Questions about upgrading an old laptop (HP Pavilion zd7000)

[JosephD]

Hello there,

I have an old 2004 HP laptop that I wanna upgrade for my dad, it's pretty old but he just wants to use it for printing some stuff, but at the same time I wanna upgrade it for him. I loaded the DxDiag taken from that laptop with this thread. That laptop had originally a Windows XP OS.

The first thing, I saw on some websites like this, that it can only support up to 2GB of RAM, now, can I upgrade it to something higher than 2GB? (It has 1 GB now). Even if I'm upgrading it to 2GB can I install a ram that is faster than 333 MHz? Or does it only support 333 MHz RAMs? Would this RAM for example be compatible?

I also want to upgrade the HDD (PATA as far as I saw written on some forums), since it's only 60GB, but I want something a little bit faster than the current one, so my question is, would this HDD be compatible with the system? Or maybe this SSD?

Last thing, if I buy a new HDD or SSD, should I install the Original Windows XP that came with the laptop? Or should I install Windows 7 again on it?

And if you have any other suggestions, please don't hesitate.

Those are some pictures taken from CPU-Z from that laptop that I think might help.

https://imgur.com/m0tANYs

https://imgur.com/gCswVzm

https://imgur.com/grTWeX3

https://imgur.com/8Aswzkv

https://imgur.com/zVMPGim

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Kshipper]

No way dude...this thing is too old! That PATA connector is the old 40 wire IDE connector and a SSD uses SATA. To add insult to injury the older you go with computers the closer you get to old standards which means that even newer laptops than your dad's that will take the SSD upgrade won't perform that well because of the older SATA standards when they just were not that fast. A SSD capable of 550MB/s will perform half as well on older SATA ports. Some advantage over spinning drives but not as much.

I SOooo remember those Pentium 4 CPUs shoved into laptops, how big and heavy they were. They ran so hot. Get Dad a more modern laptop, or even a desktop (No doubt he hasn't used it as a laptop in years!). It doesn't have to be new, but it has to be newer. Oh and the RAM...if you go down that path you are going to end up with RAM from Ebay that may not work. RAM can be a fussy thing to figure out if it is 100% that's why I always buy my RAM new and new DDR1 RAM is long gone I'm sure

 

[bazz2004]

I'd echo those comments. XP is still worth having for programs that are well loved and won't run on Windows 10 so it's not junk. However that desktop is no use for today's computing needs. Reinstalling XP is a nightmare taking forever to fully update. If there's no support disc with drivers then getting peripherals working again would be a challenge.
It's definitely time to move on to an up to date system running Windows 10. Windows 7 is no longer supported. The big decision is whether you should go for a laptop or desktop. If you buy used, a desktop is far easier to work on as problems arise and it can be upgraded..

 

[JosephD]

Thanks guys for replying!
I completely understand you guys. That's completely what I already told my dad, but he wants to stick to it. He has another laptop, but he wants to use this one for the library, the maximum he would be using is MS Word and Chrome.
And he was gonna use it the way it is right now, but I asked him if he wants it to be a bit faster.

So you think if I got that DDR1 RAM from AliExpress, then it won't be compatible?
Regarding the hard drives, both HDD and SSD have PATA ports (in the links I posted before), but I might get him the HDD then, since getting that SSD won't make a huge difference.

 

[bazz2004]

Sorry, I hadn't registered that it's a laptop. My Pentium 4 desktop runs pretty hot by present standards so I'm surprised it's still going.
Myself, I don't think it's worth trying to help your dad. I'm getting on but like to keep things up to date. Most of my generation are only comfortable with what they already know. Just leave him to it until he comes to you for help. It'll happen.

 

[JosephD]

That's what most probably I'm gonna do.
Anyway, thanks for the help man!