Help

I have a dell vostro 1700 stock. it has everything stock except we ordered it with a less expensive video card. its the 8400 instead of the 8600. I desperatly want to upgrade it to run more recent games , at a decent speed . Im not talking top of the line stuff , but a significant upgrade. The problem is , i have absolutly no idea what i am doing when it comes to looking up parts and knowing what will fit this computer and stuff.Could anyone help me out and help me find parts that will fit?

 

As far as i can tell you, the vostro 1700 graphics card is soldered into the motherboard. And therefore you will have to replace the whole mobo equpped with 8600.

This is the case for all entry level laptops, business and consumer.

Sorry for the bad news. but perhaps time to upgrade?

 

No the Vostro 1700 use a Dell proprietary MXM card. You should be able to buy the Vostro 1500 module (UW390, 8600M GT 256 MB) and swap the heatsinks for it to fit in the Vostro 1700 or you can buy the Vostro 1700 module but it is significantly more expensive.

 

haha my bad. did not know!

 

Actually ive given in. Ive always wanted an alienware , i know you can build a better computer for cheaper but its just what i wanted. I was approved through dell prefered to get it . Heres the new specs , ill get it on the 11th.

Intel® Core™ i5 2430M 2.4GHz (3.0GHz with Turbo Boost, 3MB Cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Wireless-N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2 edit
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz edit
VIDEO CARD 3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus™ technology edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s edit
LCD PANEL 14.0" High Def (720p/1366x768) with WLED backlight edit
WIRELESSHD OR MOBILE BROADBAND None edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8x SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Slot Load Optical Drive edit
SOUND OPTIONS Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio edit
My Software & Accessories
SYSTEM COLOR Nebula Red with Soft Touch Finish edit
PERSONALIZED PLATE Personalized Plate (Jerry) edit
ALIENFX COLOR Mars Red edit
PRE-INSTALLED SOFTWARE Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed

 

Did you go through a rep to get those specs? I know you are possibly on a budget, and who isn't these days. However IMHO, you should at least upgrade the processor to a quad and the LCD to the 900p. Everything else should be ok for time being depending on what gaming you want to do.

 

actually nope , i did it myself , after consulting a friend of mine and taking into account my budget. i had to choose between upgrading the gfx card or the processor and from what he said and what i read the next processor choice up was only around a 10% increase in preformance compared to about 20% increase via video card choice. i actually had no budget to use haha , i only was able to get it because dell approved me for 1200$ and i couldnt go over that. So thats why i got the better vid card instead of processor. Honestly im a console gamer mostly , but i play mmo's like SWTOR . I also would like to play skyrim and olbivion at good quality haha

 

You shouldn't upgrade the GPU or the CPU until you upgrade to the 1600x900 display. The default display, the 1366x768 display makes text and things onscreen rather large and has poor image quality (contrast). The 1600x900 display provides a much larger workspace and has excellent contrast. The screen upgrade makes more of a difference than any other upgrade in the M14x, and all of the default specs in the M14x are great (i5, 1.5GB 555M) are great except for the 1366x768 screen. The screen upgrade comes first before you choose any other upgrades.

Plus, the 3GB GPU upgrade doesn't make any difference. It's a marketing scam. It's rare for a game to use even a full 1.5GB of memory on a 555M-level GPU.