Sorry if this is a dumb question

But, can you upgrade a windows laptop after the purchase like you can with a mac? I have a 2009 dell studio xps 16. It's pretty awesome, but I may want to add more Ram and some more HD space, or even a SSD. Doable?

 

Welcome to NBR! Simple upgrades like CPU, RAM and hard disk are absolutely possible for most notebook computers.

For the XPS 16, the hard drive or SSD must be a 2.5" SATA drive which is very common.

I believe the RAM must be DDR3 SO-DIMM (laptop memory), but you can probably make sure by checking with a program like CPU-z.

Here's the instructions for opening up the laptop:
Documentation
Documentation

Dell is great as they provide easy access to service manuals for their laptops.

The XPS 16 has models 1640, 1645 and 1647. Probably best to make sure which you have first as well.

 

Thanks for the response, much appreciated. I thought you can't upgrade CPU? I'm running Itel Core 2 Duo. You're saying I can upgrade to an Intel core i3 or i5 or i7?

 

Sorry, chances are that you can upgrade to a faster clocked Core 2 Duo (or possibly Core 2 Quad CPU but that is less common). An upgrade to an i3/5/7 isn't possible as those processors use a different chipset.

(Also, if your laptop has a C2D CPU then it's the M1640.)

 

So, I'm running Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 @ 2.53GHz, Socket P (478) (0x7)
DDR3Memory Size8192 MBytes. Not bad eh? Think it's worth trying to speed it up?

 

You've got plenty of RAM and the CPU is generally fast enough that you wouldn't notice the difference even if you upgraded to the highest Core 2 Duo model.

Does anything in particular feel like it's lacking in the computer?

 

No, I admit it's pretty fast and still a very well equipped laptop. I may want to change the hard drive to an SSD for some quicker load times and general speed. Thoughts?

 

Switching your current hdd with a ssd will definitely be a great improvement. The process is dead simple. All you need is a screw driver to remove the back panel, unscrew the hdd, unplug it. Then plug the ssd in, screw it in, and you're ready to go. Remember to get a 2.5 ssd, and do research on it before you buy. Also remember that switching hard drives will cause all your data to be gone, and you will need to reinstall the operating system( windows) which you need to request from dell or aquire elsewhere.

 

You already got nice CPU and enough RAM, no point in upgrading....
upgrade your hard drive and you are good to go.....