Dell XPS M1530 upgrade

BigPoppaFluff

Hello People of Boards...

I have a question.. I am thinking of upgrading the hardware of my XPS M1530 and I would like some pointers in what direction to go...
Pretty much I am looking so run RAM draining programes like Cinema 4D, and most of the Adobe products. Any advise or feedback would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks
BPF

I believe the specs are :

2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 processor,
3GB DDR2-667 SDRAM
250GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD
Slot-loading dual-layer DVD±RW drive
NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3
WWAN option for Verizon
Ethernet, 802.11a/g/n (Intel 4965)
Integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam
HDMI, VGA, S-Video, Firewire/1394, three USB 2.0 ports, integrated media reader (MS, SD, xD), fingerprint reader
Media Center remote located in ExpressCard slot
Windows Vista Home Premium

stuff.hunter

...well, 3gb of ram is probably the most what yours laptops mobo can handle

Deano12345

stuff.hunter wrote: »

...well, 3gb of ram is probably the most what yours laptops mobo can handle

I doubt it, all the slots are probably full, it will support more RAM provided its a 64 version of Vista. Speaking of Vista, get off it, 7 is much nicer (in terms of resource usage) . Depending on your budget, a 4GB (2x2GB) kit of RAM or an 8GB (2x4GB) kit will provide a nice upgrade, but buy now cause DDR2 prices are on the increase

stuff.hunter

Deano12345 wrote: »

.... it will support more RAM provided its a 64 version of Vista. Speaking of Vista, get off it, 7 is much nicer (in terms of resource usage) . Depending on your budget, a 4GB (2x2GB) kit of RAM or an 8GB (2x4GB) kit will provide a nice upgrade, but buy now cause DDR2 prices are on the increase

...are you sure, most laptops mobo's having 3gb of ram limitation

Voodu Child

There's only a few major things you can upgrade. RAM, CPU, HDD, OS.

First check whether your OS is Vista 32-bit or 64-bit. That will affect any discussions of RAM upgrades. Your laptop can take 8GB (2x4GB) provided your os is 64-bit. If your OS is 32-bit then the max RAM you can address is ~3.5GB, so you are almost there. You'd buy a 2GB stick to take you to 4GB and all you'd get is an extra 500MB useable, not good value for money.

A fast HDD upgrade normally gives a noticeable improvement in responsiveness to an older laptop, especially one that only had a 5400rpm drive to start with. Something like the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid.

Your CPU can be upgraded, the best would be T9300 (2.5GHz) or T9500 (2.6GHz). T9300 would cost about 150 quid and you might make half as much back by selling the T7500. Honestly its not worth it just to go from 2.2GHz to 2.5GHz, you'd barely notice.

Before you put any money into an old laptop, consider that it could die at any time. Nvidia GPUs of that era had reliability problems.

Overheal

I would not pour money into an old laptop like that. Yes I did it for a while when it was my only unit, but its much more cost effective just to supplement or replace your laptop use with a real desktop: your laptop still does the things you need it to on the go but when it really comes down to it you can get lots done on your desktop. But I mean aside from the aging GPU with a checkered past, those specs are not bad at all.

If you still really wanted to put money into it, I'd go ahead and upgrade to 64-bit but Only if those Cinema 4D and Adobe programs say they support it - many programs are still 32 bit/x86. And then I would upgrade the ram, but you're still looking at ~200+ euro to do so if you wanted to get the full 8gb out of it.

tman

I may be wrong here, but I think the most memory the m1530 can take is 4gb... It only has 2 memory slots, so 8GB isn't too likely to happen!

I have the same laptop, but wouldn't dream of pissing money away upgrading it... You're better off saving your cash for a new laptop imho

Deano12345

tman wrote: »

I may be wrong here, but I think the most memory the m1530 can take is 4gb... It only has 2 memory slots, so 8GB isn't too likely to happen!

I have the same laptop, but wouldn't dream of pissing money away upgrading it... You're better off saving your cash for a new laptop imho

Two 4GB sticks and on these XPS's a BIOS update. Very expensive though, I'd agree with you there, your probably looking at €200 quid or so

@stuff.hunter : Yeah I'm sure, some old laptops may not be able to do it due to BIOS limits (im talking DDR1 era tech) but I've used a few laptops with 8GB (my own and a mates MB Pro)

BigPoppaFluff

Hey People,

thanks so much for all the advise..
What I am thinking of is upgrading my Vista 32bit to a 64bit and perhaps installing 8gb of RAM. I am also considering upgrading my HDD too, but is there much of a point, as advised by Voodu Child I would hardly notice.

I am sure I know the ans to this - If I upgraded by storage to 1tb would it benifit me?

Also is there an alternative laptop or tower I could simply upgrade to...
Would love some price vs performance advise
Thanks for all the advise
BPF

Deano12345

BigPoppaFluff wrote: »

Hey People,

thanks so much for all the advise..
What I am thinking of is upgrading my Vista 32bit to a 64bit and perhaps installing 8gb of RAM. I am also considering upgrading my HDD too, but is there much of a point, as advised by Voodu Child I would hardly notice.

I am sure I know the ans to this - If I upgraded by storage to 1tb would it benifit me?

Also is there an alternative laptop or tower I could simply upgrade to...
Would love some price vs performance advise
Thanks for all the advise
BPF

Go up to 7 64bit, get rid of Vista. SSD's would be the only real big performance boost other than the RAM, large SSD's are very expensive though. You could build a decent computer for the price of the 8GB of RAM+SSD+Win7 though

Voodu Child

BigPoppaFluff wrote: »

I am also considering upgrading my HDD too, but is there much of a point, as advised by Voodu Child I would hardly notice.

The drive you have in your laptop is probably two or three years old, and it was 5400rpm so it wasnt even a fast drive when it was new.

So going from that to a modern 7200rpm drive (such as the Seagate Hybrid drive I mentioned) will certainly make a difference in terms of opening large apps, boot time, general responsiveness. It wont turn your old laptop into a supercomputer, but it will 'perk' it up a bit.

I am sure I know the ans to this - If I upgraded by storage to 1tb would it benifit me?

1TB will give you more storage obviously.

But the secondary benefit is that compared to your old drive, it will have a higher data density which results in faster throughput (imagine reading one page a minute. Well, if you make the writing smaller and you are still reading one page a minute, it means you are taking in more data).

And if you buy a 7200rpm drive, then it would have been faster anyway, so 1TB 7200rpm = win/win.

Also note that the Seagate Hybrid I recommended has a small 4GB SSD, which it uses to cache regularly used files. Gets decent reviews. However im not sure if this particular drive is available in 1TB.

Overheal

Deano12345 wrote: »

Go up to 7 64bit, get rid of Vista. SSD's would be the only real big performance boost other than the RAM, large SSD's are very expensive though. You could build a decent computer for the price of the 8GB of RAM+SSD+Win7 though

You dont need a big SSD, 30gb is plenty to run the OS and a few essential programs, then just keep games and music on an actual hard drive. Remembering that every read/write shortens the life of an SSD.