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    M1530 Upgrade Questions

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by murrle9120, Dec 12, 2011.

  1. murrle9120

    murrle9120 Newbie

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    New Member to the Forum, Longtime Dell Owner.

    Anyway I have had my XPS M1530 for quite some time (at least since 08) and I figured it was time to upgrade it a bit (Main computer has broken so I will be using this)

    So this is what I have going on:

    Vista Home Premium (32 Bit OS)
    Intel Core Duo T5250 @ 1.50 GHZ
    1 GB RAM
    Toshiba MK1637GSX (believe it is 136 GB)
    NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

    I will be using this machine for watching videos, light gaming from time to time. Websurfing and Word documents.

    My first guess is to leave the HDD alone and just upgrade the ram to its max capacity. Which I think is 4 GB of RAM at 2 GB per stick. I'm up for all suggestions to make this laptop run better. I thank you all in advance for any and all help.
     
    murrle9120, Dec 12, 2011
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  2. gull_s_777

    gull_s_777 Notebook Consultant

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    Well you can put a T9300 or T9500(Max) in it....
    upgrade to 4GB or 8GB RAM, put a Momentus XT 500GB or 750GB hard drive in it, install Win 7 64bit and you will be good to go....
    But i guess those are lot of upgrades for an old machine. Buying new laptop even with i3 will be a lot better now.... plus those 8400M and 8600M Graphics have the reputation of failing at any time so if i were you , i wouldn't invest more in any machine having those (another reason to buy new machine) :D
     
    gull_s_777, Dec 12, 2011
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  3. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    You should be able to do 8 GB DDR2. You can do an X9000 Core 2 Extreme (dual core), though not advisable as the M1530 already has a crummy cooling system and has the melty Nvidia chip.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Dec 12, 2011
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  4. n640nec

    n640nec Notebook Consultant

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    I still have my XPS m1530 since 2007, and it still runs strong (and hot! ... due to hdd and wifi card). I had it upgraded to 8 GB memory a while back, well worth getting the extra memory. Depends on your budget, upgrading memory from 1GB to 4GB or 8GB is recommended. Upgrading the hdd from 5400 to 7200 rpm is recommended, but not as crucial as bumping up the memory from 1GB to at least 4GB. If you can afford to upgrade to Windows 7, you will be much happier.

    My recommendation in this order:

    1. Memory -> 4GB (8GB is not necessary if you are not running virtual machines), but at 4GB you will notice speed improvement.
    2. Windows 7... I like this over Vista.
    3. 7200 rpm hard drive (any disk size you can afford) but obviously if you unplug it this hdd speed will drain the battery a whole lot quicker than it would with a 5400 rpm hdd.
     
    n640nec, Dec 13, 2011
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  5. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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    ^ EVERYONE likes win7 more than Vista unless they're into the nostalgia of old OSes :D (I am sometimes)

    It should be the number 1 thing to upgrade... except that your config is ridiculously low spec. Funny thing is you might need 8gb on Vista only because Vista has bad memory management fixed in win7

    Hard drive not that important if its close to full which it probably is. I don't recommend a 7200 rpm drive, I find them to be much more sensitive to shock and movement and not considerably faster
     
    niffcreature, Dec 13, 2011
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  6. n640nec

    n640nec Notebook Consultant

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    Only be aware that 8GB memory is not fully recognized under a 32-bit OS so you must run a 64-bit OS if you wish to upgrade to 8GB, otherwise, stick to 4GB which works well within a 32-bit environment.
     
    n640nec, Dec 13, 2011
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  7. 540is

    540is Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'am running Win7/64, with Intel 320SSD (600GB), and 8GB ram
    - keeps up with many newer machines :)
     
    540is, Dec 14, 2011
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