"Refurbishing" two laptops.

Anyway, an uncle is visiting from the Philippines, and he has expressed interest in buying my old Dell Inspiron 600m and my brother's HP DV5-1004NR.

The Dell has the exact same specs as the link except it's packing XP Professional. The HP is bone stock with Vista 64-bit.

Anyway, I'm just wondering what little upgrades I could do for each machine to make them a little more powerful. They're going to be given to some godchildren or something--if you know Filipinos, you know how large and confusing the whole family thing is--which will be mainly used for college work (word processing, research, etcetera) and the typical browsing and mail checking. I'll of course do general maintenance like dusting it out and maybe replacing the thermal pastes.


Anyway, for the Dell, I'm thinking 512MB RAM isn't near enough for modern usage, even for XP. Would 1GB be good enough for moderate usage, or should I jump to 1.5GB or maybe even 2GB? Also, the harddrive is a measly 60GB @ 4200rpm spinner, so something a little larger and faster might be in order. A new processor might be nice, but I'm not sure what I can upgrade to or if it would even be cost-effective. In any case, I'm thinking of selling it for no more than $300, upgrade expenses included, so insight would be welcome.

As for the HP, 4GB of memory is more than enough, so I'm leaving that alone. The harddrive is what I'm looking at mainly for the upgrade, to something like a 320GB Scorpio Black (or maybe a top-performing 5400rpm drive, since this thing gets damned toasty hot). Again, like the Dell, if there's a cheap, easy processor for me to upgrade to, I'd take it. I'm thinking maybe $375 for this one, upgrade expenses included.

Anyway, that's it. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

SSD. 10char

 

I do want to make some money on it, especially since my brother is using the difference towards a new laptop.

While an SSD would be an excellent all-around choice, they are still a bit pricey.

 

Up the memory on the Dell to 2GB, get both of them SSDs and upgrade to Win 7. If SSDs are out of the budget then consider the Seagate Momentus XT

 

Do not get SSD's on these. Yes it would improve real world performance the value of the notebooks in and of themselves do not justify. I mean buy them a new notebook at that cost. RAM and HDD are good options. I would not upgrade the PM if you go that way just buy a new notebook. On the DeLL yes a little more RAM 1GB or 2GB just check cost. And on the DeLL yes upgrade the HDD.

On the HP? Maybe faster HDD but not sure, a coin toss.

Putting wings on a car will not make it fly. So why do? That is how I feel about SSD's on those systems. Not worth it.

W7? No I think not.

 

The thing is, RAM might be expensive because they're hard to find. The HDD is perhaps the best, although I don't know if you can find a 7200rpm IDE drive. Maybe a 5400RPM is sufficient to make the system feel snappier. CPU? I think the Pentium M is not the bottleneck here.

 

I'm looking at some better-capacity and faster speed HDDs for both machines. I'll bump up RAM to 1.5GB on the Dell.

Hopefully I'll have a two decent machines for their needs with no more than $200 spent on upgrades.

Thanks for the insight guys.

 

You can. Search eBay for

Code:

7200RPM 2.5" IDE

However, the cheapest is over 60 bucks, while 5400RPM drives can be had under 30 bucks. Besides being expensive, consider the additional heat the 7200RPMs produce.

 

That's true. What's a solid drive that combines temperature, speed, and capacity? I hear good things about WD green and blue drives.

 

i'm from the philippines

ram and drives for those models are cheap here....
what you can do is buy a new batt for both, coz batts here is pricey. you can upgrade the 4200rpm to at least a 120gb 5400 ide hard drive.

ram will do, unless, you can get a 2gb ram ddr1;

 

I'm more worried about the HP's HDD. I want some better performance and space, but I'm worried about the heat. This HP is a fireball.

I think I've changed my mind about selling the Dell. I think one of the kids might like it for a first laptop

 

The cheapest 7200rpm drives are around $30, not $60. I just bought a 100GB 7200rpm for $32.

As for the heat, I have noticed the difference between 7200rpm and 5400rpm its only 2C-5C. It shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thanks for the info. Maybe a Hitachi 7k500 would be nice.

Hmm. Anyone know where I can download a Vista x64 iso from? I have a license and everything, I just need the image.

(Under the assumption, of course, that it's perfectly legal).

 

Here ya go: http://forum.notebookreview.com/mic...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html From NBR

 

That's for Win7 (unless there's a link for Vista buried in there). I need a Vista x64 iso.

 

IDK whats wrong ith me Here's the old Vista thread, but it looks like the links are closed: http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...ad-links-nice-try-but-you-still-need-key.html

Maybe something there will help. I'' keep looking.

 

I have several Windows Vista CD's, what Version do you need? Or you can buy a CD on eBay for $35.

 

Interesting. 7200rpm 2.5 ide items - Get great deals on Computers Networking, 100gb 2.5 ide 7200rpm items on eBay.com! I see no such thing. Care to reveal the source for $32 7200RPM 2.5" IDE disks?

 

Would I be able to use a recovery disc from, say, my Asus, as long as I put the serial from the HP? I obviously won't use the drivers disc, but drivers are easy.

 

I just want to report that it's an epic and utter pain to disassemble an HP DV5-1004NR for maintenance work. UTTER PAIN.

Anyway, any news on Vista isos?

 

I wouldn't think so, at the very least, the HP OEM serial wouldn't match up with the Asus cert.

 

I can't locate any Vista OS downloads currently that aren't torrents.

Now, I know this is a strech but I DO have copies of the Vista OS ISO downloads in both x86 and x64 versions from when they were available for download on the digital life website.

I live in San Jose, near where the old IBM plant was, Blossom Hill Rd and 101 if you are interested or can't find them anywhere else. You provide the blank DVD or whatever media you want to store it on and the rest is free. I don't have anywhere to upload a 3+GB file.

 

Actually, since I'm using Win7 with its own serial, I have a spare serial from my Asus. I wonder...


Oh, by the way, thanks for the Fry's alert on the 7k500.

 

I think it should work.

 

They go quick. He has 5 five left as of this post: 100 GB Hitachi TravelStar SATA 7K200 or 7K320 LT HD - eBay (item 250660238902 end time Aug-01-10 16:13:08 PDT)

I've bought 3 from this seller, and they all worked great.

Here's another seller for $30: http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-LENOVO-SATA...ultDomain_0&hash=item439fc657a9#ht_1033wt_911

It says there for IBM, but just because they have the caddy part with them. You can just take it off and it will work with any SATA laptop.

Edit: I see you want IDE. The HP uses SATA, the Dell uses IDE. Getting a 7200rpm IDE is expensive.