I'd wish I had found this forum before making my

[Ronza]

I'd wish I had found this forum before making my Tablet PC decision but oh well.

Ive ordered an ex-lease TC1000 from a friend of a friend for AU$1100. It will come with 512MB of RAM but after wading through the last 30 Pages of threads on here, Ive realised the Transmeta Crusoe might be slower than I think.

The Tablet will be used for basic office applications like Word, PowerPoint and OneNote along with Firefox. I love to have heaps of applications open and am a pretty big multi tasker. Storage isnt a big concern, I have 320GB in my two desktops at home. I am wondering what would be the most worthwhile upgrade for the TC1000.

a) Maxing the RAM out to 768MB (replacing one 256MB Stick)
b) Buying a 40GB 5400RPM Drive (not 7200RPM as the performance difference seems to be minimal over 5400RPM)
c) Upgrading the WiFi Card to 802.11g (Intel 2200 OK?)

Im not looking to spend too much money but do want the most out of the TC1000. What are your thoughts?

[lithous]

Just some things to think about...

a) I believe the setup for the TC1000 is the same as the TC1100 in that there are two slots, only one is user accessible. I was worried at first when I got mine (I didn't know about this site and didn't see this fact before) and thought I had half the RAM I really did because I only saw the one 512 (mine came with a GIG). So you have 1 non-user-accessible slot with 256 and in the accessible you will add the 512.

This would be the best of all the choices you mentioned, IMO.

b) You didn't give the specs of the drive it comes with but I have two TC1100 and one has 40GB 4200RPM and one 60GB 5400RPM and I don't see that much difference in speed (until the RAM gets used up).

c) Unless you have a super fast connection 11Mbs is plenty. 54Mbs is over kill if your network is 1-5Mbs. Unless you have FIOS connection I would think RAM upgrade is better than wifi.



b)

[DaveTN]

I've done all three upgrades to my TC1000. Of the three, the RAM upgrade is the #1 to improve performance. As Cheap as RAM is getting, you get the most bang for your buck.
Second most important is the HDD. I upgraded to the 60G 7200 RPM 8MB cache and it gave my TC a kick in the butt in performance, but it cost more than the RAM upgrade. Finally, the WiFi is esoteric. I was happy withthe HP WiFi card that came with my TC1000, but being a techno junkie and finding a great deal (about $30.00) on the Dell Truemobile 1400 minipci, I couldn't resist. Range is a bit better than what I had. But like I said, it was an esoteric upgrade.

Overall, I am VERY satisfied with my TC1000. I run the whole gamut of Office XP apps and the run perfectly fine for me. It's not unusual for me to have IE, Acrobat and an office app opened and my TC handles it fine.

I wish you well with your new purchase and welcome to the Buzz.

David

[Ronza]

Cheers Fellas,

Currently the RAM is 2x 256MB = 512MB so I would have to replace the 2nd Slot with a 512MB Stick. I dont know how cheap they are in the US but they aint cheap here in Australia. I take it these are PC133 144-Pin SoDIMMS?

Secondly, the hard drive is the standard 30GB 4200RPM Drive. Ive read the 2 Hard Drive replacement threads floating around, the 7200RPM only seems to bring vibration and heat, not increased performance over the 5400RPM Models. At this stage, a Seagate 40GB 5400RPM 16MB Cache drive seems like my best option.

Im thinking of doing the RAM first, that way the Tablet wont have to go into Swapfile so often. Then again, a faster HDD is going to mean quicker boot up and program loads. Decisions, decisions.

[WNewquay]

Ronza,

I would go for the memory first. Unless your ongoing demands are very modest, you will "use" the memory and appreciate the benefit for most of the time the machine is on. This is in contrast to the hard drive.

[Ronza]

General Concensus is
512MB -> 768MB is better than 4200RPM -> 7200RPM

[WNewquay]

Ronza,

There is only one minor consideration - and I forgot to mention it before.

When it comes time to move on to a newer machine,
- for the memory - you can't take it with you (most Tablet PCs introduced in the last year AND the TC1100, cannot use the memory that you are going to add to the TC1000)
- for the bigger/faster drive - you can probably move it to another more recent Tablet PC (except an NEC)

[lithous]

Do you have to buy from Australia?

If not this seems like a decent deal with world wide shipping:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...754633005&rd=1

[bcdechert]

I've been using a TC1000 daily since Nov 2003. Definitely memory FIRST! Then the hard drive - I'm not sure the bios will be happy with a HDD with 16MB cache - but it seems you read a post that supported it. A couple of things to be aware of - the code morphing used by the Transmeta is what makes it appear to be slow, but once apps are loaded and running I've found little hinderance in operations. Battery operations, if set to maximize battery life will have deleterious effect on software operations - GoBinder and OneNote; at least they have for me. The longrun monitor and battery aid that Chris describes in TC One-Thousand.com are very useful. Hibernation is the most useful way to preclude long load times but at least once a week I found it useful to do a complete shut down, otherwise weird things would occur.

[DaveTN]

Ronza,
I know it was mentioned in the hard drive thread, but I have absolutely no vibration issues with my new HDD (Hitachi 7K60). Still, I would go for the RAM first and the HDD second, but keep in mind, that the HDD (in my opinion) does make a difference too.

David