how to upgrade vaio vgn ar190g

I posted earlier but in wrong group oops.
Just purchased ar 190g off ebay. Looking to change out old t2500 chip for the t7200. Just for the 4gb ram that will be gained. I've read that the bios will have to upgraded first. Are there any pros or cons about doing this cpu swap? It's supposed to support 64 bit. Is this true?
Are there any more things that can be done? Better cooling? Bigger hard drives? Any special mem chips? It already has blue-ray.
It's supposed to have a nvidia ge force go7600gt 256mb card. Is this card intergrated or can it be upgraded as well? If not does it share mem with the system?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated seeing I'm not very computer literate.
Thank you
David McLendon

 

Easiest upgrades - RAM and then SSD. You'll feel/see the difference in th SSD removing the system bottleneck.

 

Thank you J&SinKTo
Would you have any suggestion on a good name brand for ram, say crucial,hynix, etc,etc.
I recieved a post earlier from H.A.L. 9000. And was told that because of the chipset being the intel 945 gm and the ICH7 sata controller limits it to sata 1.5. I do understand the 945 gm being the chipset model. But as far as the ICH7 sata control and 1.5 I have no clue. That a ssd probably would not be that great of an improvement or not to do at all. Will be checking into hard drives. The system spins them at 5400rpm(thejoker) wanting to goto a 7400 or 10000. Just have to find out about that ICH7 sata control and 1.5. If this in itself will restrict me than I'm just going to have to stay within the limits of the system. Until I find out.
Thank you
David M

 

A good SSD will completely saturate a SATA 1.5 connection, thus if you buy an SSD, you'll never see the speeds that newer controllers have. SATA 2 is the current standard, and it really doesn't have much life left. Get a Hitachi 7k500. It's just about the best platter based drive you can buy. The Momentus XT is great too, but I have no idea how well it works with the ICH7. Also, with the 7600GT, keep it cool. The later model 7xxx series and the 8400/8600 were highly prone to failure with extended thermal cycles. It shouldn't have any issues though if it stays cool.

 

Here again thank you H.A.L. 9000
You have gotten me off to a super great start. Can't wait to install all of this and give you a update. Just have to wait until next payday. Ha Ha.
Thanks again
David M

 

H.A.L. 9000
So it begins. New extend bat $130. Well a labor of love is not labor. Will keep ya'll posted.
Thanks again
David M

 

Got 17 inch bag at auction for a dollar. Everything on a budget. Just keep going.
Thanks gals and guys.
David

 

This was my first 17" multimedia laptop in 2004, grt. model i loved it. still i have new battery in box which i got from sony in extended warrenty. i sold it in 2007. very nice model with 2 big speakers and docking station.