Installing new RAM into my old laptop.

[Woody1999]

Hi all. I've just found an old HP 530 Notebook, that I'm hoping to give to my stepsister for schoolwork. Unfortunately... Well, it's crap. It's trying to run Vista on 512MB of RAM with a 74GB hard drive.

Does anyone know about the maximum RAM of my motherboard? It's an HP 30D5 (U10). Also, would a 2.5 inch SSD fit in the same slot as the current 2.5 inch HDD? I want to install a cheap 120GB SSD as well if possible.

Woody

 

[Woody1999]

Okay upon opening up the laptop I can see two RAM slots, only one is filled. Would it be worth purchasing an extra 1GB stick? I still can't find the max memory for my motherboard.

Woody

 

[norsestar]

http://www.cnet.com/products/hp-530-core-duo-t2400-1-83ghz-1gb-ram-120gb-hdd-vista-business/specs/ says it'll take 2GB. It would be a lot happier with 2GB than 512MB.

A 2.5" SSD should fit. It's only SATA-I so it'll run at 1.5Gb/s but it should still be lots faster than a spin drive, not to mention the battery life benefit, shock resistance, and weight and heat reduction.

 

[Woody1999]

I had a look at that article, it's not my exact model.

I have the one with a Celeron @ 1.5GHz, 512MB DDR2 etc. Hopefully the motherboard is the same because I ordered a 1GB stick of RAM. Stuff is so cheap nowadays, it was £3 and perfect for my laptop.

If it's only SATA 1 then I'll definitely just buy a faster 2.5 inch HDD. It's not worth an SSD, especially seeing as I could sell the laptop for less than £50 right now.

Woody