CPU upgrade from Intel M 740! I it Worth it?

I currently have an Acer 1692 WMLI with an Intel Pentium M740 Processor (1.73GHz), and 1024 MB Ram.

I was thinking of making this thing go faster and thought that upgrading the cpu would do the job.

What is the fastest CPU I can upgrade this to? And, seeing that the latest Intel M processor is a 780 @ 2.26GHz, would there be a reasonable difference in speed?

Thanks in advance.

 

yeah i would make a big difference but i dont no were you are going to get a upgrade?

PS . are you from dublin aswell?!

 

i see many cpu's on ebay.com (usa).

i am not from dublin, but melbourne.

do you know if my system would accept an Intel M 2.2ghz cpu?

 

Depending on the speed of your hard drive, upgrading that will show more of a performance boost than upgrading the CPU, it is a much more cost-effective upgrade also.

Matt

 

i have the 100gb hard drive......i don't remember the rpm, but it was the slow one, i think 4200.......so you say upgrading to a 7200rpm will increase the performance substantially?.....if that is the case, i will do that and keep the present hard drive as a storage drive...

 

A 7200 rpm would give you the best performance increase, but as stated in numerous threads, buying a larger 80 or 100 GB 5400 rpm drive will give you performance like a 7200, without sacrificing storage space, due to the density of the drive. So unless you do a lot of photo editing, I would recommend buying a large 5400 rpm drive as they have really come down in price, but couple that with a RAM upgrade and those are the two best upgrades you can do to increase performance on your laptop, without emptying your wallet. You will shell out probably $75 extra for a 100GB 7200 vs. a 100GB 5400 and with little added performance.

Matt

 

yes, but i could probably get an M 780 2.2GHz processor for about 350 bucks, whereas buying an extra hdd plus two x 1 gb ram blocks would most likely cost me more than that.....

 

You can get a Hitachi 100GB 5400 rpm drive from newegg.com for about $150, probably the same elsewhere. Unless you are a die hard gamer, the general notebook user, only needs 1GB of RAM, but even 2 x 1GB of RAM on NewEgg only costs about $150 if you can find a deal, depending upon what type of RAM you need. But you should be able to get both for under $350. If your hard drive is a 4200 rpm that is. If you're not sure if it is, you can download Everest Home Edition and that should tell you everything you need to know about your notebook. If you have a 5400 rpm drive, I really wouldn't worry about it, unless you have cash burning a hole in your pocket.

Matt

 

I already have everest, and too be honest I thought I had a 4200rpm hdd.......I never even checked.....but now I went into everest and got the below reading telling me that it is a 5400rpm hdd....so basically I am a bit surprised.

Could everest be wrong?....if you notice, the name on the read -out is Momentus 4200.2....could this indicate that it indeed a 4200rpm disk?

Gaming, no, I never game......just watch films and sometimes use adobe photoshop, corel draw, etc.........I just want a super fast and capable machine........when i run super_pi at a calculation of 2million, it does it in 1min 43 seconds!...is this decent?



ATA Device Physical Info
Manufacturer Seagate
Hard Disk Name Momentus 4200.2 100822
Form Factor 2.5"
Formatted Capacity 100 GB
Disks 2
Recording Surfaces 4
Physical Dimensions 100.2 x 69.85 x 9.5 mm
Max. Weight 102 g
Average Rotational Latency 5.6 ms
Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
Max. Internal Data Rate 386 Mbit/s
Average Seek 12.5 ms
Interface Ultra-ATA/100
Buffer-to-Host Data Rate 100 MB/s
Buffer Size 8 MB

ATA Device Manufacturer
Company Name Seagate Technology LLC
Product Information http://www.seagate.com/products

 

i just checked out their website and in fact, my hdd is indeed 4200rpm.......

 

Unfortunately Everest might be wrong. According to the model number of your hard drive - ST9100822A and checking it with Seagate's website lists it as a 4200rpm HDD...
http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/marketing/detail/1,1081,634,00.html

 

As to your reply on the Super PI calculation, that is right where my M60 was, and I have the 2.00GHz P-M processor and specs in my sig, so no that isn't bad at all. If it was up around 2 min or above, then I would say it could definately be improved.

Matt

 

Your CPU is fine for most things. You'll gain much more performace from an HDD upgrade as that will always be the slowest part of the system (moving parts are always slower than solid state).

Also, if you don't have 1GB of RAM, I would recommend that upgrade as well.

This is pretty much the general rule I've learned:
"HDD + RAM upgrade > CPU upgrade"

Also, usually much cheaper too.

 

yeah, i put in an extra 1gb of RAM and i was amazed at what i was missing out on, everything is so much faster!! and i have a 4200 rpm drive also, but going to upgrade very soon. probably going to go for the largest 5400 rpm drive out there. By the way, is upgrading the CPU even possible on a laptop? isnt it like the GPU which cant be upgraded on most laptops?

 

no, you can change out the CPU. it just plugs into the motherboard like any other CPU.

 

Yes, you can upgrade the CPU but it is generally a pain and is one of the worst $/performance upgrades you can do. I know the Pentium-M can be upgraded if from a 1.6GHz up to 2.26GHz.

Matt

 

is there much difference between the 5400rpm and the 7200rpm hard disks in term of performance?

i have 1gb of ram (2 slots), and would putting 2 x 1gb in there make much of a difference performance wise?

it does seem rather expensive to do a cpu upgrade!

 

Yes, upgraing the CPU will not give you the performance boost you would hope for.

What do you do with your notebook?

 

in all honesty, all i do is surf, films, and the occasional graphic design (medium level)........so i am not a gamer....

 

Getting the 2GB of RAM won't really help that much, as you aren't a die-hard gamer, but it would help in the graphic design a little, depending on how much of it you do, but upgrading to a 80 or 100GB hard drive and maybe even the RAM if you want to would be the best upgrades. I would upgrade the hard drive first as that will give you the most noticable performance gain and then if you want try the RAM.

Matt

 

thanks a lot guys......i'm checking out some hard drives on ebay and i see that the samsung ones are a bit cheaper than the toshibas, fujitsus, hitachis,etc.

if i can get a samsung 7200rpm for the same price as a fujitsu/toshiba 5400rpm, is it worth getting the samsung?



is there any difference in quality / reliability?

cheers

 

Toshiba's hard drives are absolute crap, steer clear! Hot, noisy, cheap parts.

Samsung doesn't sell 7200RPM drives. The only companies who do are Seagate and Hitachi. Of the two, Hitachi's are very reliable, but run a warm and are a bit loud (a moderate amount of 'clicking'). Seagates are quieter and have a better warranty.

Unless you do video editing and a lot of applications that require the hard drive, you shold be just fine with a 5400RPM drive. I have been using one for over a year now, no problems, and I am a very demanding user.

Western Digital makes the best 5400RPM drives, I had one in my last notebook (now in an external enclosure). No problems with it, extremely quiet and runs very cool. Highly recommended.

Just a note . . . I would get the hard drive from a store such as Newegg.com or ZipZoomFly.com. More reliable than eBay.

 

To put it simply, you'd be a lot better off upgrading your RAM. You'll see more of an improvement than any reasonably-priced processor upgrade, and even the most reasonably-priced processor upgrade will be a LOT more expensive.

Howie

 

i'll have a look, but my problem is that i am down under (oz) and some of the american stores are reluctant to post (for some strange reason).....the local guys are a lot more expensive.

thanks very much and i'll see if newegg.com will post to oz.

cheers