cpu help+aftermarket upgrades

ok so im getting a hp dv6000t and i was wondering if after market upgrades would be cheaper/better than what i can get configured on the hp site? if so can you guys tell me what kind of RAM/hardrive is compatible with the dv6? also how does the performance of a 1.73ghz core duo compare to a 1.8ghz core2duo?

 

Most manufactures do overcharge for ram. It's always a good idea to get the minimal from HP and then buy aftermarket. Maybe even the hdd would be cheaper, but that u would have to check out. I would not skimp out on anything else to upgrade urself later, because most other things are not user upgradeable and will void ur warranty.

Any 2.5" SATA hard drives will work for ur HP, and memory is ddr2 pc4200 or pc5300.

 

Buy the CPU you want now--no reason not to get a Core 2 Duo, a T5x00 should do you nicely.

Check out www.newegg.com for memory and hard disks.

It might be cheaper to upgrade RAM aftermarket, but the hard drive may not be (especially if you figure in the hassle of ghosting all your old data over)

As stated, PC5400/5300 or PC4300/4200 will work in your computer (get whichever is cheaper, no noticeable performance difference.)

 

memory and hard drives are both relatively cheap

I bought 256 from hp and now have 1024 (2 x 512) that cost me $80 and my friend bought a new 120 gig hd for $80

 

An upgrde to a Core 2 Duo would be expensive and you wouldnt benefit a lot from it. Most versions of Vista shipped with notebooks are still in 32 bit, so you will hardly notice any difference in speed.

Any 2.5" SATA HDD would be compatable, avoid 4200rpm drives. 5400rpm drives are a good compromise between speed and power consumption, and 7200rpm for desktop replacement performance.

As for RAM, you need 200 pin DDRII RAM running at 667/553MHz. As mentioned by vespoli, this is PC5400/5300 or PC4300/4200 RAM.

http://shop.kingston.com/partsinfo.asp?ktcpartno=KTH-ZD8000B/1G

The speed difference between 553MHz and 667MHz isnt huge, and its best to buy whichever is the best deal. The difference is speed really comes down to what applications you run. Memory intensive applications will get the most benefit from more and faster RAM, such as high end gaming, modelling, and Adobe Creative Suite programs.

 

I disagree. May as well get the Core 2 Duo, depending on the price. It'll perform better for longer than the Core Duo will, depending on his usage. For gaming and 3D rendering and video editing and such, get the faster CPU. If you're just going to be using it for email and typing up documents, the slower one will suffice.

RAM is easy to upgrade aftermarket, and the best way to make sure you don't have parts left over is to buy a single DIMM from the manufacturer (1x1GB instead of 2x512MB, for example) and then buy the second one aftermarket.

Hard drives are also fairly easy to upgrade, but you may want to get an external enclosure so you still have use of the old drive afterwards.

Get the CPU that you think you need now. It's almost never worth it to upgrade the CPU yourself, so get as fast as you think you'll ever need when you first get the machine. As for how the 1.73 Core Duo compares to the 1.8 Core 2 Duo, the C2D's run about 10% faster at the same clock speed (for calculation intensive applications, not any program you run), so you could see up to a 15% or so performance increase between those two computers, or higher depending on the application. And the Core 2 Duo's also allow you to run a 64bit OS, which I personally like as a Linux dork.

 

I am also in the situation with getting 2gb or 1 gb on the hp site. i did no know that you can buy 1 x1gb ram from hp. I thought automatically give you 2x 512 mb. Is this possible?