RAM or Graphic Card?

[UnHoly-Assassin]

For working 10 hours a day, for about a week, my parents are allowing me around 500 dollars to spend on whatever I want. The "allowence" is flexible.

So I want to upgrade my HP ze4600 laptop, which had the "mobile AMD Athlon (tm) XP2500+" processor and "1.86 GHz." and 192 RAM. It was a cheap laptop -_-. I researched and bought another 512 RAM for $69.99, and to my suprise it acutally worked (I had some VERY VERY bad experiences with RAM before..). Now my computer boasts about 700 MB of RAM, and I've noticed the significant change in performance =).

However, I still have about $400 left. I was thinking about buying another 512 RAM, but since I only have 2 slots I'd have to get rid of the 192 one, and the upgrade would only count as having about 200 more MB of RAM. So, the next thing is Graphic Cards. At J&R computer store, they said they didn't HAVE graphic card upgrades for laptops, and have not been aware that any existed. The upgrades for desktops averages about $200-$300.

So the question is, can you even upgrade the graphic card for laptops? Should I buy another RAM or upgrade Graphics, if they even exist? And how do I check my current graphic card, so I can estimate the impact of any upgrade?

ADD: Also, what would you recommend I spend some spare clumps of cash on? I already bought a cooling stand for my laptop (even though it seems like its heating my laptop instead >_<) and am thinking about getting a laptop case. But the more expensive the case looks, the more likely it'll be stolen. So I'd also have to buy a flour sack to wrap around it :P.

[Toucan]

HP Pavilion ze4600
Specifications

Processor - AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+ 1.7ghz
Ram - 384mb pc2100 ram (319 with 64 dedicated to graphics) upgrading to 512
OS - XP Professional
Storage - 18.5 gb 4200rpm hard drive
CD/DVD - CD-rom drive (upgrading to dvd/cdrw)
Graphics - ATI Radeon IGP320M shared
Display - 15 inches 1024x768
Audio - Conexant AMC
2 USB 1.1
1 VGA 15 pin
Printer
PCMCIA type I / II / III
RJ11 telephone
RJ45 Ethernet
Serial port
SVideo
2 RAM slots sodimm
1 mini PCI slot

Those are the specs for your laptop listed at the HP website.

Unfortunately there is no slot to upgrade your graphics, RAM or a completely new laptop are your only options.:(


EDIT: on second thoughts, can you get a faster HDD ?

[hammocksleeper]

why don't you spend it on a pretty girl?

[UnHoly-Assassin]

on second thoughts, can you get a faster HDD ?

I guess I could--I have more than enough cash for one. But I don't need one as of now, since I download very little and I already have an external one with about 80GB.

For my laptop; I use it more for gaming. I browse websites too, but that doesn't take up too much memory nor require better graphics. Before the 512 MB upgrade, my laptop would crash while playing the simplest games like runescape and gunbound. Also I use it for art and designing, but I already solved those speed problems by downgrading my ATI catalyst to 3.9 so that it matches the OpenGL of Blender3D.

why don't you spend it on a pretty girl?


Err...the girl already has her own credit card with around 6k in it, even though she's still the same age as me. Her parents pay her $100 a day just to answer phone calls, so she really doesn't need anything I can afford, and it would seem like I was trying to BUY her...favor...and I don't go pimpin' >_>

[Graeme]

I've heard rumours about AlienWare boasting upgradable video cards in their computers. Of course, since you don't have AlienWare, you're out of luck for an upgrade in that department :P.

[ZeroDarkStar]

You're out of luck. Most laptops have integrated graphic cards and simply don't allow upgrades. And if you're trying to use this thing for gaming, you'd be better off just getting a desktop. You can get REALLY good gaming computers for like 600 or 700 now. Judging from what you said earlier, you should easily be able to afford this.

[hammocksleeper]

hey i just thought of a great idea. you know how people are building desktops inside all kinds of weird things nowadays, like old nintendo consoles etc. someone should put a computer inside an old canister vacuum. with maybe an lcd screen coming out of it somewhere , or inside the top. that way you could wheel it around on the floor, it'd almost be like a laptop!

[UnHoly-Assassin]

^#$%...so I can't upgrade video cards >_<. What else can I waste...err...spend less than 400 dollars on...'cause if I try to save it more than likely it's going to be forgotten. I value portability, and I already have a desktop, the one I'm using during my lunch break to post this right now.

hey i just thought of a great idea. you know how people are building desktops inside all kinds of weird things nowadays, like old nintendo consoles etc. someone should put a computer inside an old canister vacuum. with maybe an lcd screen coming out of it somewhere , or inside the top. that way you could wheel it around on the floor, it'd almost be like a laptop!

wouldn't it be kinda hard to use it while strolling it around O_o. At least with laptops you can make a strap that lets you use it while walking around, say, in busy traffic.

[DragonPaladin]

Pfft, Unholy, get all other unncessary things. A spy camera, a usb drive, a mp3 player. Go buy yourself a large dinner. I wish i had 400 dollars, *steals Unholy's money*.

[Neo]

You could upgrade your laptops hard drive to a bigger/faster one...

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=380

-Neo

[UnHoly-Assassin]

Pfft, Unholy, get all other unncessary things. A spy camera, a usb drive, a mp3 player. Go buy yourself a large dinner. I wish i had 400 dollars, *steals Unholy's money*.

I already have a camera the size of a large pen, though it's resolutions are crappy as well as its memory. I almost never use it since my cell phone comes with a camera. USB drives I might get, if I can find one that's very convienient for a portable laptop. I already have an mp3 player, well, maybe not, but my portable cd player is all I need for music =). I get dinners from my parents for free. Also, I have way more than $400 saved up for college (last time I checked, I think I had around 2k locked up in a bank somewhere).

You could upgrade your laptops hard drive to a bigger/faster one...

http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/S...SubCategory=380 (http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=380)

-Neo

Intresting...I upgraded the internal hard drive of a desktop once when its previous memory started seriously leaking, but all I thought it did was give me more disk space. So, in comparison with Graphic cards and RAM, how does the HDD impact speed and performance??

[Toucan]

A faster hard drive reads and writes faster !
A hard drive that reads and writes twice as fast will make your PC twice as fast.

Your hard drive in that laptop is a slow one (4200RPM) you can get them as fast as 14000RPM these days.

[UnHoly-Assassin]

Ok...but if I replace my hard drive...I'd have to spend countless hours reconfiguring and re-downloading stuff, as well as storing and replacing files on my laptop.

Unless you have another genious way of doing all those quickly, or avoiding doing it.

[ZeroDarkStar]

Ok...but if I replace my hard drive...I'd have to spend countless hours reconfiguring and re-downloading stuff, as well as storing and replacing files on my laptop.

Unless you have another genious way of doing all those quickly, or avoiding doing it.

Transfer all your files onto your desktop, or use Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/), and simply burn it to a DVD.

Also, be aware that a faster harddrive will eat up your battery much faster. So unless you're willing to sacrifice performance for battery, I really don't think you're going to want to upgrade your HDD.

[UnHoly-Assassin]

[QUOTE=ZeroDarkStar]
Also, be aware that a faster harddrive will eat up your battery much faster.QUOTE]

I never knew that...but I wouldn't mind because most of the time my laptop is plugged so it's recharging as I work/play. But does using up more battery mean more heat is released? Because I've noticed that my laptop feels like its burning underneath ever since I got the 512mb RAM upgrade. Even though I got the cooler thing that looks like http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3963616.