hardware upgrade, HDD, RAM etc

Sat Mar 22 11:00:53 UTC 2008

Thanks Charlie. now i had much clearer picture. it seems i have to hold on
my laptop for a couple of years more and then just buy a new one. no upgrade
this time. anyway, the current configuration is not bad. it's just that the
hardware is so cheap these days and i thought i should give it a try. :-)

anyway, thanks again.

On 22/03/2008, Charlie Kravetz <cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 03:27 +0100, Zhengguo Xu wrote:
> > thanks Charlie, i guess i didn't state it clearly. I knew ATA and SATA
> > is different. what i didn't know is WHETHER my driver IS ATA OR NOT.
> > there's "IDE/ATA" printed on it but in the Device Manager i saw sth
> > like "serial ATA", that would mean SATA. So i was confused. is there
> > any command i can type to determine it?
> >
> > about the memory. my cpu FSB is 533MHz, same as the memory bus. what i
> > want to know is if i want to change memory card, can i use the new
> > memory card with HIGHER BUS LIKE 667MHz instead of 533MHz?
> >
> > sorry for the ambiguity in my writing.
> >
> > On 22/03/2008, Charlie Kravetz <cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
> >
> >         On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 02:42 +0100, Zhengguo Xu wrote:
> >         > Hi all,
> >         >
> >         > i was  considering upgrade HDD and memory of my Dell
> >         Inspiron 9300
> >         > laptop and have a couple of questions.
> >         >
> >         > 1. from the purchase list i got when i bought the laptop, i
> >         have a
> >         > "100GB IDE hard drive" and when i took the driver out
> >         there's "Hitachi
> >         > IDE/ATA" printed on it. the HDD i wanted (at low price in
> >         store) is
> >         > simply said "HDD 250GB SATA" for laptop. now, from the
> >         limited
> >         > knowledge i have, ATA, or PATA, is different from SATA. does
> >         it mean i
> >         > cannot use this SATA drive in my laptop? however, when i
> >         looked in
> >         > Ubuntu's "Device Manager", it has sth like
> >         >
> >
> "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_1ATA_Hitachi_HTS7210........"
> the phase "serial_1ATA" appeared quite lot. does it mean SATA? I'm a newbie
> so got a little confused. any help here?
> >         >
> >         > 2. i had Intel Pentium M 780 CPU with FSB 533MHz. my old
> >         memory card
> >         > is 1GB at 533MHz memory bus. the memory card in the store is
> >         DDR2
> >         > 2048/667, i guess that means 2048MB at 667MHz memory bus
> >         (same price
> >         > as the one with 533MHz). so, can i use this new card?
> >         >
> >         > if i need provide more infomation, what command should i
> >         type? i'm not
> >         > a fan of command-line so a hint here is necessary.
> >         >
> >         > many thanks.
> >         >
> >
> >         I can help with part of this, but someone else will step in
> >         with more
> >         information, please.
> >
> >         The hard drives are _not_ the same. PATA is a "Parallel
> >         Advanced
> >         Technology Attachment", also known as IDE and ATAPI
> >         interfaces. SATA is
> >         "Serial ATA", and uses an entirely differently connector.
> >         These two
> >         drives are not the same and can not be swapped for each other.
> >
> >         The memory, is another story. You first mention the speed of
> >         the Front
> >         Side Bus (FSB) which is not the memory bus. A 533 FSB does not
> >         mean
> >         533Mhz memory, as my own system is running a 1.5Ghz cpu with
> >         memory that
> >         is 512MB, DDR400 DIMMs that run at either 400Mhz or 333Mhz,
> >         depending on
> >         the actual cpu in the motherboard at the time.
> >         --
> >         Charlie Kravetz
> >         Linux Registered User Number
> >         425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
> >         Never let anyone steal your DREAM.
> >         [http://keepingdreams.com]
> >
> >
>
> No problem. I'll try again. But let's try not to top post, okay?
>
> If your drive has "IDE/ATA" printed on it, it is not SATA. Ubuntu
> started using sd? to designate drives with version 6.06, Dapper Drake.
> This was to conform with new libata code (in the kernel). And, yes, it
> does cause confusion for us trying to figure out just what the drive
> really is. Sometimes you can install "hwinfo" (use Synaptic Package
> Manager) to help identify the hardware more correctly. Most of the time,
> the labels on the item itself is the best way.
>
> As for the memory, having worked for Dell, if you go to the Dell support
> website and put in your Service Tag, you should be able to get a listing
> of compatible memory modules and speeds. To the best of my humble
> knowledge, DDR2/667 memory is not compatible with your system,
> officially.
>
> good luck and I hope this helps a little,
>
>
> --
>
> Charlie Kravetz
> Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
> Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]
>
>
> --
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