 4GB you could be able to use anything between 2.5GB and 3.1GB max
Check this link out. It wil help you decide if 4GB are worth it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us

The above hold true if your OS is Windows Vista 32bits

 

All very interesting and thought provoking. I am going to do some benchmark testing before & after to see what really happens. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

Thanks for the input