topic Re: Upgrade advice needed please in PCs & Accessories

Upgrade advice needed please

StinHambo — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 05:12:21 GMT

Hello everyone! I am loving my VAIO from the first day I bought it but now it's time to upgrade!

I own a VGN-A197VP and I am looking for more memory and a faster hard drive.

Question 1 -

Is the maimum RAM 1Gb or 2Gb?

Question 2 -

Can the motherboard support faster RAM?

Question 3 -

I hear there is significant difference between 4200rpm and 5400rpm HDD speed but is there much difference between 5400rpm and 7200rpm?

Question 4 -

If I did buy a 7200rpm will my computer get too hot?

Sorry to sound so formal but perhaps you will understand exactly what I need to know!

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

mtdbo — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 10:28:23 GMT

I don't think that you can use 7200 grpm in a notebook.
7200 is 3,5", in th enotebook you have an HD 2,5"

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

William — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 11:29:14 GMT

I don't think that you can use 7200 grpm in a notebook.
7200 is 3,5", in th enotebook you have an HD 2,5"

You can indeed buy 7200rpm 2.5" drives, they are just more expensive than 5400rpm and max size is around 80Gb.

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

kee-lo_ — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:43:00 GMT

You would have to compare a few 7200RPM drives for their operating tempretures, but Hitatchi make the best

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

SteveZ — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:20:48 GMT

I have a PCG-GRV516G Notebook and was considering up-grading it with a Seagate ST980825A Hard Drive. This is an 80GB 2.5" drive with 8Mb of cache and a spin speed of 7200RPM.

Can anybody confirm that this will run ok in this system? i.e. will the BIOS support this.

Also, whilst I'm posting.....The info says the max RAM in this is 512MB. Is there a way of getting it to accept more?

Thanks!

Steve

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

nick_pan — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 21:00:25 GMT

i think the max ram..is the max ram supported fullstop

with regards to hard drives..heat issues wont be the problem, yes they'll generate a little more heat but nothing to worry about

battery life will be the prob, someone from sony shop told me id drop my max battery life by half..

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

SteveZ — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 22:26:03 GMT

You mean the battery will only last 15 minutes?

Battery life has been the most disappointing thing about this particular Vaio, which I put down to the 16" screen. I hardly ever use it without being connected to mains power because it barely runs longer than 30-45 minutes!

Given the choice of poor battery life and a slow hard drive, or VERY poor battery life and a nice fast drive, I'll take the latter, Thank You!!

I suppose I should be grateful my DVD/DCRW drive is still working

Steve

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

nick_pan — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 10:50:11 GMT

dont know much about your laptop but if you've got usb2, of a firewire port, get a 7200rpm external hard drive and when your at home, you'll benefit from the higher speeds

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

kee-lo_ — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:01:35 GMT

dont know much about your laptop but if you've got usb2, of a firewire port, get a 7200rpm external hard drive and when your at home, you'll benefit from the higher speeds

True

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

StinHambo — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 05:09:08 GMT

I think I might just stick to upgrading to a 5400rpm drive.

Does anyone have an answer to the RAM question though?

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

Blencogo — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:56:57 GMT

If you have a look BELOW you will see that you can upgrade to 2048MB by buying 2 X 1GB modules.

This particular supplier guarantees compatibility.

:smileygrin:

EDIT Sorry wrong link - try HERE INSTEAD

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

SteveZ — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:31:18 GMT

Not with a PCG-GRV516G. the max RAM for that is 512MB.

I've just ordered a Seagate 80Gig 7200 drive for it though, I'll let you know how it goes.

Steve

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

Thom.S — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 23:00:50 GMT

hi,

can you show me where to get information from on how to get access to the hard drive in the A series?

i have a VGN-A295HP and want to upgrade my 60 GB 4200 hdd to an 80gb 5400 hitachi one.

many thanks,

please email thomswalwell@msn.com as ill forget to look on here.... thanks!

Thom:smileyhappy:

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

SteveZ — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:42:21 GMT

Installed new Seagate 80GB 7,200 RPM drive as mentioned above - Fantastic!

Installation went smoothly and reloaded original software from set up CD, partitioning drive into 2x 40GB.

New drive is VERY fast compared to the old 5400 Futijsu 30GB I took out and much quieter as well. Does not get hot either - going by feel alone I would say it's actually running cooler!

I can highly recommend this upgrade.

SorryI can't help with the 'A' series drive question, mine just slides out the side via a cover.

Steve

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

astudler — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 06:39:54 GMT

I own a VGN-A197XP and upgraded it to a 60GB 7200RPM about a year ago. Works perfect. You basically have to disassembly the notbook as the drive is not easely replaceable ..... very stupid .....

Here is a link that describes you the process in detail .... but .... it is in german.... the steps are illustraded with pictures so you should still be able to follow the steps without reading the text.

http://www.user2user.info/forum/notebook/viewtopic.php?t=2259

Hope that helps

Anatol

Re: Upgrade advice needed please

Thom.S — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 23:23:07 GMT

yes, that is exactly what i was looking for. thank you very much.

only one bad thing, i was correct in thinking that i would have to basically strip the laptop down to replace the hard drive.

maybe i will replace it if i need to have a lot of storage.
other than a real desperate need, i think i will keep it for now.

thank you again,

Thom