cf-19 mark II upgrade advice please

Hi all.

I have a CF19GJL53AM. I belive this is a Mark II, please correct me if I am wrong. It has Intel Core 2 Duo 1.06 GHz processor, and RAM has been upgraded to 3Gb. Unit came with Vista Business, I chose to "downgrade" to XP pro.

I have found due to the amount of large software I need for business use I have to upgrade my hard drive. I plan to buy a Samsung 840 pro 256 SSD, unless someone can point me in a better direction. This is my primary work computer and gets a lot of use, so I think the pro SSD is the way to go. When upgrading the HD I will also update the OS to Windows 7, as well as bump up the RAM to 4Gb. I routinely use multiple large database programs all running at the same time on my machine. My hope is changing HD, OS, and RAM will lead to a large increase in performance.

Questions I have are:
1. Will I see an increase in performance with the above listed upgrades?

2. With the Windows 7 install will I have to reinstall Toughbook specific drivers? Where can I get these drivers on a disc or dowload from the web? ( I have built in GPS on this machine if that matters).

3. Can anyone recommend any additional cost effective performance upgrades that I can do? I have seen posts of someone here that can upgrade CPU's on our toughbooks. How expensive is this? Could a motherboard from a newer CF-19 be swapped in that already has faster CPUs?

4. Is it possible to add internal bluetooth to my machine, or add another USB port? I currently use a bluetooth dongle plugged into a USB, leaving me only one USB port.

5. Will I have to do a bios update on this machine in order to do a Windows 7 install?

Thanks in advance for your advice. Please feel free to offer me any parts or services you have for sale that would be of use to me.

 

1. Yes you will, good choice in that drive since I have that one too.

2. You should use the Toughbook drivers since they are custom made for it.

3. No upgrade for your cpu, it is soldered on the motherboard

4. Yes you can add internal bluetooth


CF-19 Tablet - ToughWiki

 

I think buying Windows 7 will be money very well spent. SSD's are a huge performance increase. Toughasnails has links in his sig to speedup performance even more.
Here is the specs on your machine.....

 

I put a 80gb intel ssd, windows 7 64 bit on the girlfriends Mk2 she got. She doesn't let anyone else touch it, lol.

 

based on experienced with same model. I've just add Wi-Fi card and Bluetooth and it were recognized by the bios without any flashing. As long as the Wi-Fi card is exactly what for CF-19MK2. I don't remember the number though if it is 4965 or whatever. I will verify....For Bluetooth you may use any from MK1 to MK3

ohlip

 

I upgraded my MK2 CF19 following the advice on this site and posted here for my method:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/431682-cf-19-windows-7-install-8-print.html
things went well and she runs very well, much much better than xp or vista.
Keep us updated on your hard drive swap and experience.
Best Regards,
Cleve

 

I just did the clone and fired it up. This is an amazing difference. This has to be the best money anyone can spend trying to upgrade their computer.

I am still running XP pro for now until the Win7 disc gets here. I have a factory Panny Vista restore disc. Can I use this to "upgrade" the OS to Vista without wiping the hard drive? I plan to then upgrade to Win7. I know this is not the ideal way to do things, but I use this machine for my business and cannot be one day without it.

Thank all of you guys that replied for your advice and recommendations!

 

Is your COA on the bottom of the 19 vista ? The restore disk will only work if it is and it will wipe your hdd too. I would skip vista and wait untill your W7 disk comes in then upgrade to it but do a full install...most will tell you that.

 

If you end up doing the "full install" of
Win 7 and have problems getting everything to work, just follow the upgrade directions for Vista in my previous post. I followed the directions from Panasonic for a MK3 and everything works fine with my MK2. Let us know how you make out.

 

After you installed everything clean, W7, programs serials etc etc and it is working all smooth, make a clone on an hdd. This way you can quickly revert back to the fresh install if anything goes south. Certainly if it's your only machine and it's for work, it is soooo worth it. I know I did and it saved my behind several times, when my intel 320 SSD started to fail, or when I deleted something in the registry :stupid:

 

You can also find backup software that will create a bootable DVD backup of a HDD. I did this, then cloned the DVD to a USB stick. I actually put 3 different backups on the same bootable usb stick.