A noob with an old Vostro 1500

I've never upgraded notebooks, but I've had some experience researching a bunch of parts for a desktop. I was wondering what kind of parts are upgradeable on a laptop such as this one? And what are my options with these specs?

They are as follows:
Windows XP Home Edition Ver. 2002 SP3
Celeron 540 1.86GHz
DDR2 PC2 5300 RAM 2x512mb
HDD 109GB

I don't want to spend a lot of money, so please give me some reasonable suggestions. I'm not looking for top end products, just something to speed it up. Most of my use is HD video and browsing the web. Right now it can't handle HD/720p, which is pathetic, and it's slow at loading webpages/pictures.

I just ordered some G.SKILL DDR2 RAM 2x1GB, so I think that will bump up the speed.

What kind of a processor can I fit into this thing? I browsed the forum and saw that people were suggesting T8100-T9300.

I like the T8100, but would I have any problems running a Dual Core on this version of Windows?

Thanks.

 

Of course it can't handle HD, it has a Celeron 540 and 1GB of RAM. Best bet would to be max out the RAM, and clean install the OS. You could upgrade your CPU to any Socket M, maybe Socket P. Check out this thread for more details. Or check out Google. Download CPU-Z and check out your current CPU info, then look up what it can be upgraded to.

XP isn't that old! Most businesses are still using it on their new systems... Dual core will run fine.

 

You can use any 800 FSB Core 2 Duo, up to 4 GB RAM, and depends on the motherboard you have, if you have Crestline graphics (Intel GMA 3100) you can't upgrade the graphics card, but you could always swap out the motherboard.

But RAM is a must, 1 GB is the bare minimum to run XP IMO.

 

Thats some very entry level Vostro 1500...were they shipped with such low configs???

If you have a mainboard with a GF8600..??? you can rebuild it to quite useful notebook:
- Get a Core2 T8100 or T8300
- Get 2x2Gb RAM, DDR2 667Mhz is the best it can take
- Get a 320Gb HDD
- Put Windows 7 on it
You've got a notebook which could work for you for about 2-3 years if you don't use it for games!

 

How do I figure out what motherboard I have? When I go into the device manager, there is no listing for a video card.

Also, I'm a bit confused with FSB speeds. I read about how it works and what it does on wikipedia, but is it something that has a range of speeds that it can have? For example, the Celeron 540 has a 533 FSB, but the T8100 uses an 800 FSB. What does that mean?

 

Go to Device manager, and go to Display drivers. If you have the Intel, you have the GMA 3100 graphics, and it cannot be upgraded without changing out the entire motherboard. If it says Nvidia then you have the discreet GPU.

Yours was a very entry level Vostro 1500 but it's the same GM965 chipset so it supports all 800 FSB Core 2 Duos

 

I downloaded SIW to see my complete specs.

Video Card: Intel 965 Express. Bummer

CPU: 479 mPGA socket


Does the T8100 run on the same socket? And if not, what are my upgrade options? Also, where do you guys buy your stuff? I checked out the marketplace, but you can't always find what you want.

EDIT: Also, what is the difference between 677/PC2 5300 and 800/PC2 6400 memory? Do I need to stick with the stock 667/PC2 5300? Will the 800Mhz memory work with the current processor, or do I need a faster processor for it to be compatible?

 

You could change out your motherboard and buy the Nvidia GPU, though I don't recommend it.

Yes, it is socket P. Your best bet is a T8100/T8300 or a T7500.

That is referring to the RAM, GM/PM965 will only support DDR2 667 natively, DDR2 800 will downclock automatically.

 

The GPU is not a problem, you can buy a new mainboard and swap it with yours...even a mainboard from a Inspiron 1520 will fit. Its is the same notebook, just in silver.
There are essentially 2 different CPU sockets for Core2 or Core 2 based CPUs. Socket M and Socket P.
Your notebook has a Socket P, so it can take any CPU from the entry level Celerons to Core2 some T5000, T7000, odd numbered, T8000, T9000 and some Q9000.
The RAM is similar, you can use any DDR2 memory modules, but if you use anything faster than 667Mhz, it will downclock to 667Mhz.

 

Gotcha, everything is slowly coming back to me. I did a lot of research on how to build a computer about a year ago, and then never got around to doing it.

The motherboard dictates how far upmarket you can go. So if its FSB only goes up to 800, you can't put a higher end model in there. Same thing with RAM.

So what is the best place to buy the RAM and the CPU? I've had a good experience with NewEgg. I searched for the T8xxx processors and it seems like they're fairly old, so they're hard to find.