Upgrade advice needed please

[StinHambo]

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!

[mtdbo]

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"

[William]

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.

[kee-lo_]

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

[SteveZ]

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

[nick_pan]

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..

[SteveZ]

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

[nick_pan]

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

[kee-lo_]

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

[StinHambo]

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

Does anyone have an answer to the RAM question though?