New to Laptops, question.. (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

Are these things easier, or less expensive to upgrade than desktops? My sister just got a new one for college, and she gave me this old thing...

From the looks of it, it says it has a P3 chip, but the system page claims it's a Pentium 2. It has 5 GB's of Hard Drive space. It has 128 MB's of Ram. It has a standard CD Rom Drive, not sure wich speed.

I'd like to upgrade the ram to 348. Upgrade the hard drive to at least 50GB's. Upgrade the CD Drive to a DVD/CDR combo. Maby stick a TV tuner in there if they make them for laptops.

Just out of dumb struck curiosity, are these more or less expensive for a laptop, than they would be for a PC?

 

[Andre F]

Much harder to upgrade than laptops. Probably more expensive for a laptop and I really doubt you can do all that. Check the manufacturer website or manual to see more about upgrades..

 

[Max Leung]

Hmmm not likely you can upgrade that beast. Every couple of years they change everything and the new DVD/CD-RW drives won't fit in the old laptops. Even battery compartments change!

You're pretty much stuck with what you've got. Although nowadays memory is much easier to upgrade than before.

I'm glad that USB and Firewire/i-link are available for laptops now...makes it slightly easier to upgrade. Laptop hard drives are easier to replace too, as they just standardized them.

 

[KyleS]

Are these things easier, or less expensive to upgrade than desktops?

That's a big fat Negative on both of your questions. Laptops are harder to work with when upgrading and the parts are more expensive then the desktop counterpart since the parts are smaller. Your ram might be able to be upgraded to 384mb Ram check www.crucial.com and it will let you know what the memory max is on your laptop. Some older P3 models maxed out at 256mb though. And to get to 384mb you may need to replace both memory chips in your laptop. The HD replacement will depend on the model/manufacture of your laptop and what it will accept or not. Standard Laptop HD's go in increments of 10-20-30-40-60-80GB. Be careful when replacing the HD too since it may be using a 9.5mm disc or a 12.5mm sized disc.
As Max stated the unit may not be able to accept a different CD or DVD then what it originally came with it depends again on what the manufacture has for the unit and whether or not the DVD was specific to a particular model or not. Either way almost ALL parts for a laptop will run you considerably more then the comparable desktop part. A TV Tuner can be purchased for you laptop via a PCMCIA card though this is assuming your laptop has an open PCMCIA slot. They are no PCI slots or bays that are open/available as their are on desktops.
KyleS

 

[Steve_Ch]

>>They are no PCI slots or bays that are open/available as their are on desktops.

 

[KyleS]

Yes steve but it is an external piece that has to be detached when moving the laptop around which for the most part defeats the purpose of having a laptop. I did forget about the PCMCIA card that could output to that device though thanks for pointing it out Steve. You can really get almost any device to work with a laptop externally just connecting through the PCMCIA slots like burners(Though they too are more expensive then an internal drive).

KyleS