NC8000 + Pentium M 765 (2.1GHz)

(can I upgrade the current PM 735 processor on my HP NC8000 to a PM 765?)

Is there any way to check if the BIOS on the nc8000 will accept a Pentium M 765 processor upgrade (currently has a Pentium M 735)?

I tried booting into the BIOS but cannot find any sort of name/designation for the BIOS - I'm guessing it's HP specific and HP support is giving me the usual corporate runaround.

Has anyone here tried anything like this before?

I am hesitant to try as the fastest processor that the NC8000 is sold with is a PM 755 - as the PM 765 is a more recent development I don't know if the BIOS will be able to recognize it.

Any advice would be MUCH appreciated!

 

It shouldn't be any problem with PM 765 but doesn't the 765 have a premium like all top of the line processors. 755 will probably have more bang for your buck... Then again is it really worth upgrading 1.8Ghz to 2.0/2.1Ghz? I'm not so sure... How much ram do you have? If you have only 512mb you can increase efficiency (a.k.a speed) to 1GB+.

 

I think I'm going to give it a shot within the next week - got a line on a reasonable 765 and have the maintenance guide for my nc8000's instructions on how to swap out the processor HOWEVER if there is anyone out there who has experience doing this I would LOVE to hear from you before I dive in...

Thanks!

 

Processor upgrades are usually not worth the cost; unless you are running the processor at full speed all the time doing rendering apps or something else that requires a lot of CPU cycles, there will be very little difference between the two. Pentium M's normally run at 800MHz to save power/create less heat.

You might consider bumping up the amount of RAM or installing a faster hard drive to give a more noticeable performance boost.

 

I have noticed that a slow hard drive is often a botleneck in addition to the RAM. You may want to look into a 7200 RPM drive if you see that the disk light is often steady on.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know - after more than 6 months of delaying I finally took the plunge and upgraded my NC8000 with a PM765 (2.1GHz Dothan processor), 1GB DDR, and a Hitachi 7200/100GB drive...

and everything works GREAT!

I was only really worried about BIOS problems with the new processor, but even though HP never offered an NC8000/PM765 configuration the BIOS seems to recognize the processor fine (XP recognizes it as well) so everything seems kosher for the time being.

Couple quick questions if anyone out there is still listening:

Will adding a second stick of DDR (currently only have a single 1GB stick) use significantly power (i.e. will my battery drain faster with an additional stick of DDR)?

Secondly, what distro of Linux would people recommend for this laptop (tried SUSE 9.2 but had some issues with it)?

Thanks!

 

Adding another RAM modeul won't affect the battery runtime of the notebook by much. The RAM modules use so little energy anyway, it will make practically no difference to the battery life. Did you notice any speed jump from the Pentium M upgrade?

 

IF they were all upgraded at the same time it would proabbly be hard to tell I'd guess. I sure wouldn't mind upgrading to a 770 or 780, but they are ridiculously expensive and not worth it.

 

I haven't had a chance to test the laptop hardcore (this was a spare NC8000 I had laying around - I didn't want to void the warranty on my primary work laptop) but offhand it seems much more responsive. I don't know if this is due to the upgraded processor, the increase to 1GB DDR (was 512MB) or the 7200/100GB Hitachi drive I added (had 7200/60GB drive before so I doubt it's this).

It might just be the increase in DDR - although seems to be a decent amount of DDR...

So my primary issue right now is if I should add back in the 512MB stick that I replaced with the 1GB stick - battery life is important to me (one of the main reasons I like the NC8000 series) and I've heard conflicting opinions regarding the power drain a 2nd stick of DDR...

Some people say it doesn't matter, some say it makes a difference, others claim it actually extends your battery life as it doesn't require the hard drive to be as intensively used...

Any opinions out there regarding this... 1GB vs 1.5GB DDR ... vs Battery Life?

 

Also - any recommendations on a distro of Linux that plays well with this laptop - I'm something of Linux noob so any advice on a distro that provides a good "learning" experience would be much appreciated!

 

I really don't imagine that there would be any appreciable impact on battery life by adding the extra ram. We're talking probably a minute or two (total guess) less time. Ram uses little power relative to the processor and hard drive.