If you do a lot of I/O or heavy processing, try using a ramdrive. Way faster than a HD and still noticeably faster than an SSD, while using very little power.
Easiest way to improve laptop performance is to "upgrade" to XP and install an Intel SSD. It will be lightnight fast vs whatever you got now.
Replace your hard drive with an SSD. Best bang for the buck. Also upgrade to Windows 7. It's much faster than XP or Vista. If your laptop is older than 3 years, you probably should just get a new laptop (which will come with Win 7) and replace the hard drive with an SSD. You'll have a very fast machine.
Unfortunately I have some bad news. Whatever RAM or SSD you put in there will not boost your performance or give you sufficient speed for trading. If the OS version you are using is only 32 bit, the computer will only utilize 3 GB of RAM even if you have 8 in there. An SSD will improve bootup and program launch but will not speed up any programs or trading once loaded into memory. A Core 2Duo at 2Ghz processor is a dinosaur. Itâs like dialing a rotary phone! The new Sandy Bridge laptop processors are literally 550%-1000% faster if you do your research. I learned a lot about this stuff from Eddie Z. You should check out his free trading computer buyerâs guide at www.eztradingcomputers.com
Thanks for the link to Eddie Z. Very good take on what works for trading. Solid ideas & advice. He likes SSDs. I sure like the one in my laptop which I'm far less careful with than a laptop with a hardrive; and very quirt- no noise at all. Plus, they transfer data faster.