hello old M1330

Hello!

I have an ancient XPS 1330 whose eccentricities I've come to adore. For $1600 three years ago its worked fine. With two trips from Dell service - once for a keyboard/mouse replacement and once for a dying hard drive.

Its a little old by todays standards - I was thinking of buying the VAIO Z2 for the next three years. If there was a new M1330 type machine - (don't care for the MBA or Samsumg) I'd buy that.

I've gone through a few threads here to see that there are modification I could do to the M1330 to add some life to it. I could spend:

$400 on a 256GB SSD
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
I saw a couple of videos on youtube which seemed to imply a 20-25% reduction in windows start time - and applications.

$10 do the copper heat sink mod
or have it done for around the same amount at the local shop

$150 add 4GB ram
Newegg.com - Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory Model CT2KIT51264AC667

$50 9cell battery
already got this

$1 change from Vista 32 to Vista 64 (I installed 32 again when the HDD was replaced by a furbished one - and yes $1 thats how valuable my time is

Total ~ $650

I have a T8300 2.4G - and the 8400GS - I don't think either of those need to be changed - the 8400GS cannot be changed right? Maybe do the optical bay mod and add another SSD.

Or I could spend $2400 on a VAIO Z2? I don't think the VAIO is as easy to modify but if I don't end up modifying the M1330 then what use would that ease be on the Z2 three years from now.

With the additions to the M1330 I think it could last me another year at most but I'll have $650 lesser a year from now to buy the Z2 or something.

What do you think?

Thanks for the help

 

If your 8400M GS has not died yet, then I would not spend any money to upgrade it. It will die on you eventually; all of the NVIDIA cards had the issue with the soldering. Save your money for a new computer that is not going to die.

 

You could buy a much faster AMD A Series or Intel Core i processor based laptop for $650.