Just Ordered a Vostro 1500!

Hello all. First time poster but a lerker for a few weeks now. I just ordered the Dell Vostro 1500 with an 8400M GS, since Dell was nice enough to yank the 8600M GT option last week. I'm planning on getting a refurbished 8600M GT graphics card sometime soon and replacing the 8400M. Has anybody every done this before? It doesn't look hard at all, I just wondered if it voided my warranty or had any quirks I needed to know about.

Hope to contribute to these forums as much as I can!

 

Welcome to the boards and congratulations on your purchase. The Vostro 1500 is a dam nice machine. I'm typing this message on one. As far as the graphics card goes it is a discreet card but soldered onto the mobo. At least that's what i've read. My 1500 also has the 8400m GS and while it's not as good as the 8600 GT it has much better performance over the Intel X3100 integrated video that's also offered on the Vostro line.

 

I don't think it is soldered into the mobo. Dell sells the graphics card refurbished on their website so I know it replaceable. Actually, there is an instructional page on how to do so from Dell, linked somewhere from here on the forums.

All I really wanted to do was have a good laptop for work, but also be able to play a little bit of TF2 and other Source games while on the go.

 

Well i'll be I guess you can replace the graphics card. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/sm/graphics.htm#wp1179839

How much do they want for the 8600m GT?

 

$146 plus shipping at tax. I think for me, it came out to $155 though. I only had a budget of $600 when ordering my Vostro so I will have to wait a little bit to order the 8600M GT refurb

 

I'd wait for the newer cards coming out in the future. Make good use of your 8400m GS until you get the money. You might want to do a search because some have overclocked their 8400 GS and 8600 GT's with good results.

 

Awesome, thanks for the advice. I'll have to check that out while I wait for Dell's extremely long shipping process.

 

I dont know if this is true and sorry if i am totally wrong but i saw someone said that he called dell and they were having problems with the site and you can just call them and ask for the 8600 if you cancell and reorder but you might want to check first.

 

Yeah, I've already pissed Dell off by asking about it lol. I first chatted online with a Dell rep and he/she kept saying "Whatever options are available on the website is what you can order". I called a Dell Rep and he almost laughed at me for calling. I finally emailed our Dell rep for work and he said the same things.

Good customer service Dell! Good job yanking out a good graphics card and leaving us with almost close to crap hardware.