3 years ago I bought an Area-51m 7700 laptop. I bought it because I could upgrade it bit by bit. (or so I thought) It still holds it's own but it is still time to goose it up if I can. There are a few things I was thinking about doing but am sure I don't know enough to do correctly. I want a 512mb nvidia video card I was going to add 7200 rmp hard drives and I was thinking of maxing out the RAM I have heard that even though some computers will hold 4 gigs of RAM they can't always use/access it. I don't know if my machine is one of these. Also, I'm not sure if my motherboard can handle a 512mb vid card. Would I need to change the BIOS? Where would I get them? If I change my HDDs do I need new 3rd party scsi drivers or will the ones I have work? I am planning on running XP Pro. I know There is another motherboard out and I have considered getting it as well but am not in a hurry to do so. I am also concerned about my current power source, Will it be enough to do what I want to do? I know I have not given enough information for fair advice but I'm not sure what info I need to give. I think I have a 800mhz FSB but dont know if it is intregreated into the motherboard or a seperate identity. Does it matter? I ran Belarc Advisor and posted the results of hardware below. I appreciate any help or suggestions. Operating System Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) System Model Alienware D900T Revision A Main Circuit Board Board: CLEVO D900T Revision A Serial Number: 400 BIOS: Phoenix Technologies LTD 6.00 04/28/2005 Processor 3.40 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 HTT 16 kilobyte primary memory cache 1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache Memory Modules c,d 2304 Megabytes Installed Memory PC - 4200 DDR2 Slot 'J6G1' has 1024 MB Slot 'J6G2' is Empty Slot 'J6H2' has 256 MB Slot 'J6H1' has 1024 MB Drives 432.54 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 118.25 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space Optiarc DVD RW AD-7590A [CD-ROM drive] Optiarc DVD RW AD-7590A [CD-ROM drive] GENERIC USB Storage-CFC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3 GENERIC USB Storage-MSC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 5 GENERIC USB Storage-SDC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4 GENERIC USB Storage-SDC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4 GENERIC USB Storage-SMC USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2 SAMSUNG MP0603H SCSI Disk Device (60.05 GB) -- drive 1 SAMSUNG MP0603H SCSI Disk Device (60.05 GB) -- drive 0 Local Drive Volumes C: (on drive 0) 15.73 GB 3.93 GB free D: (on drive 0) 36.70 GB 4.51 GB free E: (on drive 1) 60.05 GB 29.77 GB free Network Drives – 0 Printers - 0 Controllers Standard floppy disk controller Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 266F Primary IDE Channel [Controller] Default Monitor Default Monitor NVIDIA t Flat Panel [Monitor] (14.9"vis, November 2002) Display NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra Multimedia Realtek High Definition Audio BusAdapters Texas Instruments PCI-1410 CardBus Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller WinXP Promise SATA378 (tm) IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2658 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 2659 Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265A Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller - 265B Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 265C Unimodem Full-Duplex Audio Device Communications Smart Link 56K Voice Modem 1394 Net Adapter Atheros Wireless Network Adapter RAS Async Adapter Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC Network Card MAC Address: 00:0B:6B:36:A3:54 Other Devices Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller Microsoft AC Adapter Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery USB Human Interface Device BisonCam, USB2.0 IrDA Fast Infrared Port Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard HID-compliant mouse Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad [Mouse] USB Mass Storage Device USB Mass Storage Device USB Root Hub USB Root Hub USB Root Hub USB Root Hub USB Root Hub Patin Couffin engine
No matter what anybody says, Laptops are impossible to upgrade the main components of. You can change the hard disks and add RAM, but changing to new CPU revisions that the existing motherboard can't support isn't possible, and neither is changing the motherboard, or indeed the graphics card. If you want better graphics performance, it's basically time for a new laptop, that is the main downside of laptops.
