what are the best ways to upgrade a laptop?

[Whitmore6]

Hi there,

i always use a laptop as i am always allover the place with it and i want to know what upgrades can be taken that are simple enough to enhance the performance on it
I recently upgraded the RAM to 2gb from 1gb - not much but u can tell the differance.

can u help me on what i should/could do next

i have basic knowlege on computer upgrades and kind of know what to do so dont get too complicated

thanks alot
Sam 8):P

[wonderlust]

Most laptops are very limited in the way fo upgrading.

Some have socket CPUs where others are soldered directly to the Motherboard.

You may be lucky and be able to upgrade the GPU but its not that common.

[Aaron]

What wonderlust said is true. You are VERY limited in upgrade paths in comparison to a desktop system. RAM is really the only thing easily upgradable.

One of the best things you can do to 'speed up' your laptop is to backup, and do a format and reinstall. If you havent done this for a while your laptop will seem SO much faster, especially with the extra ram in there :)

[wonderlust]

or an SSD :D

[Aaron]

:lol: true...

[wonderlust]

I guess if he has gone from 1Gb to 2Gb with no noticable difference you (he) are(is) using XP.

Is it a single core processor? If it is and it will not take an upgrade processor then it would probably cheaper to get a replacement Dule core Laptop.

A friend of mine got a nice 17" Dual Core Laptop for well under £500

[Aaron]

I think he should try a reformat first before splashing out any money.. :)

[wonderlust]

very true

[Whitmore6]

how do i reformat it then? step by step please as im dumb

vista btw lol

[wonderlust]

hmm Vista should show a marked improvement going from 1Gb to 2Gb.

1st stage is back up your data to alternate media!
2nd stage is to verify that your back worked correctly and your data is safe!!!

[Whitmore6]

i'll have to invest in a cheap external portable hard drive then. im after one anyway
where is best for a cheap 500gb? or any suggestions?

Thanks

[Monkey]

Aria... not allowed to say anything else :P

[Audigex]

You should be able to get one for about £50

Can you find your laptop manual? There should be a section in there on wiping+re-installing :-)

[Whitmore6]

k thanks i orderd a hard drive should be here in the next few days -
now i have to go to the loft nd dig out the old manual lol

if i still have it
owell
everything is on the internet sumwhere if i cnt find it in the loft.

thanks alot

[Aaron]

Let us know how you get on :)

[Whitmore6]

will do ;)

still open for more suggestions if any1 has any

[Audigex]

RAM, HDD are the only things you can usually upgrade... laptops are useless for expansion of any sort.

[Whitmore6]

alrite then calm down

[Audigex]

I wasn't tense :s

Just letting you know that you're probably already at the limit of what you can upgrade. It's just the nature of laptops, unfortunately, that they're very specific in what hardware you can change.

[Dextrovert]

Depending on what you need from the laptop in the long run it ends up being more cost effective to save for a newer spec. Though Ram, ext. hard drive, back up and soon enough Windows 7...easy upgrades with minimal effort.

[AdrianK]

I wasn't tense :s

Just letting you know that you're probably already at the limit of what you can upgrade. It's just the nature of laptops, unfortunately, that they're very specific in what hardware you can change.

Unfortunately what Aud says is correct, it's the price you pay for portability. General rule of thumb is Memory & Hard Drive are usually the main 2 things you can upgrade. However a good Clean of your OS goes along way too... :lol:

[Dextrovert]

It gives it that sparkly new feeling...until you realise you've forgot to back up a certain file!
A friend of mine went through this motion with her photos and final draft of her dissitation.
Rule - Always back up your data, so worth investing in an external hard drive no matter what...Aria sell some decent priced ones lol :).

[alexnifty]

I keep all 'My Documents' including desktop on a separate partition or hard drive from the OS, it's fairly easy to change the target location of your My Documents foders.

That way everything is automatically safe if I have to reinstall my OS.

[Dextrovert]

I remember deciding to transfer all my files over to a slave, turned on my pc one day, surge hit it took out my C drive and was thankful I used a separate hard drive for OS and files.

[Lynx]

NECRO

[Funlester]

NECRO

What necro??

[Lynx]

The thread necro'd

[Snodge]

Stick Puppy Linux on it. Goes like s*** off a stick. Unfortunately, the default theme looks like it too. Great if you're just running Firefox on an old laptop tho.