Would this be a noticeable speed upgrade?

[thawolfman]

Considering upgrading my Dell C600 from a P3-700 to a P3-850, which is the highest supported by that board. Also considering upgrading it from 384MB -> 512MB.

Would this make a noticeable upgrade in speed or not really?

Thanks,

-Ben-

 

[blodhi74]

Ram might help a tad but you will not see a noticible difference

 

[Gurck]

It should be noticeable, but not by very much, probably not enough to justify the cost of the upgrade.

 

[thawolfman]

About $38 for the RAM, and $51 for the processor~

It'll mainly be a web/mp3 machine. Possibly for watching DVD's too~

Probably not worth it though?

 

[Gurck]

Is there a particular reason you're unhappy with its performance as-is for its functions? Ie. does it skip during mp3 or movie playback?

 

[Mik3y]

not worth the upgrade. you wont find too much of a noticable difference in performance. i know because i have quiet a few laptops.

 

[thawolfman]

There's nothing wrong with the current performance of it, I just figured I'd max out whatever I could in it.

I'll probably end up doing just the RAM but I wanted to see if the processor would make any significant difference either~

-Ben-

 

[mikecel79]

I find the biggest bottleneck in older laptops are the slow 4200 RPM drives. Getting a newer 5400 or 7200 RPM drive with 8MB of cache will make a big diference. I would do that and the RAM upgrade.

 

[thawolfman]

yeah this is a 4200RPM hd - I believe it's a 2.5" 9.5mm - I'll browse on those specs and see what I can find~

Any recommendations on the best place to look?

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: thawolfman
yeah this is a 4200RPM hd - I believe it's a 2.5" 9.5mm - I'll browse on those specs and see what I can find~

Any recommendations on the best place to look?

We've been buying these where I work as replacement for our Dell Latitude LS's that are out of warranty.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: mikecel79
I find the biggest bottleneck in older laptops are the slow 4200 RPM drives. Getting a newer 5400 or 7200 RPM drive with 8MB of cache will make a big diference. I would do that and the RAM upgrade.

Bingo. I returned my eMachines M6805 because of a cracked screen hinge and the replacement had a 4200RPM drive instead of the original's 5400RPM drive and there was a huge difference in overall responsiveness.

 

[thawolfman]

Originally posted by: mikecel79

Originally posted by: thawolfman
yeah this is a 4200RPM hd - I believe it's a 2.5" 9.5mm - I'll browse on those specs and see what I can find~

Any recommendations on the best place to look?

We've been buying these where I work as replacement for our Dell Latitude LS's that are out of warranty.

good deal~ I think I'll pick one of those up before anything else~

Edit: And those are new drives, not refurbs?

 

[Erasmus-X]

Assuming you can actually swap out the CPU (some are actually soldered to the mainboard on laptops), you're really not going to see a significant difference with that extra 150 MHz. Not to mention the fact that you'll be in for quite an adventure disassembling some laptops just to get to the CPU. I'd say upgrade the RAM and leave it at that until you can afford a new laptop.

And as stated before, swap out that hard drive for a faster one. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

 

[thawolfman]

I've already had the laptop apart to replace the LCD. I took the whole thing apart while waiting for the replacement screen to come in, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The processor wasn't soldered in, but still - if the 150mhz isn't worth it then I won't bother.

I'm probably going to pick up that hard drive and then snag another 256mb of ram. Seems like the easiest way to get a little more pep out of this~

Thanks for all your help guys!

-Ben-