Upgrading my Compaq R4010,help me please

Hey guys, i own a R4010ca presario laptop, and i'm not so bad with technologies but really don't know a lot about UPGRADING A LAPTOP...

Could you please help me out, i'm a 17yr student (so cash is short but still have a good budget..) I was wondering what are the thing i could change and would make my notebook faster..

And is it possible to change my processor?

Here are the spec:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...roduct=468469&lang=en&cc=us&docname=c00311149

I was thinking about adding a 512mb of ram+256 so that would make it up to 770mb..is that a good idea?or the HD is more important??CPU?Video card?

I mostly go on the net,and Burn a lot of DVD(size of 3.5gb and more) but would like to do more...like playing games...but i have the feeling that my laptop is not that good for game...

PLEASE HELP ME and give me some advice,

Alex!

 

Also mt HDD is 60gb not 80gb as stated on the website...and what is the double layer support?? does it mean i can used DL disk? or with a new hardware i could...!?

 

Well, upgrading the RAM is a good start. It is also the most cost effective way of getting more performance out of your laptop. If you can try to upgrade with an additional 1GB RAM which should cost somewhere around ~$120. If that is out of your budget then get an additional 512MB as you suggested. 256MB is really on the line performance wise as Win XP usually needs around 512MB to work at its best.

The next cost effective way is to upgrade the HDD. YOur 4200rpm HDD is slowing down the computer upping it to a 5400rpm or if your budget permits a 7200rpm should see a good boost in booting times as well as general opening up of general programs.

The graphics card is not upgradable, so you are stuck with it. The CPU can be replaced but it will be expensive and affects your warranty. Anyways the Semopron is one of the speedier budget processors.

DL refers to dual layer DVD's. You can use them to burn upto ~8.5GB of data on a single disc compared to a single layer DVD's which can hold upto ~4.7GB. Single layers are the most common and easier to find. Dual layers are expensive but can store more data.

 

If it were me, since you already have 512MB of memory, I would do the hard drive first then add some memory. 7200RPM drives are really coming down in price. I don't know about up there. Good Luck.

 

Thanks guys, can some one please give me a link/recommend place to buy a good HD ?? Thanks you,

By the way, for these kind of thing...is Ebay safe?? or it is too much risk to get something broking?

By the way, my budget could go as high as 200cnd-300cnd...

 

RAM will do more for you than anything, since you only have 256MB. That is hardly enough to run Windows XP, let alone with applications.

Hard drive I would put as a second priority.

 

Can Some one help me out please...my memory seem to be 333mhz pc2700...would a pc2100 could do the job? and can a pc2700 work with a pc2100?

2.Also, How can i know which HD would fit my laptop? is their certain restriction??like a limit of space or spindle time!?

3.Finally,after i will be set,what are the socket on this motherboard?

thanks you for your time,

Alex

 

For the Hard Drive, make sure it is a 2.5" laptop hard drive, and not SATA(Therefore, if it doesn't state SATA, then its fine)

The RAM, I'd download CPU-Z or Everest and do a quick check on the RAM if you really aren't sure.

Or go to www.crucial.com and see what type of RAM you need.

For the motherboard, there is no 'socket' like desktops, instead, motherboards are restricted to their 'family', like Pentium 4's can only be upgraded to a higher Pentium 4, etc.

Good luck!

 

1. Yes you can use PC2700 along with your existing RAM, when you combine RAM of 2 different speeds, the higher spec RAM(in most cases) will always downclock to the RAM of the slowest speed.

2. Notebook harddrives all share the same size - 2.5"(or 1.8" generally used in ultraportables) and the r4000 series uses an ATA-6(ATA 100) harddrive. Do remember that your original hard drive might have an adaptor which you"ll have to remove and put it into the new one for it to work properly.

3. Socket 939. If you want fuyrther confirmation try CPU-Z. It will give you good info regarding the cpu, RAM...

But the processors are still socketed on to the motherboard.

 

Ah, thought I was wrong, just wasn't sure if it was actually referred as one.

 

It would be much cheaper if you bought the computer with the CPU you wanted.

 

Awsome thanks you guys, you are all been a good help with me! never knew about cpu-z!

 

I know but when i bought it...1500cnd was the max for my budget..anyways, i was more wondering if it was possible than anything else!! I was sure it WASNT POSSIBLE so i was asking...

because i saw a lot of athlon 3000 and higher at like 80-110 and i thought it was better than my sempron 3.2...

Thanks you