T60p and upgrades

[peon01]

Hi guys,

I have been enjoying my trusty T60p for 3-4 years now but lately felt I needed more RAM and perhaps a faster harddrive.
After 2 weeks of reading about the new Lenovos I decided that maybe it is wise to wait a while since nothing is appealing out there right now (do NOT get me started about this retarded change to 16:9 ratio )
So figured I might as well upgrade my current laptop while I wait for the waters to clear (or W701 to come out).
The question is what reasonable upgrades I could do to the laptop (I am computer savy but haven't put a computer together for 8 years so ...)

1) RAM: It seems I can upgrade to only 3 GB RAM (2 GB currently). Does anyone know how many slots there are? Also I saw on some other forums that some people say there is a speed upgrade if you get 4 GB (2 DIMMs) even though you can only use 3 of them. Is it really worth it?
2) Disk: I have been thinking about putting an SSD in. Can anyone recommend one and also how do I know what type/size I should get to fit it in? Anything else I need to know about putting an SSD in? Also, since I will need at least a 100GB disk am I crazy putting 3-400$ in a 3-4 year old laptop? I do not plan to reuse it in the new laptop I will buy eventually since I do not want the hassle of reinstalling everything. My HDD feels pretty slow even though I did a reinstall about 6 months ago. Maybe some bad sectors ... I dunno. So the other option would be to get a regular new HDD. Same question there: what size would I be looking for?
3) What else could I upgrade? I saw some threads talking about processor upgrades. How hard is that technically to do and is it worth it? I currently have a Core 2 T7200 so not sure how much further I could get.
4) I plan to keep Windows XP so if I were to get an SSD would it work? (thinking of drivers and I have seen some talk about software for wear levelling on those drives).

Any info is greatly appreciated.

[ZaZ]

If both memory sticks are the same there's slight performance increase. I doubt you'd notice a difference in real world usage.

Intels are probably the best SSDs right now. The bigger drives offer better performance. Anything with the Indillix controller is a good second choice. Keep in mind as the drive fills up, performance degrades. If you need 70GBs don't buy a 80GB drive. My own personal experience with them is they are a bit quicker, but it didn't blow me away either. Others will tell you differently. I guess if I'm spending that kind of money and giving up a lot of space, I expected better. SSDs do offer other benefits like they run cooler and have no moving parts.

If you've got the T7200 already my own opinion is a faster CPU is not worth the time or effort.

XP will work fine on a SSD. XP doesn't support trim, but that's not a huge deal in my opinion.

[RealBlackStuff]

If you put in 2x 2GB RAM, it will work in Dual Channel mode, slightly faster than Single Channel.
You'd still only be able to use a little over 3GB though.
It may be more cost-effective to put in 2GB + 1GB.
Your laptop has 2 RAM slots (under the front palm rest).

SATA laptop HDs are available up to 500GB, and soon probably larger. These HDs are quite cheap.
A good 5400rpm HD is about as fast as a 7200rpm of the same size, but runs a bit cooler and uses a bit less 'juice'.
SSDs are too expensive if you need such a large size.

Leave the CPU be, its more than adequate.

[peon01]

Intels are probably the best SSDs right now. The bigger drives offer better performance. Anything with the Indillix controller is a good second choice. Keep in mind as the drive fills up, performance degrades. XP will work fine on a SSD. XP doesn't support trim, but that's not a huge deal in my opinion.

Hi Fred,

Thanks for the info. Current drive is 100Gb and I can manage with this much (external drives help). So was thinking of getting a 160GB Intel SSD.
I just wanted to ask for a clarification on your answer: I heard other people say that performance degrades as it fills up. What does "degrade" mean? Worse than regular drive or it becomes more in line with a regular drive?
If they ever come out with the W701 (or if I give up waiting and go with the HP dv8t I was eyeing) I will go with SSD for OS and a big 7200 for all the data so it should not be an issue then (though I will lose the shock resistant advantage).

[peon01]

And one more question: what size harddrive am I looking for? Size as in 2.5" and what height to make sure it would fit in.

[RealBlackStuff]

2.5", 9-9.5mm height
Look for laptop HD.