The Toshiba C655 laptop shown in this video originally came with a 2.2 GHz Celeron processor (single core, 1MB of cache) and 2GB of ram.

Upgraded the CPU with a T8300 Core 2 Duo processor (2.4 GHz, 3MB of cache). Processor bought used on eBay from Green IT Electronics Recyclers for about $20 shipped. Green IT rocked, 100% satisfied with their speed and the CPU I received. Also upgraded the RAM to 4GB with a used stick bought off eBay for $13. I had a used 64 GB Intel SSD (100% health showing in the Intel Toolbox software) laying around.

The computer itself was purchased for $40 shipped and it was observed to be a struggling POS when it arrived. As it came originally, this thing took 5 minutes to boot and was basically unusable. It can now render HD video and surf the internet at the same time. It may not come near my i5 powered desktop for rendering video, but it will do the trick in the hotel room on my dirt bike trips. It was fun to make something slow work decently well. It is very responsive for everyday use as the video shows.

The BIOS recognized the upgraded T8300 CPU right off the bat, completely plug and play. If you have this laptop, stop suffering and upgrade that CPU. Any Intel Penryn "T" series CPU that runs on an 800 MHz front side bus will work. The slightly faster T9300 is around $60 and the slightly slower 8100 (2.1 GZ is only about $9 shipped. The T8100 is the bang for the buck cheapskate sweet spot. What the hell. I splurged and got the T8300. Big spender eh? :)

I took out the never utilized optical drive, bought a hard drive caddy off eBay for less than $10, and re purposed the OEM 250 GB mechanical hard drive as a secondary storage/backup drive, so this little rig has two hard drives in it.

There are some good video tutorials on YouTube for taking this laptop apart. It is not rocket science, but be careful of the screen/hinges. The screen's hinge mounts are fragile and quite possibly the stupidest design I have ever seen. Way to go Toshiba...

Go ahead, at least add an SSD to those old Core Duo laptops. SSDs are cheap now, the 256 GB MX100 is under $100. The OEM mechanical hard drive sucks, but a Core Duo CPU is still quite adequate for ordinary use and teamed up with an SSD, it makes for a good user experience. No need to blow $800 or more on a new laptop that will come with Win8. Soup up the old one and continue to enjoy Win7...

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