computer 'expansion' question

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little a

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hello all,

total cpu noob here so if my question sounds completely lame, you know why (not that i needed to clarify).

anyhow, the situation is as follows. i have an older (purchased in '99) sony laptop (pcg-fx150k: pentium III 733, 384MB, windows 2000, etc.) that has been nothing but steady and reliable. bulletproof in fact. but i'm finding it somewhat slow for what i'm doing these days (mostly ripping my entire music collection) and the hard drive is getting a little crowded.

what options do i have with this unit as far as 'expanding' its capabilities? or am i better off buying a desktop kit and putting something together more suited to my needs? TIA

a
 
Yo could do a format and clean install of the operating system to clean it up (back up all of your stuff or corse)
you coluld get a External hard drive for more storage
 
zimon said:
Yo could do a format and clean install of the operating system to clean it up (back up all of your stuff or corse)
you coluld get a External hard drive for more storage

thank you for the suggestion.

yes, i thought about the external HD and erasing everything. i have three issues with that though. one, it doesn't really solve the processor speed issue (are there any options that address this issue?). two, my memory can only go up to 512 (or something like that). three, for the money of an external HD (what, like $100-150 for a decent one?) i get a good chunk of a new system. they have a couple of decent desktops selling cheap (even cheaper if i can get my hands on something without software). the real problem i think is always going to be the processor speed and memory limitation. an external HD could help though.

a
 
You cant upgrade the system memory past 512mb? i allways figured you could get around a gig in laptops.... if lucky with the old ones..
 
You wont be able to replace the CPU, a newer CPU draws more power and will melt with the current heatsink/

An external hard drive is a regular hard drive in an 30$ enclosure. You can buy these seperatly and their easy as hell to put together.
 
DJ-CHRIS said:
You wont be able to replace the CPU, a newer CPU draws more power and will melt with the current heatsink/

An external hard drive is a regular hard drive in an 30$ enclosure. You can buy these seperatly and their easy as hell to put together.

this is true, i did it because my comp cant add hard drives to, its easy
 
charles_scott said:
You cant upgrade the system memory past 512mb? i allways figured you could get around a gig in laptops.... if lucky with the old ones..

that's from memory (pardon the pun) but it's been a while so i may be wrong. how can i find out about this?

a
 
DJ-CHRIS said:
You wont be able to replace the CPU, a newer CPU draws more power and will melt with the current heatsink/

An external hard drive is a regular hard drive in an 30$ enclosure. You can buy these seperatly and their easy as hell to put together.

i see. if an external HD is relatively cheap, it might be worth combining with as much memory as i can fit into the thing and a reinstall (would switching to windows XP pro give me anything in terms of performance or should i stick with Win2K?).

how would i go about figuring out what hard drive would be a good match for this unit (it does have firewire and USB2.0)? i'm guessing something like 40-60 GB at least.

thanks everyone!

a
 
@ Little a,

You said it was slow of late... Have you pulled any maintenance of your lappy to keep it up to speed?

Start with removing any extra autoloaders that are not absolutely needed (anti-virus, firewall, and such are needed). Click Start--> Run--> type msconfig--> click the startup tab--> uncheck everything but the essentials--> Apply--> Restart.

Uninstall programs that you no longer use or need. Use their uninstall first, but if they do not have the option, go into Control Panel--> Add/ Remove Programs and nix them.

Scan for adware/ spyware, as well as viruses. For adware/ spyware, download MS AntiSpyware (free for owners of Windows). For scanning for viruses, update your antivirus and scan, or check out http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ for a free online scan.

Defragment your hard drive. Start--> All Programs--> Accessories--> System Tools--> Disk Defragmenter. Not only will this free up some space on your hard drive, it will also increase your computer's ability to quickly locate information on your drive.

Try these out, and post back if if helps any.
 
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