Upgrading the RAM/Processor of a Toshiba Satellite laptop?

memory upgrade toshiba-laptop

11,195

Memory Upgrades:

You can use crucial.com and look your model number to find the speed and maximum amount of RAM that you can purchase for your laptop. You can use the service manual for your model to find that information as well, plus the steps for replacing the RAM modules.

Overclocking:

The number one factor in overclocking is heat, and given that laptops and heat have a complicated relationship, I wouldn't recommended it to anyone simply because the small gain you would get before burning the thing up wouldn't be worth it.

Your processor is unlikely to be able to be overclocked anyway. Replacing it is also just as unlikely.

My Personal Method for Speed:

One of the ways that I keep my computers fast is back up my documents to the cloud, portable-ize my software, and reinstall Windows when I start having significant enough speed problems.

The best way to make an old computer blazing fast:

Replace it, or only run MS-DOS.

11,195

Sort of a geek

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Sort of a geek almost 2 years

I have a Toshiba Satellite (L455D-S5976) with a 250G HD and 2G RAM. It is a few years old, but I have been pleased with it so far. I have gone through with regular housekeeping on a regular basis.

My problem is, with the age of the system, I am now noticing some sluggishness. I would like to upgrade the memory. What can I go up to with this system? Is there a way to upgrade the processor or maybe overclock it?
- Ramhound almost 11 years
  
  crucial.com/upgrade/Toshiba-memory/Satellite+L450+Series/… you will be unable to upgrade the processor and overclocking requires a processor that supports doing so and I will guarantee the 2.1 GHz AMD Sempron does not.
- Ramhound almost 11 years
  
  Since you are using a 32-bit operarting system you will only be able to upgrade to 4GB. Any other combination of memory is a waste of money unless you have access to a Windows 7 x64 installation media
- ganesh almost 11 years
  
  One way to make an old laptop a lot faster is to replace the spinning disk with a SSD. These tend to be expensive though, but you can keep them after the system eventually gets replaced. Which leads to my own question: How much disk space do you need? If the disk is mostly empty then a SSD is a very good option. Of the 230GB are almost filled then they are probably to expensive.
ganesh almost 11 years

Not my downvote, but.... 1) A 32 bit OS has a 4GB address space to use for IO, virtual adresses and memory. So You probably mean 4GiB, not 8. As anything above 512MB is pushing the limits of 32 bit installs because it uses that address space not just for memory. 2) 8gb is 8 gigaBIT, which is 1GB. I suspect you want the capital B. 3) You are ignoring a large part of the question. (e.g. OC, CPU swap, etc etc).
user2795930 almost 11 years

My apologies, I did mean 4gb as the maximum limit if they have a 32 bit OS. It will be difficult to upgrade the CPU, if they are wanting to do the upgrade themselves. Usually memory, hard drives and OS's are all you can do without specialized ($$$) assistance.