Inspiron 1420

Just got an Inspiron 1420 at the dell outlet for 390 bucks. Comes with T2390, 8400M GS, 2 gb ram, 120 gb hard drive, 6 cell battery. first is this a good deal? second where can a get an OEM 9 cell bettery for the 1420? everywhere I look there selling knockoff batteries. Thank You

 

$390 not soooo bad, looks like you got just basic specs on the 1420.

What do you plan on using the 1420 for? Do you have any plans on adding any Ram?

You can probably get a 9 cell from a seller on Ebay if you looked around.


Cin

 

The 1420 uses a previous-generation Intel chipset/processor and nVIDIA graphics card, but for under $400 it's still a very good deal. The T2390 (1.86GHz, 533MHz FSB, 1mb L2 cache) performs almost identically to the 1.83GHz Intel T5550, and 1.8GHz Intel T5670...which is to say more than adequate for most users. The discrete GPU is gravy.

A common benchmark used to test overeall system performance is PCMarkVantage (Vista only). I'd be very interested to see how the T2390 with nVIDIA graphics card scores! If you're interested, you can download for free here - LINK

Here's the new one on Dell's site (for the ridiculous price of $179)- LINK (that link is useful because it has the Part #- Dell Part# : 312-0580)

I searched using the part number and found this one for $109- LINK. Spend a bit searching the part # and you may find a better deal than that. Here's the eBay search results using that #- LINK

 

Looks like a pretty good deal to me!

For the battery I would say either ebay or you could Google inspiron 1420 battery and you might find some other retailers.

 

Ok got the computer. First thing I did was make sure all the drivers and what not were up to date then I did a PCMarkVantage. I got ~1450 sorry I forgot the exact score and link (Is there any way to find the link to the score?). Anyway the 6 cell battery is awful (around 3 hrs on the power saving setting) , think its ok to get a Chinese copy off ebay? Also I ordered 2 2gb 800mhz ram chips from dell. Right now the laptop has this hard drive in it ( http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=164) would it be worth $60 to upgrade to this hard drive ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148399)? And I was thinking, on ebay I could prob get an OEM T8100 (identical chip that dell offers on there site as an upgrade for the 1420) for under $75, would installing it void my warranty? Are there any instructions on how to install it? Would I have to flash the BIOS before or after installing it even though I'm using the most up to date BIOS and I know this identical setup can handle and does use that chip? thank you for the help

 

That's what I did with my Studio 1535. I bought a Chinese knockoff 9-cell for $60, and it's been performing just as well as it should be so far. Much better than the 6-cell...I've gotten up to 5 hours out of it on power save mode and 1/3 screen brightness.

$60 for an extra 40GB? Doubt it. Newegg has a Hitachi 7200RPM 320GB hard drive for $59.99 after mail-in rebate, and a 500GB Seagate for $99.

Not sure about the warranty. I swapped my old T5750 for a T9500, which has been working beautifully so far. If you have the latest BIOS, there's no need to re-flash it after a processor swap; it should automatically recognize it. Dell should have instructions in a service manual on their support page for that model. If I were you, I would keep your original processory lying around just in case though.

 

Thanks a Ton. I think I'll get a Deneq (thats seems to be a "brand" name knockoff) 9 cell batter. The reason I wanted that hard drive ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148399) was because it is a 7200 rpm single platter 16 mb cache Hard Drive. Really space isn't THAT important I care more about the performance and the NOISE. But is it really gonna be a huge difference if I upgrade from my old hard drive ( http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=164)? Oh and thanks a TON for the info on the processor. Let me just clarify this then, I just gotta remove the old processor and put the new one in and it'll be ok? No new firmware no new software? Just swap them?

 

Any 7200RPM drive will make more noise than a 5400RPM. If your BIOS supports it, though, you can enable HDD Acoustic Mode. At the expense of a bit of performance, it makes things much quieter. I personally keep it on max performance mode since my Logitech Z-2300's drown out any other noise.

And yes, you pretty much remove the old processor and put in the new one. Although if you're swapping processors, I recommend you get rid of the thermal pad crap that Dell puts on the bottom of your heatsink, and apply some real thermal paste, like Arctic Silver 5.

 

Good to know I think I still have some AS5 left over from when I built my desktop. Anyone have any suggestions on an anti-glare/screen protector for the inspiron 1420? Hopefully one that doesn't mess up the screen and leave nasty adhesive behind.

 

Ok so I got my 2x 2gb sticks of ram from dell and installed it, however I am now experiencing a problem. Instead of giving me 3.5 gb of ram (like its suppose to in vista 32) only 2 gb show up in the windows task manager. It does however recognize that there are 2x 2gb sticks in the Bios and system information. The system information says 4 gb of total physical ram but only 2gb of available physical ram. Shouldn't I have 3.5 gb of ram with 500 mb of ram reserved in the cache? Anyway I called dell and the dell tech couldn't figure out what was wrong (he saw the system info and said it was suppose to say ~3.5gb of ram available) so hes sending me a vista x64 home premium disc along with all the drivers. Should I upgrade or keep trying to fix this (I have found what I think might be a fix but the stupid dell BIOS doesn't let you turn off memory remapping)?

 

If they're sending you a free 64-bit Vista disk, I can't see a valid reason not to upgrade. Finding 64-bit drivers shouldn't be hard, and using all 4GB of RAM is very nice.

 

I was worried about compatibility with programs/games. From my experience drivers, and software in general is really hit and miss when it comes to being compatible with vista 64. Personally I would be happy with ~3.5 gb of ram (which is why I purchased the upgrade) but if I knew on my setup the computer will only use a max of 2 gb I wouldn't have purchased the ram (I think this is why they are upgrading me, they'd rather give me a free version of vista x64 then have me return the ram). Also which should I go for a t8100 for ~80-90 or a t8300 for ~130-140 (like a $50 difference).

 

I have not had a single driver, program, game, or other software or hardware compatibility issues yet, and it's been a few months. 64-bit windows emulates 32-bit natively with no real loss in performance.

 

AHHH ok then thats perfect. Now which should I go for a t8100 for ~80-90 or a t8300 for ~130-140 (like a $50 difference). Oh and is there any way to virtually increase the ram on the video card with regular ram? For example make the computer see the video card as 256 mb 8400m gs and see only 3964 ram? I'm going out on a limb there I doubt it but was just wondering.

 

What are the specs on the T8100 and T8300? And Mobility Modder has a feature that allows you to edit the amount of virtual video memory, at least for ATi cards. They have a beta nVidia Mobility Modder now, see if that does what you want.

 

identical specs 300 mhz difference

 

.3GHz for ~$50? If you can afford it, why the hell not. You're talking to a guy who just spent damn near $300 on a T9500.