Hdd upgrade, or add RAM?

Such are commodity items, but few laptops allow you to mount an additional drive. You replace the other one.

Bob

yes, can i replace my IBM 40GN IC25N040ATCx04 with a Hitachi Travelstar 7K60, or is my old drive ata5 and the new ata6? do they have the same compatibility? can i take full advantage of the new drives features?

Not the same or you wouldn't be changing. And about taking advantage of all new capabilities, I'll write no. You'll likely just end up with a bigger, faster hard disk.

Bob

The Hitachi 7200rpm 60gb hard drive is in use as an option on the Dell 8600 and people are putting it themselves without problems into the HPZT3000/Compaq X1000.

Keep in mind that Dell has posted a software patch to quiet the Hitachi hard drive as if the power management is not set up correctly it can be loud. If you set it up properly it should be ok but it will be a bit noisier than a 4200rpm hard drive. You get about a 50% seek time performance improvement on the 5400 rpm over a 4200rpm and the Hitachi gives another 20% improvement above that.

The memory upgrade is a waste especially as you already have 2 slots full. 512mb RAM is the sweet spot for many mainstream uses.

Many people order 256mb 1 stick from the company and then get a 512mb RAM stick themselves for less but you already have 256mbx2 so don't waste your time.

would there be an noticable change with a new hdd?
i use my laptop a lot for games, isn't there more improvment to the perfomrance during games wiht more memory than a faster hdd?
or is my graphiccard (geforce4mx 440 64mb) the bottleneck when running games?

"isn't there more improvment to the perfomrance during games wiht more memory than a faster hdd?"

I read this discussion and you did get answers, but to be clear... 512M is the sweet spot with no noticable payback except for one game I've seen (Doom 3).

The faster hard disk can make a difference during playback if the game fetches maps between rounds.

Of course, it's your money. You asked where the best payback was. Now if you want payback at any cose, MAX out the RAM and get the fastest hard disk you can.

Bob

The dedicated video is the most important thing. You can't even play many games with under 64mb DEDICATED video memory.

The hard drive is next important as many large games acces the hard drive. A 5400rpm or 7200rpm hard drive will also benefit you in system start up, etc.

512mb RAM is the sweet spot for most people as Bob says -- 1mb will help in some cases but you should have the best specs for the 1st two items first if you can't increase all 3.