I'm buying a cheap laptop to get back into programming, been without a decent PC for quite a while now, and it's about time I got myself something new. I'm buying the Acer 15.6" AS5516-5474 Laptop PC with AMD Athlon 64 TF-20 Processor It has a 1.6ghz processor and a radeon xpress 1200 integrated video card. Is overclocking a laptop possible and/or safe?

I would generally say that it's probably not safe. In my experience, most notebooks already push the limits in terms of heat generation, and the additional heat produced by overclocking is going to push it over. And there's not many options for customizing your heat dissipation (e.g. in a desktop, you can at least put in a bigger fan, more fans, etc).

I see, hmmmm, with Windows 7 would I see a significant increase in speed from 2 gigs to 4 gigs of ram?

Also does a 64 bit CPU give me any kind of advantage?

Quote: Original post by JWColeman
I see, hmmmm, with Windows 7 would I see a significant increase in speed from 2 gigs to 4 gigs of ram?

Having just upgraded my RAM from 2gb to 4gb I can definitely say that there is a huge increase in speed with Windows 7.

EDIT: Also, if you plan on having that laptop for a while, you'll want to fill out all of its memory slots before DDR2 prices start going up once DDR3 becomes the norm.

Yeah, I would have to second not overclocking your laptop. With low heat mitigation, and no real ability to add powerful cooling systems, it would be an accident waiting to happen.

Quote: Original post by JWColeman
Also does a 64 bit CPU give me any kind of advantage?

All standard consumer CPU's are 64 bit for years already. What matters is whether you install a 32-bit or 64-bit version of your operating system. If you want to go for 4GB RAM and are using Windows 7, then you should go for the 64-bit version of Windows 7 to be able to use all your RAM, with 32-bit I don't know exactly where it ends, but it's below 4GB.

Quote: Original post by jackolantern1
Yeah, I would have to second not overclocking your laptop. With low heat mitigation, and no real ability to add powerful cooling systems, it would be an accident waiting to happen.

I also want to raise my hand against OC'ing laptops. A friend of mine says this is terrible habit for laptops in general and especially bad, according to his experience (I am just reporting) with AMD-powered ones.
Basically expect to cut in half machine's technical life in the best scenario.

Don't overclock your laptop. Just... don't.

If you wish for more speed, install an Intel solid-state disk. It makes the biggest difference out of any upgrade you can do to a PC right now.