How upgradeable is the ZD7000/ZD8000?

I know that in practically all laptops, you can upgrade the hard drive and ram pretty easily. But the CPU and graphics card are a whole different story.

But I think that because of the HP ZD7000/8000 being desktop replacements, that upgrading their GPU and CPU would be possible. Well, is it possible to upgrade their GPU and CPU? And if it is even possible, how hard is it?

 

I don't think the zd7000 is, but since the zd8000 uses PCI-Express, it should be user-upgradable. I don't know about the cpu though.

 

If your pretty technically inclined, you could most likey change the CPU in these. The GPU is not upgradeable at all in either of these. Even if one of them uses a GPU with PCI-express, it does not mean that the GPU is removeable. PCI-express is only a bus spec, it does not mean they are easily removed or replaced by any means. With a desktop computer, if it has a PCI-express bus slot, all you have to do is pick any video card that is PCI-express and plug it in and it works. With notebook computers, (desktop replacement or not) you can't do this at all. This is because with desktop PCs, they all use a common spec for the motherboard layout, power supply location and size limits and many other mechanical specs that each has in common to allow for peripheral boards to be interchangeable; this is not the case for notebooks, each notebook design has different layout of component placement, notebook demensions, thermal/heat disapation capacity and so on. In fact the only thing that is common between them all is that they all have keyboards[ ] and even those are not all the same size. Some notebooks have the USB ports on the side, others on the back. Some have the DVD/CDRW on the right side, others have it in the front. Some are less than an inch think and others are nearly twice that. I'm sure you get the point. Dell makes a couple of notebooks with "upgradeable GPU" in them, however you still have to buy the upgrade from Dell; there is no going down to CompUSA and getting a new GPU upgrade for your notebook. The best thing to is to buy the best you can o begin with, then when it doesn't cut the mustard any more, just sell it and buy newer one.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

well....the ZD7000 is not upgradable. But the ZD8000 is built using ATI's Axiom modular upgrade design. Meaning...you will be able to upgrade to another mobile PCI-E ATI card , but you won't be able to upgrade to an Nvidia card. Nvidia on the other hand will be using the MXM modular upgrade design...so you can't upgrade to an ATI card in their solution. Here is what the Axiom modular bay looks like in a Sager laptop, the ZD8000 has the same slot for an upgrade. Not as easy to get to as this Sager notebook but the important thing is it's got it.

http://www.powernotebooks.com/images/9860/


X6000 P-4 3.2GHz 2gigs PC2 4200(533MHz)Ram 7200RPM 60 gig HHD 8x DVD Burner and the Brightview!

 

Hello Tacjam. Unfortunately I don't think the GPU on the zd8000 uses the Axiom interface. Based on what I've read elsewhere and seen in the zd8000 manual, it looks like the GPU is actually integrated with the motherboard. The manual actually lists 3 different motherboard part numbers to correspond with the 3 different GPU options currently offered with the zd8000. So, if you wanted to upgrade the GPU, you'll need to replace the whole motherboard.

If I'm wrong, please feel free to set me straight. Here's the link to the zd8000 manual. Sorry, I don't know how to make it a hot link.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00291986.pdf

Thanks again for all the info.

 

Sir I do believe you are correct. I can't find any reference that supports my Axiom claim. Three different part numbers in the owners manual sums it up! Not an upgradable GPU, but easy to upgrade the socketed CPU

X6000 P-4 3.2GHz 2gigs PC2 4200(533MHz)Ram 7200RPM 60 gig HHD 8x DVD Burner and the Brightview!

 

Yeah, the ZD8000 could have been, but when ATI made those cards they were capable of being put in with upgradeabitly. however most companys haven't completely taken advantage of it yet. The x800 and x850 are both highly upgradebly and when those are in a system that can use them they are done to be upgraded. I was rather sad to see how many x series there were. You can see a list of system with each x series graphics card by looking at the ATI site. That was how I picked my zd8000, for under 2000$ you get one heck of a system.

 

Please forgive the what I am sure is a stupid question. Is it possible that later down the road,...a company like ATI mike make an upgraded video card that plugs into the PCIe card slot now on the side of the computer? This way perhaps you could go into device manager and disable the onboard GPU. Then use the plug in card to drive your graphics. It is an PCIe card slot,...Could this be possible? Or am I grabbing at straws?

 

It`s a nice machine, I like it. I think it should be upgradable.

 

I have the zd7010 with 1GB of RAM and the P4 2.66 GHz processor. I was wondering what is the fastest CPU I can put in this laptop? and will it support Hyperthreading? Any help would be appreciated.