To upgrade my lovely Samsung X10

I'm a proud owner of my quite old Samsung X10 notebook, and as the technical progress doesn't stand at a point, I have faced some problems with it. It is slow.
I was thinking to upgrade its memory, change it's WiFi from "b" To "g", change the HDD to a bigger capacity, increase its RAMemory. But the problem is that I can't find what are the limits for the memory I can set on my computer? And what are the types of memories and WiFi card I can go for Amperage of the HD? Etc...

Thank you all in advance,
I hope that you can help me please, would really appreciate!

the Intel Centrino stays at 11mbs instead of going up to 54mbs. maybe because the X10 was released before the WiFi/g became a standard, or maybe it's a question of driver. Then where could I get this driver ?
Regarding your suggestion to keep the HDD as is and use an external one, I was thinking of doing the opposit, putting an 80 or 160 Gb inside and us the original 30 Gb externally. Are you suggesting this because higher capacities may not work at all? External disks are slow, specially when dealing with Data.
Thank you

 

For the RAM, Crucial think the maximum is 2 x 1GB (I'm guessing that the X10 has the Intel 915 (PM or GM) chipset).

I expect the hard disk is a standard 2.5" parallel ATA (IDE) with 44 pin connector. You can replace this with any 2.5" PATA HDD (see selection here) with one possible constraint that the BIOS may not support LBA. If it doesn't then you would have a maximum of 137GB. However, the X10 is less than 4 years old so I don't think that well be a problem. You can use Device Manager to give the model number of the existing HDD, then Google for the specifications. Is the HDD in an accessible bay on the bottom of the computer?

If the wireless card is a standard mini-PCI card then it should be replaceable. Use Device Manager to confirm what module you have. Trusted Reviews saw an Intel 2200BG which supports both b and g. If this is correct, get the latest drivers from Intel. The Samsung X10 drivers are here, but may be out of date.

Hope this helps,

John

 

Thank you John, the Memory is settled, but the HDD, I wish so much to try the Hitaci 7k 7200RPM 160G. The X10 supports LBA. But then, will it work ok or will it heat up too much ? will the power support it ? And then the WiFi, they're making a miniPCI Mimo/a/b/g, What do you think ?

 

With SATA finally becoming mainstream, the choice of PATA HDDs is shrinking. It looks as if 100GB is the limit for 7200rpm. I would suggest a high capacity 5400rpm HDD. See this thread for a couple of suggestions. Power consumption and heat are not likely to be problems if you get a recent model. You can compare performance and power at Tom's Hardware. However, it doesn't include all the HDDs. Also, SATA uses a little more power than PATA. The HM160HC has very good specs.

As for the wireless, if you can locate the present module (it may be under a cover on the bottom or under the keyboard then you con confirm that it is a standard mini-PCI module) and can look for a newer module of the same format. The most recent cards have twin aerial connections. Have you checked that your router supports wireless g? Also, the connection could well drop down to b speed if the signal is weak. Unless you are wanting to transfer data locally over wireless even 11Mb/s is quite fast and much faster than most internet connections.

John

 

Thanks John, I followed your advice and bough me the HM160HC. I'll mount it and get back to you. But, just for my education, I wanted to go for a 7200 RPM just to have faster interaction with the computer. That's the I/O, right? But we get sometimes a faster I/O with a 5400 RPM than 7200. If so, why they go for 7200 RPM?
Thanks John

 

7200rpm has slightly shorter access times because the higher rpm means there's a shorter wait until the data on the disk reaches the head. However, head movement between tracks is another cause of delay so typically we are talking of the difference between 15ms and 18ms in access time. But once you start to read the data the transfer rate between head and disk is the controlling factor. Here, the higher data density achievable at 5400rpm offsets the lower rotational speed.

John

 

John, this is the clearest explanation I've ever had. I put it in my knowledge base. Thank you John, I'll get back here when all is setup to tell how it goes.
Thank you
K.

 

I'm also a very proud owner or a x10 well an x10plus. Best laptop I've had. I've tried upgrading to a few other laptops including a macbook in the past few years but always keep coming back to my x10plus. Can't yet find anything I like better and it currently does all the things I need. Thin, light weight and I still get 3 hours battery life from it

Anyway just this week I've gone from 1gb ram (2 x 512mb) to 2gb ram (2 x 1gb) and also upgraded my intel 2100 wireless b card to a atheros ar5006xs wireless g card.

Currently running vista and it run's very very well. Only problem is there are no vista drivers for the finger print reader but I'ved never used it.

Mine came as standard with an 80gb hard drive and I haven't yet needed to upgrade.

 

Samsung seem to have forgotten about these thin-and-light machines (which is how it becomae a respected notebook manufacturer) in its drive for an increased market share. Even the Q40 has now disappeared from the shelves.

I do hope that they have some innovative models about to come off the production line.

John

 

Hi every X10 owner,
I am currently using X10 too!! didn't upgrade it since i bought it at Sep 2003.
I do wanna upgrade it's ram. Which model should I buy? how much?
And 2 *1G Ram really ok for my lovely old X10?
Please let me know.. it is too slow...
thx!!

 

Someone further up this thread has installed 2 x 1GB. There's no reason I can think of why you need to be selective about the RAM. Crucial is recommending PC2700 DDR SODIMM RAM.Is that what you have (CPU-z will tell you)?

The drawback of this old notebook is that the DDR RAM has gone up in price while the current DDR2 RAM has come down.

John

 

www.crucial.com

use the ram scanner, then order away