Dual Core2 Duo or memory upgrade?

[rps944]

I'm running a T60p (T2500) with 2GB RAM and 100GB/7200rpm SATA drive. It is used mostly for Excel/Access/Word apps - lots of data manipulation, large files (50-100MB are typical).

To increase "speed" of the tasks am I better off spending money on a new CPU or bumping RAM to 4GB? Any other settings like paging file size I can adjust too? Thanks!
Bob

[tomh009]

Have you checked what your memory usage is (using Task Manager)? Are you swapping apps to disk because you run out of memory? If you are, this is the biggest win (though 3 GB is the max the current ThinkPads can access).

Switching to a 2.33 GHz T7600 will probably gain you 30-40% on CPU-intensive tasks.

But I don't know which tasks are slow for you right now ...

[brentpresley]

CPU.

4GB of PC2-5300 is going to be a $1000 upgrade.

You should be able to get a T7600 from eBay for $550 or so, then sell the T2500.

[pianowizard]

I've opened huge MS Office files before and it took a very long time indeed. If you can afford it, you should upgrade both RAM and CPU. Because the Thinkpad won't be able to use all 4GB anyway, just upgrade to 3GB by replacing one 1GB module with 2GB, and also upgrade the CPU to the fastest available. Then sell the old parts. When that 15,000rpm HDD announced several weeks ago comes out, get it and you'll have the world's most powerful T60p.

[brentpresley]

I've opened huge MS Office files before and it took a very long time indeed. If you can afford it, you should upgrade both RAM and CPU. Because the Thinkpad won't be able to use all 4GB anyway, just upgrade to 3GB by replacing one 1GB module with 2GB, and also upgrade the CPU to the fastest available. Then sell the old parts. When that 15,000rpm HDD announced several weeks ago comes out, get it and you'll have the world's most powerful T60p.

Pretty sure that was a SAS HD and while it MIGHT work in laptops, it will not have firmware optimized for laptop use (i.e. kiss your battery goodbye and welcome to HIGH heat production).

Better option will be the 7K200 when it is released in a few months.

[Zeus]

err... few months? i have one in my T60p

[claudeo]

On applications like Word, database, etc. and having many applications running at once a CPU upgrade won't do much good at all when the bottleneck is memory, since most of the performance hit will then be in the memory swapping to the hard disk. Many office applications are more memory hungry than CPU speed hungry.
You can upgrade the memory (a very expensive proposition until prices come down dramatically!) without voiding your warranty. You can upgrade the hard disk to a faster hard disk with more cache without voiding the warranty (just drop the original back in if you ever need memory service). But you cannot upgrade the CPU without voiding the warranty.
In the meantime, withoug changing the CPU you might see some performance gains by watching the activity of the 2 processors in Task Manager during lengthy operations, and setting the affinity for some of the applications to take advantage of the dual processors.

[brentpresley]

err... few months? i have one in my T60p

There is NO WAY you have a 7K200 in your T60p.

You are thinking 7k100.

[brentpresley]

On applications like Word, database, etc. and having many applications running at once a CPU upgrade won't do much good at all when the bottleneck is memory, since most of the performance hit will then be in the memory swapping to the hard disk. Many office applications are more memory hungry than CPU speed hungry.
You can upgrade the memory (a very expensive proposition until prices come down dramatically!) without voiding your warranty. You can upgrade the hard disk to a faster hard disk with more cache without voiding the warranty (just drop the original back in if you ever need memory service). But you cannot upgrade the CPU without voiding the warranty.
In the meantime, withoug changing the CPU you might see some performance gains by watching the activity of the 2 processors in Task Manager during lengthy operations, and setting the affinity for some of the applications to take advantage of the dual processors.

Even running photoshop, video editing, word, excel, firefox, and a boatload of background tasks I have yet to tax all of 2GB.

The RAM is NOT the bottleneck.

[pianowizard]

Even running photoshop, video editing, word, excel, firefox, and a boatload of background tasks I have yet to tax all of 2GB.

The RAM is NOT the bottleneck.

I think the OP is talking about MS Office files that take at least several minutes to open. Do you think the HDD is the bottleneck for these files?

[rps944]

Thanks everyone for the input and helping me understand a few things. Basically, my performance is not bad but larger Excel and Access files can take a bit to open/save. I'll keep an eye out for the newer HD mentioned. And, I'll view the memory usage when running some of the tasks that "seem" to take longer (I get impatient easily so maybe I should upgrade my patience processor).

I've look at changing afiinity settings but need to study up a bit more on that or else my next posting will be from another machine yelling for help. Again, thanks everyone for the input. As a newbie to this forum I hope I can provide some help to someone to reciprocate at some point.
Bob

[brentpresley]

Even running photoshop, video editing, word, excel, firefox, and a boatload of background tasks I have yet to tax all of 2GB.

The RAM is NOT the bottleneck.

I think the OP is talking about MS Office files that take at least several minutes to open. Do you think the HDD is the bottleneck for these files?

Modern systems, the HDD is the bottleneck for just about EVERYTHING. RAID helps, but that isn't an option on laptops.

Drives coming out this year will help, but I won't be happy until the hard drive is replaced with a solid-state storage device (and current NAND replacements are TOO expensive and TOO slow).