Help me upgrade an old laptop

Showboat · 28 Jul 2011 at 19:43

Hi Guys, i have an old Fujitsu Amilo Li 1705, here is the spec and possible upgrade.

http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/lifebook/AMILO/Amilo-L/Amilo_Li1705.htm

Current has 1GB ram and Celeron M430 processor.

The thing is now dog slow, despite a re-install and upgrade to SP2 and all the patches.

I was thinking of sticking 2x 2GB DDR2 PC667 memory into it and also an Intel Pentium Duo Core T2250 2MB processor.
Would it all be compatible!? Says it is on the Fujitsu website.

Also would it be a noticable difference, will cost me £35 for the memory and £10 for the processor.
I could replace the laptop for about £300, and don't want to waste £45-50 if it will make little difference and i'll upgrade anyway.

The wife only uses it for surfing and Office applications, nothing too taxing.

Many thanks

Little_Crow · 28 Jul 2011 at 20:14

That laptop only supports up to 2GB of memory in total, at least according to that page you linked and a site I can't name with a very good memory advisor tool

Have you considered sticking Linux on it, it doesn't sound like she does anything that specifically requires Windows, so maybe try an OS that's a bit less bloated?

Jordan97 · 28 Jul 2011 at 20:29

Maybe put an SSD in there?

Where are you getting the laptop processor from by the way? I was going to upgrade mine, but could not find anywhere that sells them.

Scrutinize · 28 Jul 2011 at 20:35

Showboat said:
Hi Guys, i have an old Fujitsu Amilo Li 1705, here is the spec and possible upgrade.

http://uk.ts.fujitsu.com/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/lifebook/AMILO/Amilo-L/Amilo_Li1705.htm

Current has 1GB ram and Celeron M430 processor.

The thing is now dog slow, despite a re-install and upgrade to SP2 and all the patches.

I was thinking of sticking 2x 2GB DDR2 PC667 memory into it and also an Intel Pentium Duo Core T2250 2MB processor.
Would it all be compatible!? Says it is on the Fujitsu website.

Also would it be a noticable difference, will cost me £35 for the memory and £10 for the processor.
I could replace the laptop for about £300, and don't want to waste £45-50 if it will make little difference and i'll upgrade anyway.

The wife only uses it for surfing and Office applications, nothing too taxing.

Many thanks

probably won't be worth spending the money on it and it may just go pop with age anyway as the mobo or gfx could give up + battery life must be getting shorter etc etc. it really shouldn't be dog slow although it won't be super fast, anything from a 10 year old AMD single core athlon xp 1600 with 512m can run xp ok and open office tasks quick enough, so maybe there are other issues with it e.g. as above or the hard drive which would also indicate it isn't worth upgrading.

sja360 · 29 Jul 2011 at 02:22

i'd say its worth the £45 quid to upgrade to a dual core with 4gb memory, however i wouldnt bother with more than 2gb as your windows (if its xp) wont support more than 3.5gb anyway as its a 32 bit operating system. as above though it could be an idea to upgrade the hdd to a small 64GB SSD or newer 7200 western digital 2.5" hdd.

Showboat · 29 Jul 2011 at 10:54

Jordan97 said:
Maybe put an SSD in there?

Where are you getting the laptop processor from by the way? I was going to upgrade mine, but could not find anywhere that sells them.

Ebay have them 2nd hand.

I've seen conflicting reports of 2gb and 4gb. The main page i linked says it supports 4gb.

I'll prob just opt for the least headache and go for 2gb and a new proc, will cost £25 total.
I tried installing XP before but drivers became an issue and i just put back the factory default of vista

Thanks for the replies

OspreyO · 30 Jul 2011 at 15:05

Showboat said:
Ebay have them 2nd hand.

I've seen conflicting reports of 2gb and 4gb. The main page i linked says it supports 4gb.

I'll prob just opt for the least headache and go for 2gb and a new proc, will cost £25 total.
I tried installing XP before but drivers became an issue and i just put back the factory default of vista

Thanks for the replies

I'm running W7 on a Dell M1330 with a 2GB its a Core2Duo 1.6, but it runs fine. I have another Dell Insprion 1300 with a 1.7 Celeron and 2GB ram its running XP. Again runs fine for regular things.

I don't think you'll notice the difference with 4GB with just regular office and web stuff. However I'd ditch Vista for XP or W7. I've never been happy with Vista on any machine. I'd also switch your AV over to MS Essentials its lighter on older machines.

Nothing like a clean install to freshen up an old machine too.