Thinking of upgrading my T41p's CPU and memory.

[Chatbox]

Currently, my TP only has a 1.7GHz Bianias and two sticks of 512MB memory (1GB total).

Question 1: I'm thinking of upgrading the CPU to a 2.0GHz Dothan. The 2MB L2 cache does make a fair amount of speed increase, right?

Question 2: Together with the CPU upgrade, I'd also like to upgrade to 2GB memory. It's going to be a pricey upgrade (but I do NEED the extra speed and memory), do you think I should upgrade my laptop or get a new one with similar specs?

Question 3: The 60GB 7200rpm harddisk is still kind of slow (compare to desktop drives). Is there any other drives you guys would recommend? Basically, I need fast"er" data storage.

[gcchatel]

What work do you do on the thinkpad to warrant these upgrades? To answer the first question, yes there is a speed difference, does it warrant the $300 - $400 price tag associated with this upgrade? Not in my opinion.

Upgrading your RAM is probably where you will see the performance boost but 1 GB of RAM is already a pretty good amount. Plus, if you want to get to 2GB, you'll have to replace both sticks which will cost about $250, but you can sell your other memory.

Regarding the hard drive, at this time, that's the fastest. It should be plenty fast. Again, I'm not sure what you are doing with that machine, but your specs now are quite good. If you really want an upgrade right now, I would start with the RAM and then change the processor later.

Good luck.

[anthony]

Question 1: I'm thinking of upgrading the CPU to a 2.0GHz Dothan. The 2MB L2 cache does make a fair amount of speed increase, right?

If going that route, why Dothan and not Sonoma? Just asking and trying to learn....

[nrj45]

Because of fsb (banias / dothan -> fsb 400, sonoma -> 533)

[Chatbox]

What work do you do on the thinkpad to warrant these upgrades? To answer the first question, yes there is a speed difference, does it warrant the $300 - $400 price tag associated with this upgrade? Not in my opinion.

Upgrading your RAM is probably where you will see the performance boost but 1 GB of RAM is already a pretty good amount. Plus, if you want to get to 2GB, you'll have to replace both sticks which will cost about $250, but you can sell your other memory.

Regarding the hard drive, at this time, that's the fastest. It should be plenty fast. Again, I'm not sure what you are doing with that machine, but your specs now are quite good. If you really want an upgrade right now, I would start with the RAM and then change the processor later.

Good luck.

Application developement. Running multiple SQL Servers (and instances) and Sharepoint Portal Server. Sharepoint is [censored] memory hungry.