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Upgrading a Latitude C840 for Video Editing?

post #1 of 9
10/18/07 at 12:21pm
Thread Starter 
Hi, I'm a college student looking to use a computer for image/video editing. Due to 'budget constraints' hah, I am unable to afford a new laptop. I do, however have a Dell Latitude C840. Unfortunately, it has a couple of problems that I hope you, my reader, will be able to help me with. I am hoping for upgrade information. I will list each thing to make it easier to respond to. If you can, please make your suggestions detailed (for example, the exact name of something I can use to upgrade).

Things I am hoping to upgrade:

1. The speed, as I said, it is very slow with both image and video editing. The computer has a Pentium 4m processor (2 ghz), and 512 mb of ram. Can either of these be upgraded?

2. I am constantly running out of space. I am currently outfitted with a 60 gb hard drive, but I have 33 gb of photos, and I am constantly having to delete photos after uploading them to the external. Is it possible to buy a bigger hard drive?

3. Now, I would be fine just working on my photos right off of my external hard drive, but the slow speed of the usb connection between my computer and the external makes this nearly impossible. I have Usb 1.1 (I think). Is it possible to upgrade my usb port to 2.0?


I very sincerely thank anyone who actually takes the time to read all this and/or respond with suggestions.
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post #2 of 9
10/18/07 at 5:31pm
memory can be up grade to 1GB, some people success up grade to 1.5GB. it will take PC-2700 or you can stick higher speed memory in there as long as it backward with PC-2700.

CPU can be upgrade to 2.4ghz, but not worth the money.
internal HD can be upgrade to 100GB PATA 7200RPM

only way to upgrade USB is using PCMCIA card bus adapter.
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post #3 of 9
10/18/07 at 8:14pm
Think the HDD can go as far as 120GB.
It has Firewire which should be faster than USB 1.0 and for video editing firewire is more prevailent.
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post #4 of 9
10/18/07 at 8:18pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info guys. Would it be worth it to stick with the hard drive I have, and just buy a PCMCIA card to up the usb speed and use an external hard drive (I already have one). Would the speeds be fast?
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post #5 of 9
10/19/07 at 12:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajsellaroli View Post
Thanks for the info guys. Would it be worth it to stick with the hard drive I have, and just buy a PCMCIA card to up the usb speed and use an external hard drive (I already have one). Would the speeds be fast?
is your current HD is PATA ? if it is then why not swap it with internal or the external don't fit ? If you really want PC bus card. I have one lay around pm me your address I will send it to you.
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post #6 of 9
10/19/07 at 3:09am
I'd see about a firewire drive personally.
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post #7 of 9
10/19/07 at 12:02pm
Thread Starter 
I don't know if it is PATA, How can I tell that xccess? What difference would that make? And you'd really do that? that's great thank you very much, I'll send you a pm.

Rocksteady - I've heard firewire drives are alot faster too, but my computer doesn't have a firewire port, so I can't use one

Ok, so it sounds like the only things I should be upgrading are the Ram and The usb (with that pc card). Is this correct? It's not worth it to buy a new internal hard drive for my laptop if the computer is able to access the external very fast.

The 2.4ghz processor sounds like it isn't worth it (thanks for the tip, xccess)
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post #8 of 9
10/19/07 at 11:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ajsellaroli View Post
I don't know if it is PATA, How can I tell that xccess? What difference would that make?
What external drive do you have? Brand and model.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajsellaroli View Post
Rocksteady - I've heard firewire drives are alot faster too, but my computer doesn't have a firewire port, so I can't use one.
The dell C840 has one built in to the motherboard aka as an IEE 1394 port right hand side of the laptop beside the audio jacks.
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post #9 of 9
10/24/07 at 11:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by xccess21 View Post
memory can be up grade to 1GB, some people success up grade to 1.5GB. it will take PC-2700 or you can stick higher speed memory in there as long as it backward with PC-2700. CPU can be upgrade to 2.4ghz, but not worth the money. internal HD can be upgrade to 100GB PATA 7200RPM only way to upgrade USB is using PCMCIA card bus adapter.
The Latitude C840 is the same system as the Inspiron 8200 and just uses different bios and different housing but internal parts are same.Crucal.com and Dell Support both says the two systems max ram is 1gb.But,I once had a Inspiron 8200 and I had two sticks of 1GB PC2700 rams for a total of 2gb.You should be able to get 2GB for the Dell Latitude 840.CPU max for the Latitude 840 is 2.6GHz Pentium IIIm.I also upgraded that Inspiron 8200 with a Intel 2.5GHz PIIIm cpu which costed me $100.00.The rams costed near $80.00 each. Regards, Ko
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