Upgrading Dell 1737 - Processor and Memory

[jcsmith1980]

I have a Dell Studio 1737 laptop. It is seeming a little tired now so I would like to upgrade it. I know a little about computers but am far short of an expert.

My current processor is Intel core 2 duo P8400 2.26ghz and 4gb memory. I am running Windows 7 - 32bit

I am wanting to upgrade the processor and would like to know the maximum processor I can upgrade to on the current motherboard and also I read on another forum that on the 1737 laptops you can put in 8gb of memory. Is this true? also will this mean that my 32bit Windows 7 will stop working?

One of the main reasons I want to upgrade is because I play a football manager game but it does run very slowly sometimes which is very frustrating. My hdd is not full atall so it wont be that. So I guess a processor upgrade and a bit more memory is cheaper than a new laptop.

Hope someone can help

Jon

 

[johnb35]

You can upgrade to 8gb of memory but unless you change your operating system to windows 7 64bit, the extra 4gb won't do anything for you. What football manager game are you playing? What are the system requirements for it? Have you done any general maintenance on your system like scan for malware and clean up any temp files and defragged your hard drive?

 

[byteninja2]

I don't know how many times people have said this, but no CPU upgrades on a laptop without motherboard upgrade, as the CPU is stuck to the motherboard. RAM is up to 8 GB on that laptop but you need to upgrade to a 64 Bit Windows because Windows 32 bit only uses 3.5 GB of Ram. If you bought Windows 7, a Windows 7 64 bit disk would be included.

 

[wolfeking]

no no no. CPUs on laptops are plenty upgradable. Apple and Atom based units are the ones that have the CPU on the motherboard without it being removable.

 

[johnb35]

I don't know how many times people have said this, but no CPU upgrades on a laptop without motherboard upgrade, as the CPU is stuck to the motherboard. RAM is up to 8 GB on that laptop but you need to upgrade to a 64 Bit Windows because Windows 32 bit only uses 3.5 GB of Ram. If you bought Windows 7, a Windows 7 64 bit disk would be included.

no no no. CPUs on laptops are plenty upgradable. Apple and Atom based units are the ones that have the CPU on the motherboard without it being removable.

Most of the time, you are stuck with the cpu that is in the laptop already. OEM's only provide enough cooling for the current processor in it. If you can even upgrade the cpu, then you are taking the chance of the cooling system not being able to handle the added heat.

I doubt very seriously the OP needs to upgrade the processor, probably just needs to do some general maintenance on his system or do a fresh install of windows to get the performance back again.

 

[The_Other_One]

Most of the time, you are stuck with the cpu that is in the laptop already. OEM's only provide enough cooling for the current processor in it. If you can even upgrade the cpu, then you are taking the chance of the cooling system not being able to handle the added heat.

Not completely. As long as you stay withing the TDP, you should be fine. But that being said, the P8600 is a pretty stout processor for the socket and there's probably not much else available to upgrade to. And since this is a "P" series, you might be a bit more limited (comparing to the "T" series running at 35w TDP)

But to agree with the others, there's probably other issues besides the CPU and/or RAM. I'm not familiar with the game but I suspect your graphics card is the limiting factor. If this is the case, no amount of upgrading will help.