Sony Z/SR easy or hard to upgrade?

Does anyone know if the Sony Z/SR laptops are easy to upgrade? Sony charges by the limb for RAM/HDD upgrades... $200 for 120gb to 320gb on the Z540. So would stuff like that be easy to upgrade?

Also, anyone tried replacing the Centrino core with a C2D? Can you buy any C2D and put it in there or do you need a specialized one? (I've never worked with laptop procs). I'm an idiot.

 

For the Z: RAM is dead simple, HDD is pretty easy just need to be careful when taking the keyboard off.

 

Hmm, how many RAM slots does the Z have? 1 or 2?

 

LOL
Centrino is not a CPU, Centrino is a platform (Intel PRO/Wireless network adapter, Intel mobile processor, Intel mobile southbridge chipset, and Intel mobile northbridge chipset)
the CPU in the SR/Z is Core 2 Duo........................

and the SR is extremely easy to upgrade
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283218
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3729358&postcount=29

 

Oh wow I was confusing it with Celeron for some reason... thanks for the links!

 

Also, quick question... does the Sony come with Vista install discs? If so, are they preconfig 'recovery' discs or actual blank Vista discs?

 

You have to create them yourself using Sony's Recovery Centre application.

 

Here is what I did to my Z, with the "complexity" rating:

- RAM: Easily upgradable, 2 slots avail - complexity: dead easy

- HDD/SSD: Easy, but need to open the notebook - complexity: easy

- Second HDD/SSD: Moderate, need to kick the optical drive out + special slimline SATA connector - complexity: moderate, requires knowledge

- CPU: Tricky, requires almost complete dismantling - complexity - hard, requires knowledge and time

It could be also possible to upgrade the mini PCIe WLAN module (with e.g. N networking) but I did not try that.

Other that those changes, I cannot find any other useful mod...