hello everyone. im considering upgrading my Hp dv8000 laptop in which i paid WAY too much money for.

the current specs are pretty sad:
1.8 ghz turion
windows XP media center
ATI200m graphics card
512 mb RAM
80 gig hdd. 60 useable due to a system recovery tool. (which is useless)

as of now i want to upgrade the RAM significantly. to at least 2 gb
i would like to at least double the hard drive space.
and if possible i want to put in a 1.6 dual core processor

but i've run into some questions that have prevented me from accomplishing this.

Will the dual core processor be compatible with my motherboard? or in other words is their a way to check my motherboard socket type?
Also is there a way to check my RAM socket type. i called HP but they charged me just to even talk to them so i just hung up.


Finally. Is thier a way to legally transfer my copy of XP onto my new hard drive that i would be purchasing or do i have to buy another copy?

these three questions were most of the significant. after these are resolved most of the installation and taking apart of the laptop would be a fun task!

Thanks all i appreciate all help and look forward to this new project!

the RAM do you know what your system will take?
have a look here http://www.crucial.com/store/drammemory.aspx

do you have a full copy of XP if so by changing the hard drive to a larger one will require a full install

well i did some research and found out that i need 200 pin ddr2 2700. so i plan on getting 2 gigs of that. but just after i made this post i opened my computer up and saw another expansion slot for an extra hard drive. so i decided just to add another hard drive and save some cash instead of buying another copy of XP.
so right now the only problems that are prevalent is the if the motherboard will be able to support the new dual core processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104808

ive decided to only go to 1.6 because this laptop is a desktop replacement and i do not want overheating to occur.

HP lists only the following as compatible:

AMD Turion 64 ML-40 (2.2-GHz) 393579-001
AMD Turion 64 ML-37 (2.0-GHz) 393578-001
AMD Turion 64 ML-32 (1.8-GHz) 395744-001
AMD Turion 64 ML-30 (1.6-GHz) 395743-001

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00554540.pdf

They do not ID the motherboard.

CPU_Z might get an ID.

I doubt that any Intel CPU would fit.

well there goes my hopes of dual core. lol. looks like ill have to get an ML-40 for maximum preformance.

what else could i add to make my computer top notch.

Look through that HP link.

Perhaps a faster hard drive:

7200 rpm, 100-GB 405938-001

Perhaps more RAM:

1024 MB 403800-001

I don't know what you have already.

well right now i have lame 512 mb ram

Are you sure that your laptop is meant to take 333MHz (PC2700) DDR memory? That would be pretty weird. Your processor has an 800MHz Front Side Bus (FSB) so I would have thought you'd be running at least DDR2 PC2-3200 (400MHz) memory.

Run everything that you would like to be able to run at once on your laptop including any particularly demanding applications such as games. Then press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Del] and open up Task Manager. Look under the Performance tab at how much memory your laptop is trying to use. If it's trying to use more than is available (i.e. 512MB, assuming that you don't have shared graphics memory), then get some more RAM. It looks like your DV8000 maxes out at 2GB RAM, although you might find that it's just as fast with 1GB. Choose faster RAM such as 667MHz if you can - it's better and often cheaper too!

Jephree makes a good point about the hard drive. Anything that's not already held in RAM has to be read off of your hard disk so, if your hard disk is spinning faster, the data will come off of it more quickly. The drawback, of course, is that it will be a bit noisier and possibly run a little hotter.

Fitting a second hard drive is nice and easy. However, if your primary hard drive is not very good, then consider just cloning everything that is on it onto a single bigger, faster drive.

Perform the usual maintenance such as clearing temporary files, defragmenting the hard drive, etc. Look in the D-A-L Articles section - not too long ago, I wrote a 7-part series all about tuning up your PC, kindly giving all D-A-L members the benefit of lots of my wisdom in a printable version for free, lol

http://www.d-a-l.com/articles/category/17.html

Hope that helps

tthanks everyone, yea im proly going to buy a bigger hard drive but im unsure about fitting everything onto one hard drive. and yea im sure that the 1 gig idea of with a fast RAM module would be a better idea.