Help me upgrade my notebook

Hey guys I need some help. I'm glad I found this website since it's only notebook oriented. I wanna upgrade my notebook as much as I can, ram/hdd and possibly something else if it can b upgraded. The notebook that I have is HP Pavilion dv9205ca , here's the link to the specs
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...c=ca&product=3353659&rule=4299&dlc=en&lang=en


So far I'm orderin 7200rpm HDD and I wanna order ram, but here's where I get lost. The ram that is currently in is 2x512mb PC2-5300 and I was wondering what to put it. 2x1gb 5300 or get 5400 or 6400 ? can my notebook support higher speed memory ?

Now can I upgrade CPU ? If so which one to get ?
And I guess video card is out of the question to change on this thing ?

Sorry for so many questions but I can't get decent answer anywhere...

 

Welcome to Notebook Review forums!

Most of your questions are frequently asked questions and I would suggest reading this "sticky"
as it will answer most of your questions.

 

D3X's suggestion is a good one. Another thing you could try in order to get an idea of what you can upgrade is to see if you can get back to the configuration page on the _HP website for your system, or else get a tech spec sheet that covers all available CTO variants that are (were) available from _HP. Compare what you have against what it was possible to get, and (with the exception of the GPU, which will definitely not be upgradeable) you'll get a basic idea of the sorts of hardware your system should be able to support.

 

Kingston's & HP's site says you max out with 2 GB of 667mhz memory. So I would go with that unless another poster says they've done otherwise.

Kingston:

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...otebook+dv9205ca&distributor=0&submit1=Search


HP:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01311536.pdf

2x1GB like you said is a good plan because then you will get dual channel. The Kingston site I linked to is selling ech 1GB for $36

The highest AMD processor that comes built into that series laptop is the AMD Turion TL-64 2.2-GHz. But I wouldn't upgrade that unless you can find someone who has done it successfully.

 

Your motherboard will only support PC-5300 (667mhz) so theres no point getting PC-5400,6400 as they will downclock back down to 667 anyway

GPU cant be upgraded and as for CPU, you have a few to choose from

 

Go straight to 2x2GB (4GB total) Crucial DDR2-667 SODIMMs. That's what I put in my dv9208nr (slightly lesser configuration of the same notebook). 32-bit Vista won't be able to access all of it, you'll have to install 64-bit for that (read the Vista clean install sticky in the HP forum here for how to do that), but even if you stick with 32-bit it's worth doing. Vista really, really likes 3GB+ RAM.

Technically the CPU is upgradable. Good luck finding a faster Turion X2 at a tolerable price though. I don't think it's worth it. 4GB RAM and that 7200RPM HD will have a much larger impact.

 

One note; PC 5300 and PC 5400 are BOTH DDR667; it just depends on what the peak transfer rate is (and what the manufacturers choose to advertise it as) and so the difference between PC5300 and PC5400 is negligible, if not nonexistent.

 

Yes and with the same FSB or memory bus they run identical. They really are the exact same thing.

 

2Gb of ram will make the largest difference as you're running Vista. I'd recommend 2x1GB of pc5300.

What exact model of hard disk does it have? Google the model number. If it's a seagate or western digital then a 7200rpm hard disk won't make as good an upgrade as if it is another brand. I'd start with the ram and see what that does for you first.

As for the video card, you could try overclocking it with powerstrip. Powerstrip can up your cpu clock. I've managed to do this with my x200m and I have seen a 10% increase in performance. It's not much but it might help a bit. Make sure to monitor your temperatures when doing this.

As for cpu I think you'll be very lucky to find a faster turion for sale. I've not been able to find anything.