Thinkpads Forum

I WAS WONDERING YOUR OPINIONS ON WHAT UPGRADE TO GET FIRST FOR THE BEST PERFORMANCE GAIN RUNNING XP PRO ON THIS OLD TIMER

I HAVE A P2 300MHZ
2 64MB RAM STICKS (PLUS THE ONBOARD 32 OF COURSE)
AND LIKE A 6 GIG STOCK HARDDRIVE NOT SURE HOW TO TELL THE RPM BUT IM GUESSING IT IS SLOW?

WHAT WOULD BENIFIT ME MOST AND HOW MUCH CAN I EXPECT TO SPEND FOR IT?

THANKYOU

IBM 600E 2645-55U

The first recommended upgrade would be upgrading the memory. Try 2 128mb sticks, to take your system up to 288mb. You could always try to upgrade with more, but it is a little cost prohibitive IMHO. 128MB PC100 sticks can be had for less than $20 shipped on eBay. The 256mb sticks are running about $50 each shipped on eBay...unless you get a hold of a great find.

If you get a chance, then you could try upgrading the processor. The model that you have should be able to easily go up to a 400mhz MMC-2 processor. There are others in the forum that say that you can go all the way up to an 850mhz processor (which may or may not act like a 700mhz due to speedstep technology).

Another option is to upgrade the hard drive to a 5400rpm or better, instead of the 4200rpm stock.

The memory upgrade to 288mb will make the largest/cheapest upgrade.

Before investing in hardware upgrades, I think you should try tweaking WinXP to speed up its performance. Have you done that yet? http://www.pcstats.com/ has lots of tips regarding tweaks for Windows.

I have run Windows XP Pro on a TP600E with 366MHz Pentium II and 128MB RAM and it's fast enough for normal use.

tfflivemb2 wrote:The first recommended upgrade would be upgrading the memory. Try 2 128mb sticks, to take your system up to 288mb. You could always try to upgrade with more, but it is a little cost prohibitive IMHO.

However, if he gets a 256MB module (make sure it's low density and PC100!), he can continue to use one of the 64MB sticks he currentsly has, and so he will have 32 + 64 + 256 = 352MB instead of 288MB. By monitoring eBay for a few days, it should be possible to get a 256MB stick for around $45, which isn't much higher than two 128MB sticks combined.

My 770 with 500 MHz CPU and 288mb RAM is still a total slug, takes over 6:30 to boot. It ran a lot faster with Win98.

LtTPfan wrote:My 770 with 500 MHz CPU and 288mb RAM is still a total slug, takes over 6:30 to boot. It ran a lot faster with Win98.

WOW, you might want to check your start up programs, or something. I have XP Pro running on a TP600 233mhz with 96mb ram, and it takes less than half that to completely boot.

I don't exactly recommend XP Pro on a 233mx with 96mb ram, but XP Pro was loaded on this one just to test the PCMCIA slot that was thought to have been bad.

The first recommended upgrade would be upgrading the memory

I WILL DO THAT FIRST

Before investing in hardware upgrades, I think you should try tweaking WinXP to speed up its performance. Have you done that yet? http://www.pcstats.com/ has lots of tips regarding tweaks for Windows.

I HAVE TWEAKED THE HECK OUT OF THE OS, YES BUT THIS WEBSITE LOOKS GOOD SO I WILL DEFINATELY GO THROUGH AND SEE IF ANYTHING CAN HELP.

Another option is to upgrade the hard drive to a 5400rpm or better, instead of the 4200rpm stock

WHERE CAN I FIND A GOOD PRICE FOR A HARD DRIVE? I DONT CARE MUCH ABOUT SIZE, THE NOTEBOOK IS IN A NETWORK IN MY HOME WITH THE DESKTOP THAT HAS 320G OF HDD JUST WANT FASTER ACESS TIMES. TRIED EBAY A BIT, MAYBE IM NOT USING THE RIGHT SEARCH TERMS THERE?

I don't exactly recommend XP Pro on a 233mx with 96mb ram, but XP Pro was loaded on this one just to test the PCMCIA slot that was thought to have been bad.

THATS FUNNY YOU SAY THAT B/C THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS I PUT XP PRO ON THIS ONE AND SURE ENOUGHT THE SLOT WAS FINE!

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP!

You could try the drives in this thread, though, I still find it hard to believe that they would have 80gb 5400rpm drives for $34.50:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20228

the samsung 5,4k -30-40 gb with 8mb cache delivers exceptional performance
battery savings,super quiet and outscored a brand new latest revision fw hitachi 7,2k 8 meg 40gh drive in xp on tp 600e +600x thinkpads.don't ask me how but it did.maybe ata 33 interface limiting situation favoured the samsung in that scenario, because that same ibm gets a geniune 43mps when i connect to ata100 desktop host bus.
from what remmember the samsung nailed around 36 mps on ata 100 host bus.