Quick 1705 Upgrade Question

I saw several posts on this site about doing an aftermarket upgrades to the Dell. I can get items from Best Buy at the employee discount (5% above cost), but I am not sure if they even carry all the upgradable parts.

1. I know that the RAM should be easy to upgrade, but I'm not sure what exactly I should be looking for if I want 2GB of RAM. Would I just add another 1GB since the base systems come with 1GB?

2. Is the HDD worth replacing or is Dell's price normal?

3. Is the DVD drive/writer worth replacing?

 

1. The Ram comes in 2x512mb. So if you would upgrade to 2 gig it would be 2x1gig. 533 Mhz or 776 Mhz.

2. I think there prices are pretty standard but I see moving up to the 7200 RPM drives a little more expensive

3. Comes with the DVD writer as something like a $30 upgrade. Do you think you will be burning DVDs etc.

 

- So I would basically have to buy two 1GB RAM and sell the 2x512MB RAM if I wanted to upgrade?

- Probably only as a backup.

 

Yep. You can feel free to take advantage of our B/S/T forum if you like, but 2x 512 doesn't go too fast Mine has been on the block for a couple days with no bites.

Dell hard drives are usually OK, what i'd recommend is going for a smallish 7200 RPM hard drive and then getting/building an external so you have the benefit of a fast disk with extra storage. The external hard drive can also double as a back up system.

www.newegg.com is a good place to look for things, probably not cheaper than BB, but it may be worth a look.

 

Much thanks for your help. I'm probably better off buying the 2GB from Dell since after buying the memory and selling the original, I'm not really saving that much money in the long run factoring in time spent.

2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz [add $185 or $5/month1]
- With 20%-25% off, it almost isn't worth it.

Same with the HDD. I guess I'll use my external USB HDD.