Inspiron 1520 Questions

I'm sure that these questions have been asked before, but I haven't seen them. Granted, i haven't looked through all 102 pages of the Dell Inspiron section.

Anyway, I have an Inspiron 1520. I have upgraded the memory as far as it can go. I would like to be able to add more memory to it down the road. Do I need to replace the mobo in order to do that? Also, is there a mobo available that will work in the 1520 that will allow for more memory? I am thinking about upgrading the processor also. Does anyone have any reccomendations for a processor?

 

How far did you upgrade? The maximum is 6GB. I haven't seen anyone asking this question on the internet, and as far as I know the mobo of 1520 has 2 versions

- one with integrated Intel GMA x3100 [WP043]
- and one with dedicated GPU - either GeForce 8400M GS or 8600M GT [KU926 or WY041 which belongs to Vostro 1500 but fits in 1520]

I dont know about any other mobo available for Dell 1520. I bet though there is nothing else out there.

People tend to recommend Intel Core 2Duo T9300 as the best value for top performance, slightly slower than the more expensive T9500. If you want to go for the extremes then the maximum is X9000.

You should check this tread by Mihael Keehl which is the most complete guide for upgrading Dell 1520 that I have found and is not 102 but just 18 pages so far . Your question belongs there, and he is the one who can give you a definite answer

 

Hello,

My name is Navin and I work for the Social Media and Community Team at Dell.

The Inspiron 1520 has two memory slots and supports a maximum of 4GB (Non-ECC) DDR2 667MHz memory.

Dell does not have any motherboard upgrades for the Inspiron 1520.

The system was offered with three processor configurations,
Intel® Core Duo
Intel Core Solo
Intel Celeron M.

Please click on the link below for upgrade options available for the Inspiron 1520,

Accessories | Dell (This link is specific to the US region, Please change the region on the top left accordingly and choose parts and upgrades under accessories)


Thanks & Regards
Dell_NavinR
Dell Social Media Responder

 

Thanks. I'll check out that thread.

I've upgraded it to 4GB, but I'd ultimately like to go to 6 or even 8. I run Windows 7 (64 bit). It runs well, but I do use AutoCAD, which uses a lot of memory. Like I said it runs fine and works well, and given that, I really don't want to get a new laptop.

 

Navin, are you really sure that it supports 4GB? You are funny Is it only you or is everyone at Dell a Captain Hindsight?

mairj40, you cant go to 8GB. You CAN do 6GB. I have been concerned with upgrading my beloved 1520 for 2 months now. It turns out that if you indeed get yourself a better CPU, the mobo (yes Captain Hindsight, there is an upgrade considering one has the integrated x3100) with 8600GT, the 6GB of RAM and last but not least an SSD hard drive then your laptop is going to fly high for another 2-3 years. That is if you don't need a workstation.

I have found out that dell 1520 owners are reporting the most increase in performance from introducing an SSD drive, I bet AutoCAD is also going to run much faster with SSD. Others might point RAM, I guess they will be right too


Off Topic: Social Media and Community Team I have come to realize that all you people do is comment all day on the products that Dell sells online, creating fake user IDs and posting "Brillian! Super! Great Product!" here and there. I am studying International Business with a Major in Marketing (almost done with the crap) and your game is clear to me. Big multinationals and their marketing departments are the face of corporate hypocrisy at its best. I would even question whether mr. mairj40 is not just another account of yours.

Infiltrating Social Media and Brainwashing Community Team - that's your current occupation. And yes, your comment was useless. You just wasted my time reading it, as well as the time of any non-tech savvy person looking for decent information.

 

Hello Veselatakurabiika,

The Inspiron 1520 was offered with the the below options,

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo
2.2 GHz, 800 Mhz, 4M L2 cache (T7500)
2.0 GHz, 800 Mhz, 4M L2 cache (T7300)
1.8 GHz, 800 Mhz, 2M L2 cache (T7100)
1.66 GHz, 667 Mhz, 2M L2 cache (T5450)
1.5 GHz, 667 Mhz, 2M L2 cache (T5250)

Motherboard:
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (Integrated Video)
128 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS (Discrete solution)
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (Discrete solution)

Memory Supported: Yes the Inspiron 1520 can support 8GB of RAM

Yes adding an SSD will boost the performance by faster boot time and application loading time.


Thanks & Regards
Dell_NavinR
Dell Social Media Responder

 

I can assure you that I am not a member of the groups that you are warning of. I am a legitimate person. I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 that I purchased in 2007 (or 2008, not sure) I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with my wife and three kids. I work at Aegon/Transamerica. I don't know what else To say to prove that I am a real person and not some sort of marketing person, or spammer.

I just simply like my current computer and don't want to spend the money to get a new one. I figure that if I can maybe upgrade this one a little here and there to make it last longer and be more useful, then it's a good thing.

Sorry if I gave anyone the impression that I was trying to do something shady. I wasn't. I was simply looking for information about possibly upgrading my computer.

 

And I wouldn't pimp anything that Dell sells online. I purchased a computer from them for my stepson, and I am WAY less than impressed with the current quality.

Just figured that I'd put to bed the theory that I am just trying to sell new Dell products.

 

Anyway, I have been doing some research and thinking about my options. I'm thinking about upgrading to either a 750G hard drive, or maybe even a TB hard drive. I'll also plan on pushing the memory up to 6. I'm not convinced by the other user's comment that it can handle 8GB of RAM. I haven't seen anything else where anyone has tried that much memory in one.

I'm also not sure about upgrading the processor. I have the T7500, which is 2.2GHz. I'm just not convinced that putting a different processor in is going to make that much of a difference. Maybe I'm wrong on that though.

I'm not looking to break any speed records with my computer. I'm just trying to keep it as up to date as I can.

 

965GM/PM chipsets didn't officially support 8 GB RAM because 4 GB DIMMs did not exist at the time Intel wrote up the specsheet for 965 chipset computers, nor did they want to officially change the specsheet to realistic 8 GB max.

Also alot of maximum RAM issues is dicated by BIOS support, just because the chipset supports 8 GB doesn't mean the BIOS will allow for it. My Alienware M17x R2 theoritical max RAM is 8 GB. In my BIOS it shows up as 0 MB in both DIMMs, but I've been running 16 GB just fine for months.

 

Tsunade Hime is right about why the 1520 officially only supports 4 GB of RAM. Higher-density modules for laptops didn't exist at that time.

The highest memory upgrade I've ever read about in a 1520 is 6 GB. Notebookreview user SomeFormOfHuman is amongst the users who have done that. IIRC, he was able to put 8 GB in his XPS 1730, which also initially only officially supported 4 GB, but could only get 6 GB working in the 1520 (and I'm pretty sure he tried 8 GB, since he obviously had 8 GB available to get it working in the 1730). You could send him a private message to verify, although I don't know if he's still active here.

For the motherboard, assuming you've got the discrete graphics, you're at the top of the road. If you have the 8400 GS, you could upgrade to the 8600M GT without replacing the mobo, but I wouldn't recommend it because it has to be an 8600M GT designed for the 1520 or the Vostro 1500, and the chances of finding one at a reasonable price are quite low. I can't imagine anyone has built a third-party motherboard that's compatible - it's a fairly odd-shaped one to begin with to fit everything in the 1520's frame.

NavinR does list all the processors that the 1520 initially shipped with. But, some others will also work:

• Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.4 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache) - officially supported and an option on the Inspiron 1720
• T7800 (2.6 GHz, 4 MB L2) - Wasn't out yet when 1520 came out
• T9300 (2.5 GHz, 6 MB L2)
• T9500 (2.6 GHz, 6 MB L2)
• X7800 (2.6 GHz, 4 MB L2, overclockable)
• X7900 (2.8 GHz, 4 MB L2, overclockable)
• X9000 (2.8 GHz, 6 MB L2, overclockable)

There's a few more that came out later, but aren't upgrades from the T7500 (T8300 might be, but depends on the workflow... I wouldn't bother). The overclockable ones could potentially get a little toasty if you try to overclock them. The X9000 is of course the ideal, also presently overpriced, IMO.

I'm planning to upgrade my T7500 to an X7900 this weekend, mostly for the sake of doing so. I bought one of them because it was cheaper than the X9000 (by a lot), slightly cheaper than an X7800 (surprisingly), and not an engineering sample. I'll post back on one of the 1520 thread's (possibly Mihael Keehl's) with the results (although I don't know if it will be right away).