Should I upgrade my HD and/or RAM?

[uvaeer]

So I have a T42 1.7 I bought for grad school nearly 3 years ago, with the on-site warranty expiring at the end of next month? I want to prolong its use (haven't had any major problems, though my battery has 15 minutes on it-so I've ordered a 9 cell hi-capacity new one & it works better off hibernation than standby). I had planned to format my 30 GB harddrive and run a clean install since I definitely have some bloated programs and I only have 4-5 GB left on it. However, after looking at this forum, it seems like it might be a good time to buy a Hitachi 7k100 100 GB hard drive and reinstall everything on that. Is it worth it? (cost ~$100). I had upgraded shortly after the purchase to 512 MB from 256, but seeing that I can get 1 GB of Crucial memory from newegg for $70, is that worth it too? I definitely don't do any gaming on my computer, but I want it to be as good as possible as long as possible. Are these upgrades worth it? Thanks.

[commbdown]

The memory is probably worth it, will increase the performance no end if you are running Windows XP / Office / Vista. As for the hard disk - depends if you are running out of disk space really!

[TOMSrolla]

go for the memory and the Hitachi 7K100 HDD....

[Harryc]

If you plan to keep it, the added speed and storage make the 7K100 worth it. RAM depends on how much paging your current OS does. If you notice frequent hard drive activity (light) when you have multiple apps running, then it's probably time for RAM. Another indicator is in task manager (XP), performance tab. Look for limited available physical memory. If it is a low number when you are using all of your apps, you probably need RAM. If you plan to run Vista, then you'll need 1 to 2GB RAM, preferably 2.

[bill bolton]

Putting both a larger disk (for storage) and bringing memory up to at least 1 Gbyte (for performance - go to 2 Gbyte if you can) are well worthwhile doing.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[tomh009]

I'm saying more of the same thing -- 7K100 and an extra GB of memory (you'll end up at 1.3 GB) will do wonderful things for your T42's performance.

[sherpa]

hello,

see my post here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=43918

and make your decision.

if you have 4200 rpm disk inside I can only recommend the 7k100 hitachi replacement.
1,3 GB RAM also makes added value to your performance.

all this dependes on your budget, but I think the upgrade is worth it, as you can use Ts for looong time. great machines, specially T4Xs.

[w0qj]

I also own a T42 (2373-K5H), put in total 1 GB RAM, and immediately Windows UI was noticably faster (faster switching between programs, right-click context menu shows almost immediately, etc.).

Then I added a 7K100 HDD, programs and files load up faster, and start-up was faster too.

A poor man's T42p if there ever was one.