Upgrade questions for Dell laptop

MacGyver · 10-24-2008, 07:42 PM

I have a laptop that am thinking about up grading, wondering if it’s worth upgrading
or if I should build a new slimline desktop

I basically want it to be a little faster, my old AMD 850 athlon w/ 512MB of ram PC is faster
then this laptop.

I don’t want to spend more then about $200 otherwise I could just get a barebones system
or something off Craigslist.

What form factor are needed to replace the parts below and can I upgrade the CPU?

Dell Inspiron 8600
Pentium 1.4 GHz
512 MB of RAM
NIVIDA GeForce FX Go5200 (not intergraded)
37 GB hard drive

cpt.obvious · 10-24-2008, 07:55 PM

No you can not upgrade the CPU. Basiclly the RAM and hard drive are the only thing really you can upgrade. I did that with this old Toshiba Tecra. Also a USB sound card wouldn't hurt.

MacGyver · 10-24-2008, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpt.obvious

No you can not upgrade the CPU. Basiclly the RAM and hard drive are the only thing really you can upgrade. I did that with this old Toshiba Tecra. Also a USB sound card wouldn't hurt.

Interesting, this link I found says otherwise
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread190400.html

Gareth · 10-24-2008, 09:04 PM

Upgrade the hard disk drive to a faster one, chances are you have a 4200rpm drive, and a 5400rpm or even 7200rpm drive will speed things up significantly.

spamdos · 10-26-2008, 01:29 AM

im not sure it would be worth upgrading as the performance gains would be relatively low. it is hard and expensive to upgrade a laptop for notable gains in performance. the best option is to wait, save a bit more money and look into a new one. the performance gains will be much greater and more noticeable than simply upgrading ram and hard drive. However check the speed of the hard drive, as garethman said, it could be a fairly limiting factor. im not sure i would worry with a ram upgrade though...

claytonr1973 · 10-26-2008, 06:43 PM

Yes you can upgrade the CPU,as long as it's not soldered in,and most aren't.

10-24-2008, 07:42 PM	#1 (permalink)
MacGyver Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 25	Upgrade questions for Dell laptop I have a laptop that am thinking about up grading, wondering if it’s worth upgrading or if I should build a new slimline desktop I basically want it to be a little faster, my old AMD 850 athlon w/ 512MB of ram PC is faster then this laptop. I don’t want to spend more then about $200 otherwise I could just get a barebones system or something off Craigslist. What form factor are needed to replace the parts below and can I upgrade the CPU? Dell Inspiron 8600 Pentium 1.4 GHz 512 MB of RAM NIVIDA GeForce FX Go5200 (not intergraded) 37 GB hard drive

10-24-2008, 07:55 PM	#2 (permalink)
cpt.obvious Platinum Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Swangilly,MN-USeffinA Age: 21 Posts: 847	No you can not upgrade the CPU. Basiclly the RAM and hard drive are the only thing really you can upgrade. I did that with this old Toshiba Tecra. Also a USB sound card wouldn't hurt. __________________ MOBO- ASUS Rampage II Extreme w/ Supreme FX X-Fi w/ OCZ Gold 6 gig DDR3 Tri-Channel 10666 GPU- EVGA GTX 260 C216 SLi 740/1512/1200 CPU- Intel i7 920 OC to 3.4 w/ Cooler Master V8 PSU- Corsair 1000 watt HDD- Seagate 640 OS- Microsoft Vista Ultimate x64 Case- Cooler Master HAF 932 3Dmark06-21774

10-24-2008, 09:04 PM	#4 (permalink)
Gareth Diamond Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Cambridgeshire, England Age: 19 Posts: 1,801	Upgrade the hard disk drive to a faster one, chances are you have a 4200rpm drive, and a 5400rpm or even 7200rpm drive will speed things up significantly. __________________ Gareth's Desktop Computer - *All parts are from Newegg in the United States!* *Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 3.20GHz* 8GB DDR2 PC8500 RAM 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 RAID 0 Striped Powercolor Radeon HD4870 1GB Windows 7 Professional x64 Hiper 730W ATX 2.0 PSU NZXT Silence Whisper Case 22" Widescreen 1680x1050 + 19" Widescreen 1440x900

10-26-2008, 01:29 AM	#5 (permalink)
spamdos Diamond Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Canberra Australia Age: 20 Posts: 1,163	im not sure it would be worth upgrading as the performance gains would be relatively low. it is hard and expensive to upgrade a laptop for notable gains in performance. the best option is to wait, save a bit more money and look into a new one. the performance gains will be much greater and more noticeable than simply upgrading ram and hard drive. However check the speed of the hard drive, as garethman said, it could be a fairly limiting factor. im not sure i would worry with a ram upgrade though... __________________ TROGDOR the BURNINATOR

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10-26-2008, 06:43 PM	#6 (permalink)
claytonr1973 Silver Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Miami,OK Posts: 112	Yes you can upgrade the CPU,as long as it's not soldered in,and most aren't.

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