Upgrade Options?

[kai920]

I love my T43 (2668-AH3) to death, and I use the T43 all-day now that my desktop has died. I do basic web development - Firefox with tons of tabs open, Adobe Fireworks, etc with a 2nd LCD monitor hooked up through VGA. (1200x1600)

I was wondering if there are any upgrade options that will speed it up even more and/or give me extra functionality. My specs are in my signature.

1) CPU upgrade: Mine is a 1.73GHz Dothan 90nm, running 1.3V according to CPUz. Ideally I'd love to drop a dual core in there but I don't think that's possible. Will I notice a significant speed increase with a straight swap of a higher GHz Dothan model?

2) There are a couple of docks available, but what benefits do they offer besides additional USB ports? Will I be able to run a 3rd LCD monitor?

3) I could do with more hard drive space, but I'm very satisfied with what I have now. I love the speed of the 7200rpm, and I have an external 80gb for backup/storage.

4) I had a (legit) copy of Windows Vista Home Premium on my desktop, which is not being used now due to premature desktop death. I could install it on my Thinkpad, but the consensus seems to be it's slower than XP...

5) Have I missed any other potential options? The RAM Is already maxed out AFAIK. Perhaps the best "upgrade" for me is a free one - a reformat/restore of the original XP O/S and install SP3?

Thanks for reading!

[ajkula66]

To try and answer some of your questions...

You can upgrade the CPU, but bear in mind that anything above 760 (2.0) will get pretty hot. Of course, you can undervolt it if need be. Your motherboard will not take a Core Duo CPU, though.

Stay away from Vista...my opinion only. I wasn't pleased with Vista on any ThinkPad with single core CPU.

You will not be able to run a third monitor regardless of the type of dock you choose to use.

Hope this helps.

[sjthinkpader]

1) You could find a 780 CPU but it will be big $.
2) If you get the full dock and put a PCI DVI card in it, you can get a 3rd monitor on.
4) Gwneral consensus is that Vista will run slower.
5) A clean registry certain will make the system run faster.

p.s. George just beat me to it and negated my comment in item 2.

To OP,

I was in HKG a week ago. Went to the computer place off the Wan Chai Metro Stn but got there as they were closing. I picked up an Ultrabay drive tray there last year.

[kai920]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like there is not much I can do short of a big CPU upgrade and a dock. If I don't have to splash out a lot for them I may consider it.

Otherwise I'd rather save it towards a X300 or X400

to sjthinkpader: I love the computer mall in wanchai. loads of good stuff in there.