HP Pavilion ze4400 upgrades

I have a Pavilion ze4400 w/ AMD ATHLON XP-M 1.8ghz processor, can I upgrade that to a faster processor and how can I find out how big of a processor I can get for it?

Thanks
Joe

 

Well, Joe, there's not much of a point to upgrading that machine. Theoretically you can replace the processor, but even getting a 2.0GHz+ CPU in there will make little difference in the face of things. The fact is, the machine is very outdated. The best idea is to put the upgrade money towards a new machine. You can get a very decent laptop for standard tasks for under $500:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4847&review=acer+aspire+5735

 

dksob81,
You can upgrade your cpu but I would only do it if you can get a replacement Athlon Xp for less than $20 shipped. Honestly the performance difference isnt that high. Your system uses Athlon XP-M mobile processors. I think the fastest was the XP-M 2600+ running at 2.13Ghz
Which processor do you have?

K-TRON

 

It has a 1.8 Ghz, Athlon XP-M

 

Can I replace the entire board. Or do you guys have any other suggestions to make this machine faster - short of buying a new laptop?

Joe

 

How much RAM do you have? Also, what kind of hard drive? Get the hard drive model # for us: Start > Run > devmgmt.msc > expand Disk Drives > post what you see there, here.

 

Unfortunately you cannot replace the entire motherboard. Since you already have a 1.8Ghz processor, going to 2.13Ghz is not much of an upgrade at all.
A memory upgrade will probably do the most for you since memory is so cheap.
Harddrives are also becoming very inexpensive.
If I were you I would try to find the best total upgrade for less than $50. You really do not want to invest a ton of money into your system because it will still be slow compared to the low end new systems of today.

If your lucky, check out the pay it forward thread, you can probably get some memory for free.

Just tell us what you have, and we can help you determine what is best for you to do.

K-TRON

 

The disk drive is Hitachi DK23EA 30.
I thought it had 512mb of ram but it's only registering 448mb.

 

The 30gb 4200rpm drive is definitely the main bottleneck. Since it is an ATA drive, i suggest looking for a Samsung HM080GC or HM160HC on ebay. It is the fastest drive which will be recognized by your system. Your system has a 48 bit LBA restriction, so it cannot run more than 137Gb without the need for partitioning.
The HM080GC is a 80gb 5400rpm drive based on 160gb platters. That drive only uses one side of the platter, hence 80gb. If you want the 160gb model, it is the HM160HC.

Look on ebay for either they should be cheap and they will greatly increase system performance.

As far as memory goes, your system supports a maximum of 1Gb of system memory (2 x 512MB) PC2100 or PC2700 DDR Sodimm memory
The reason your system reads less than 512mb of memory, is because the integrated graphics card is using 24mb of your system memory.

Look for the memory first it should be cheap.
Post in the want to buy section here, someone probably has some lying around for very cheap which they can give to you.

Please download CPU-Z and go into the memory tab, to see if your system has either 1 512mb stick, or two 256mb sticks. If you have two 256mb cards, you will need to buy a 512 card in order to upgrade.

K-TRON

 

You might want to consider the Seagate 7200.1 or Hitachi 7k100. They're 7200RPM IDE hard drives. You can probably shag a 80GB version in the $40-50 range on eBay. They're probably the best money you can spend right now, short of buying a new laptop. They offer faster seek times, which is what makes it quicker. If all you're doing is Internet and Office, the Athlon is sufficient if you don't mind the poor battery life. A CPU upgrade within the same family of CPUs won't offer you much.

 

K-TRON, I know it has (2) 256 rams, I have torn the machine apart because I had to resolder the power jack on the board. So i will look into getting (2) 512 mb of ram.

Will my system support a 7200RPM harddrive?

also an you let me know what CPU will work in my system, I would rather upgrade it as well - even if it only make a very minor difference

 

I got this laptop for free from my GF because of the power issue, she bought a new one a while back so she gave me this one and I got the power problem fixed, so if I have to put a little money into it it won't hurt

 

Doubling the RAM will boost performance significantly, that is a good upgrade.

Yes, your system supports 7200RPM hard drives. That will also make a very significant difference.

Lastly, you can boost performance using just software optimization. See here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2002

 

do you recommend a HD that will work in my system?

 

A hitachi 7K100 or a 7200.1 from seagate will work as ZaZ mentioned,
the Samsung drives I mentioned will also work as well, the lower spindle Samsung drives mentioned are actually a bit faster than the 7200rpm drives but that is only because they have a much higher data density.

Good drives to look at are: (ALL of them need to be IDE/PATA)
Hitachi 7K100 (offered between 60 and 100Gb) I cant remember if there was a 40gb option
Seagate momentus 7200.1 (60-100gb)
WD25000BEVE, WD3200BEVE, WD1600BEVE
Samsung HM080GC, HM160HC

All of these will work in your system, so which ever you find cheapest should be a good bet for you.
All of these drives are multiple times faster than your current 4200rpm drive.

You may want to read my review of the HM160HC here, I have comparisons to a 7K100 and a few other drives like the Western Digital WD2500BEVE
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264209

Upgrading to 2 x 512MB PC2100 will make your system faster. Look around for good deals, it should not be expensive at all

The only processor you can upgrade to is the Athlon XP-M 2600+

Dont go overboard with spending, try to get the parts you need for as little as possible.

K-TRON

 

Thank You, i will go with the Samsung 160gig HD.

 

That's a bit misleading. While it's true the Samsung probably has better throughput, it cannot match the seek times of the faster drives. It's the seek times more than the throughput which gives the drive an overall faster feel.

 

Phil and I have compared PCMARK loading times and the Samsung had faster loading times than both the 7K100 and 7200.1. The Samsung drive does not win by much, but in my experience it is faster than the 7K100 I have. Either way regardless of picking the 7K100, 7200.1, or samsung HM series they will all be a very fast drive.

Thanks for reminding me, I forgot to post those PCmark values in a side by side chart. I will add that to my review

K-TRON

 

It seems that you have very limited option in terms of upgrading your system, It wouldn't be cost effective if it will still make a little difference in performance if you get a new component and we still have to consider the depreciation of the other components on such an outdated machine. I agree, you should save for a newer and more upgradable one...

 

well I got the Samsung HM160HC for my laptop, but I am having trouble installing it, I get an error message saying "PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable" and then it goes and says NO OPERATING SYSTEM FOUND (something like that) which makes sense because I have formatted the drive yet, but it won't pick up my CD to install Windows XP. I read that I have to partition the drive b4 I can install any software, how do I partition the drive?