Mayhem G4 laptop memory and RAM upgrade?

I currently have a kingston 1GP 200P Ram, NVIDIA GeForce 6600 video card, Intel Pentium M 770 2.13GHZ processor and 100 GB Seagate harddrive. My operating system is Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3. Are there any upgrades that are compatible with a Mayhem G4? I am currently looking just for a RAM upgrade and possible a video card upgrade. Also I am trying to figure out a way to play PS3 on my laptop while I am delployed. Any suggestions other than a USB Drive capture card? I was thinking maybe a TV Tuner but dont know if my computer is compatible.

 

Well in the cpu department you currently have the second fastest pentium M. The M780 is the only upgrade, and that's a 2.26Ghz chip. (not really worth it at all to upgrade)
The video card is not upgradeable on your system.

ABS doesn't have a ton of information on your system so can you please download cpu-z and upload a picture of the memory tab

Also can you run hdtune and tell us the model number of your harddrive. (The model number is in the pull down menu)
If you have a IDE/PATA based hard drive you may want to upgrade to the samsung HM160HC, it is the fastest hard drive for the interface.
If your system has a SATA hard drive your upgrade options are much greater.

K-TRON

 

The memory tab displayed as follows:

Type: DDR2
Channels #: Single
Size 1024 MBytes
DRAM FREQ: 266.0MHZ
FSB: DRAM 4.0 Clocks
RAS# To Cash Delay (tRCD) 4 Clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4 Clocks
Cycle type (tRAS) 11 Clocks

HdTune displayed
Standard: ATA/ATAPI-6
Supported: UDMA MODE 5 (Ultra ATA/100)
Active: UDMA MODE 5 (Ultra ATA/100)
Model #: ST9100823A

Hope that helps.

 

The seagate drive you have is based off a two platter 5400rpm configuration.
It can probably do a maximum of 30mb/sec
You can benchmark your own drive with hdtune to get the exact value.
The Samsung HM160HC is the fastest mechanical harddrive for the interface, and can do 53mb/sec.

Here is my review of the drive:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264209

To find the maximum upgrade for the memory, can you please go into the motherboard tab of cpu-z, and tell us what the chipset is.

K-TRON

 

Chipset: Intel i915PM/GM Rev. 03
Southbridge: Intel 82801FBM (ICH6-M)

 

Laptop VGA cards are almost impossible to upgrade. Even if you could, you won’t be able to put in anything new, therefore it is just a waste of money. As K-TRON said, you already have a fast Pentium M, since you you can’t upgrade to a dual core CPU, that is also leads to a dead end. RAM is the only viable upgrade.

I think you can upgrade your RAM to 2GB (go to crucial.com and run system scan or check the user manual), You should look for SODIMM DDR2 (PC4200) RAM.

That hard disk is a Seagate Momentus 5400RPM IDE hard disk, you can upgrade to another faster 7200RPM larger 2.5” IDE hard drive.

Finally, NO you can’t play PS3 games on a laptop. I think older PS1 and PS2 had PC emulators where you could run some of the games very poorly on a PC, but not for PS3, simply because modern PCs are not fast enough to run a PS3 game at an acceptable level on an emulator.

 

Yea that was one of the downsides to the laptop. The Seagate was reviewed as being terribly slow. Since I bought the laptop in 2005, I figured that it was time to update some things and make it a bit faster. Also, is there a way to install a video capture card or a tv tuner? Thanks.

 

Your system has a maximum memory capacity of 2gb (2 x 1Gb)
You currently have a single 1GB PC4200 533Mhz memory chip installed in your laptop.
You can upgrade and buy a second 1Gb Pc4200 memory card to install into the empty slot.

If you are in the USA, any of these are a good choice:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2030260381%201309121113%201309221133&bop=And&Order=PRICE

the only way you can install a TV tuner is to use a PCMCIA based one (if you have a PCMCIA port)
or you can buy a usb based tv tuner. Almost all of the usb tuners are really low quality, so just beware.

K-TRON

 

Neat. Thanks for all the help. If I have any more questions I'll be sure to look you up.

 

Is my laptop compatible with Windows Vista and can I just purchase a Vista Upgrade? I am currently running Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3. Thanks.

 

Xp is going to run much better than Vista on your laptop.
Mainly because vista is a memory hog, and it uses quite a bit of cpu power. To get the most out of your system, stick with XP.

K-TRON

 

With a RAM upgrade Vista should run without any performance issues, but whether you’ll be able to find all the drivers for it is questionable. Personally I don’t recommend it.

 

Since my video card is not upgradeable, would I have to upgrade to another motherboard to play newer games like dead space etc. or would mine hold up with the graphics with the GeForce 6600?