CPU Upgrade....

I've had it with my piece of crap Celeron (2.2 Ghz) and am now going to splash out to get a Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz processor- My question is- the swap should run pretty much like normal on my hp ze4315 notebook right? I'm pretty sure they offer the ze series with those chips, but I don't trust my own judgements.

Also I'm guessing it'd be wise to back everything up before installing, am I right? I've never had a Celeron before this one, hence never had the desire to ditch my current processor, so I don't know.


I'm also going to get 256 MB more ram to take me up to 448 :D I know for a fact that this will work fine, so yeah.

But how about that processor?

No need to back up anything with a CPU change. As for the processor you will see huge difference in speed and battery consumption.

If you want more speed, max out your RAM first, cheaper and easier. Then go to your processor, I'd recommend getting Athlon processor though...the underdog to Intel, better quality, little cheaper, FASTER...but hey, its all bout personal preferance

but if the PC came with an intel chip, the socket won't fit an athlon.....

Yeah, this is a laptop. If he wants an Athlon he'll have to buy a new laptop.

True, true. He'll need a new laptop. A Celeron is just a detuned P4, so the swap can't be that hard. I'm not a huge fan of HP laptops, but to each his own.

I have no desire to buy an Athlon, we have a P4 2.8 Ghz CPU in the PC at home and it's awsome and at NZ$350 it's not too badly priced.

As for battery consumption- that's no prob at all really, since I always run my computer off the wall, the only reason I have a laptop is because I live in two cities, so I have to cart stuff with me all the time.......

Anyway thanks for all your help :D

If you have a laptop be very careful they are often designed as a maze inside. Also the CPU can be custom designed so a normal desktop CPU might not fit. Or the cooling might not be adequate fot it.


My advice is get a desktop and use that for serious power.

I hardly call it serious power, but I'll have someone look over my Laptop either way.

A desktop isn't an option at the moment, as it's far too impractical (I can't fly it back up to Auckland, which is 900km away from Wellington- I'd have to drive it down and up twice a year)

I hardly call it serious power, but I'll have someone look over my Laptop either way.

A desktop isn't an option at the moment, as it's far too impractical (I can't fly it back up to Auckland, which is 900km away from Wellington- I'd have to drive it down and up twice a year)


I'm quite aware of what serious power is. However my statement stands for serious power desktops are the only way.

I find them quite practical too, true I cannot carry them around to class but my desktop has already been with me twice in vegas to build a database for a site and to numerous LAN parties at polygon's place, and i never had a problem carrying it around.

BTW why don't you find the 2.2 adequate? My athlon 1800+ is more than enough, and it should be slower than your cpu(when its not in power saving mode).

Anyway have you laptop checked, but I can pretty much guarantee you that you will not be able to upgrade its CPU. Sorry to sound so pesimistic but this is my experience with most laptops.

Anyway just my :2cents:

BTW why don't you find the 2.2 adequate? My athlon 1800+ is more than enough, and it should be slower than your cpu(when its not in power saving mode).

Nah, he shouldn't be faster than you. If he were then I'd say there is something wrong with your processor. For one he only has a 128KB cache. The processor is seriously detuned to cut down on battery life. Celerons are just dog slow processors. The 1.7GHz I bought for my other system isn't much faster than the P3 555MHz that I had in there. My brothers laptop has a 2.0GHz Celeron and he can't believe how much faster his new desktop is. He doesn't use his laptop anymore unless he has to. I can actually understand his want to upgrade the processor. However, like Neutrino said, it isn't going to be easy and finding a processor that will work might require calling HP and ordering one if you can. I can guarantee that a desktop P4 will not work at all.

Most of the time laptop processors are specially designed with low power consumption. If you purchase a new CPU, it might work, but your battery may drain too fast. Your laptop was designed for a Celeron ("celery"... :p) which is generally low on power consumption. Your motherboard may not even support a full P4 CPU as most laptops are custom/proprietary designs for the specific equipment in them. Some boards even have the CPU directly attached to the motherboard (no ZIF socket) and you may not even be able to remove it. HP's are notorius for proprietary designs (for PC's and laptops both). I should know - I've worked on their laptops before.

I would invest in a RAM upgrade first. 256mb RAM is barely enough to run most systems these days (Windows XP uses almost all of it by itself) and laptops are affected by performance bottlenecks even more than desktop systems. If you're hell-bent on a CPU upgrade, you may have to be prepared to purchase a new laptop.

A CPU upgrade like that will also increase the temp inside your rig substantially. Laptop CPU's are also designed to cut down on heat not just power consumption. If you do get that CPU you might overheat something and your laptop will definatly not be able to be placed on your lap.

Get a P4 2.8c You can overclock it really good, depending on your motherboard.


I currently own an Epox 8RDA+ with an AMD 2500+ Barton oc'ed to 3200+ specs.

Also remember to slap on some Arctic Silver 5.