Laptop upgrade
 

friend has a laptop he would like to upgrade some. He wants to get a bigger hd. My question is this. are laptops like computers where you can use just about any hd? or do the manufactures sell laptops just for there laptops?

Also the ram. he would like to get more ram. now i understand that the motherboard can support only so much memory. But keeping in the range that it supports can you just use any ram? now i know its gotta be the right kind of ram. IE SD ram and etc. but can i just buy kingston laptop ram and put it in it or do i need to buy dell ram?

1) Laptops use 2.5in IDE hard drives for the most part as opposed to a 3.5in hard drive for a desktop. 2.5ins are usually called, yes, laptop hard drives. Sure, you can get a bigger one from pretty much any manufacturer.

2) You need SO-DIMM (small outline) SDRAM for a laptop :D

and you need to know the type and speed of the ram

Adding to Mike's stuff, some ultra small laptops need thinner drives than others. A quick look on the manufacturer's support website should tell you what fits.

Laptops usually have one or two memory sockets, and one or both may be filled from the factory. Just like any system, if the sockets are full you'll have to remove and replace with a larger size. Try <a href="http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php">cpu-z</a> to find the size, number, and speed of current RAM. Try crucial.com for a good source. They'll also point you to the correct memory type & speed for just about any branded computer.

The trick will be getting to the hard drive. Many laptops come with special magic ports to access the ram slots, but getting to the HD bay in a lappy will require some disassembly.

Depends on the laptop, the hard drive for my Toshiba is under a panel on the bottom. Swapping out my hard drive for a larger/faster one took about 5 minutes, much quicker and easier than adding RAM for which I had to lift off the keyboard.

just be sure to take pictures when getting into the laptop so you have a reference incase you get stuck since all laptops are designed differently.

maybe I can get my question answered in this one, and it'll help this guy. I have a Dell Latitude and the old HD is ATA-4, most Laptop HD's I see on the market now are ATA-6. Are these 2 for the most part interchangeable.

I have an old dell inspiron; to access the ram slots I need to remove one screw and a panel opens up. To access the HD, one screw has to be removed and then the HD slides out; it is a special caddy that the drive screws into, but it is very easy to change. Since owning the laptop, I had to do a bunch of replacements (keyboard, monitor hinge) and a couple upgrades (processor, ram, HD). All pretty easy.

the difference between ata-4 and ata 6 is the transfer rate and ata-6 also added ultra dma/100 support. 2.5 hdd uses the same 50-pin connector.

that's what I thought, you could put an ATA-6 HD into an ATA-4 slot. but you wouldn't want to put an ATA-4 HD into a ATA-6 slot.

You could, but you won't get ATA-6 performance. Things tend to be backwards compatible to the least common spec. Unless it's really important or a Friday evening, in which case your hardware will be incompatible.