upgrading NP 8660 [hd & ram]

This forum helped me to decide to wait and buy this comp when it came out and i got it in august

specs: im running windows xp pro sp3
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Dou CPU
P9500 @ 2.53GHz
783MHz 1.99GB of RAM
200GB HD

how easy/hard is it to upgrade the harddrive / ram ?
good places to buy?
instructions?
prices?
maybe video card too (i have 9800M GT)

I'd like to upgrade the ram for gaming and i started to multitask some heavy programs (autocad, ugnx5, photoshop etc)

I'd like to upgrade the HD for a faster connection with my music (120+ gbs) its slow with my external HD and i would just like more space my 320 external HD is full

 

well changing HDD is easy and cheap enough-you've a variety of 2.5' to choose from and luckily you have an external HDD as will be that much easier to do a copy of you current HDD, the best you could go for in terms of preformance would be an SSD but it is pricey and not as capacious as usual ones. RAM is also easy enough to fit but if you're unsure-a local laptop/pc shop should be able to swap both for not too many bucks hopefully.
swapping the GPU ain't easy at all tho-if not impossible :/

 

newegg.com would be a great place for rams and hdds. and yea they are very easy to upgrade. for hdd, make sure it's 2.5"; for ram, make sure it's ddr3 1066mhz for laptops.

 

links to specific ones would be great i know nothing of hardware and a little of the software i would like a 500GB if not a 320GB and 4gb of RAM
instructions would be great too although i know i could search the forum and find some im just lazy =x

 

Hard drive and RAM are quite easy to change. If you're in the US, then newegg would be the place to search for them. Changing the GPU takes a bit more knowledge as you have to remove the heatsink, as well as apply thermal paste when placing the heatsink back on. Your current model might not be able to accommodate the 260M GTX though as I think there was a small revision to the chassis.

 

ya i was just wondering about the video card it can still destroy any games i play

and i really only play quake live lol

links tho plz!

 

3GB ram sounds good
what about windows seven (im not dealing with vista)?

if i got 3 now would it be easy to goto 4 with widows seven later?

video card wise i was just wondering there was like a 5% chance i would actually upgrade it

money wise i can dish out some bank for a big HD (dont know how big they go? id buy up to 750)

ram is pretty cheap no?

if you can link me some ram upgrades and hd upgrades ill spend quite a bit i just need and idea / some links

thanks everyone (nirvanax2)

 

Seagate 500GB 7200rpm HDD

WD 500GB 5400rpm
Seagate 500GB 5400rpm

Crucial 4GB RAM (2 x 2GB)

 

i think ill buy that HD right now thats an amazing deal thats exactly what i wanted 7200rpm even =]

how can i tell what type of ram i have (ya i have to ask that =x)

 

Do you still have the order confirmation with all the spec listed from your dealer? I think I can tell from there.

 

Use CPU-Z if you're lazy to open it up.

 

cpu-z is nice! thanks
it says
DDR3
2048MB
Single channel

so one? if i get another 2gb stick will have 3gb used in xp and 4 in windows seven?

whats a good brand ?!

EDIT

are they out of those 7200 500GB seagate hds?

 

No it would still be 3GB, unless you have 64bit windows 7.

 

Yup. So you just need another stick of 2GB then. Some good brands are Crucial and OCZ I suppose. I don't think Kingston has made any yet.

 

how many Gb u'll be able to see depends not on OS itself (XP, Vista, win7), but on OS kind or type (x86 or x64). with any x64 OS u'll be able to see way more than 4Gb and with x86 - from 2.75 to 3.25 Gb (depends on hardware in your laptop). But even with x86 you can get all 4Gb using /PAE instruction.

Another option to use so-called "wasted" RAM is to use it for swap file, which will drastically speed-up the system.

So, I think it's better to get 2Gb stick rather than 1Gb.

 

if you could post a screenshot of the spd tab that'd be good. Looks like 1 stick tho.

Yes, 3.25ish GB in win XP and 4GB in 64bit win 7.

If you use 32bit win 7, you will still only have 3.25ish GB

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148192

that ram ^
with windows xp until i upgrade to windows 7 (64bit or we'll see when we get there)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374&Tpk=7200.4

i would like that HD but i think newegg is out anyone know anywhere else i could get one?


instructions would be nice too but i could just bring it to comp major's house (i goto a tech school)

links?

thanks to everyone for help

 

The RAM seems good. Don't know where else to get the HDD though. Still waiting for it to emerge here in the UK.

Ask theriko for your service manual.

 

or just use the link in my sig...

Anyway, everywhere seems to be out of stock on those drives, so you might just have to wait.

In the UK, Lambda-Tek and thetechstore are expecting them in next week

 

Go to CPUZ and make a note of the RAM timings on the ram that you have in your notebook (say, 7/7/7/20 is probably standard) and get ram that matches the timings, or at the very least matches the CAS delay (7 in that example, this is listed on ram specs at newegg at least). This is fairly important for the ram to work well together (i.e. dual channel to work, and the CAS delay indicates how fast your ram can perform, among other things). You can set faster ram to work at slower timings but can't run ram with slower timings at faster settings (without encountering stability issues, at best).

 

What!? You are painfully inaccurate with that estimate.

 

Yea? What's your accurate estimate then?

 

Factor in the better core (G92b), more shaders (112 v 96), and the significantly higher clocks (500/1250/800 v 550/1375/950), I have to give the GTX 260M at least 15% over the stock 9800M GT. Plus, the GT can't even run 950 on the memory without artifacts showing in ATiTool. Imagine taking the 260M up to 1100 on the memory.... the GT can't even sniff that. EDIT: There's also the extra 512MB of RAM.

I apologize if I came off as rude, but "less than 5%" is just wrong.

 

Clearly the GTX260M has way more megahurtz (tm).

 

what do u think: is the way to upgrade 260 to 280? looks there should not be a problem

 

Yea I aware of those facts, that's why I said "probably". But I wouldn't so sure for the "at least" 15% either until some benchmark from the users.

 

How can you be aware of those facts and speculate less than 5% increase in performance?

A 9800M GT overclocked to 600/1500/900 is that, and the 260M is an improved, overclocked 9800M GTX, easily a desktop 9800 GT.

 

Based on the "improvements" 9800M GTX made on top of 8800M GTX.

 

hey guys ive been waiting forever to get my new HD but newegg never got the 7200rpm 500GB drives in so i was thinking about ordering a 540rpm 500GB one like above.

which should i order?

i read they wont run as hot but they are slower, my question i how much slower? i run programs like photoshop cs4, fl studio, UGNX5, autocad, matlab 2008
would any of those be greatly affected? im still upgrading to 4gbs of ram when i do this upgrade. which ill set back until about 2 weeks from now when im out of school for the semester

 

Hello kind of related question I have 4gb but Windows (XP Pro 32) is only reading 2.5, I was expecting at least 3, or 3.2 as some guys have said.

So I'd like to upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit to make full use of my ram. Does the M860TU work with 64-bit OS out of the box or do I need a new bios?

 

There is no current day notebook that doesn't work with 64-bit operating systems.

 

Thought I'd add my 10cents...

As other have said the memory is very easy to upgrade, however I found the HDD a little tricky because it has this little brown plasic lip above the HDD which made is quite tricky taking the original drive out. (hard to explain without a picture) Anyway eventually I managed to pry it out of the way enought to get an Intel X25 G2 in and it has made such a difference to the system!!!

The next thing I would like to do is replace my 9800 GTS with either a 260m or if I'm being cocky a 280m... but I'm finding it hard to find a 280m MXM IV card for sale.

 

Intel SSD is really fast.....

 

Kaltmond, can you point me in the right direction for replacing the DVD drive in the M680TU with another HDD?

 

I think you want http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=388625 posts 18 and 39 covering the more specific details (Yes, post 18 is about a M570, but it uses the same chipset as the M860, as evidenced by post 39).