Detailed Questions on Radical Upgrading? Please Help !

[sameronline]

Hi Forum,

My personal laptop is Lenovo THINKPAD T500 2055, and its main specifications are as follows:

- Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400 (2.53GHz 1066MHz 6MBL2)
- 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory Module 4 GB (2 x 4 GB) 1066MHz DDR31066/PC38500 DDR3 SDRAM SoDIMM Kingston.
- 2 GB Intel Turbo Memory hard drive cache.
- ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 with 256MB.
- 160 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm.
- Windows 7 Ultimate with the latest Service Pack (x64).

My problem precisely and concisely is that I am NOT happy nor satisfied with the performance of my laptop at all, and I need your assitance and advices to boost my laptop's performance.

I do NOT use my laptop for games at all. Also, I do NOT use my laptop for working with graphics nor 3D stuff at all.

I use my laptop for Software development purposes (Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint 2010, Vmware), Besides, Surfing the Internet (Chatting, Reading, Watching Videos...etc).

I feel that my laptop is not fast enough especially when I run the virtual machine (VM) and do some programming work. I am not satisfied nor happy at all with the application load time nor the process response time.

BTW, there's no viruses or malicious software that are affecting my laptop or its memory.

Therefore, I want to improve the performance of my laptop and increase its speed, and I do have some questions:

Q1) Upgrading to Solid-State Drive (SSD):

a. Will SSD really make a great noticible difference in my laptop's performance?

b. What is the best SSD brand or model do you recommend for my laptop?

c. Are there any issues or problems with the SSD and T500?


Q2) Upgrading the CPU:

a. What is the fastest and the most powerful CPU model that is compatible with my laptop specifications?

b. Will the new CPU make a significant noticible difference in my laptop's performance?

c. Are there any issues or problems might occur if I upgraded the CPU?


Q3) Which one do you think has really more significant impact on the laptop's performance: CPU or SSD ? In other words, If I can afford to upgrade only one of them, Which one do you recommend me to upgrade: the CPU or SSD?


Q4) Are there any other suggestions or recommendations you would like to give me please in order to improve the performance of my laptop?


Thanks for your consideration of my request, and I very much look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience !

 

[saint19]

Hi and welcome to Tom's forum.

Before all those questions, you need look for some information:

1) Is possible install an SSD on your laptop?
2) Is possible upgrade the CPU in your laptop?

Those two questions should have an answer in the manual or Lenovo support, before that, buy something for upgrade is "waste" the money in components that you will not if can work.