Think Dell will offer better cards for the 1520 in the future?

With laptops, the big problem is always upgrading, it doesn't matter how much RAM you get if you're bottlenecking your video card.

As far as I know with Dells, as long as you don't have an integrated video card, you can upgrade your video card to any other card they offer for the notebook. So right now, say, if you got an inspiron with the 8400 you could get the 8600 from Dell and put it in.

How often has Dell in the past offered higher end cards than the ones a laptop was originally available with? Do you think demand for more upgradeable laptops will push them into continuing to support the 1520's by offering better cards for them when they come out?

I figure I know I can upgrade my RAM, and the 7200rpm hard drive should last since hard drive speeds aren't too crucial, so if they eventually offer a better video card than the 8600M GT for the inspirons, it would definitely extend the life of my inspiron until it bottlenecks too badly at the T7300 processor.

 

I think dell uses MXM, and would suspect that you MIGHT be able to upgrade it.

 

Well thought out but wrong conclusions. By the time your computer needs to be upgraded so you can stay ahead of the "curve" the best value will be to buy new not upgrade. The future upgrade card likely will not physically fit even if the MXM-PCIe adapter does. In a year they will have notebooks that will blow yours away and the cost to hang with them w/upgrades will be far to much. Also where do you buy these hot new cards even if they fit, Dell does not support GPU upgrades even if possible so who is going to sell you the card? Enjoy your new computer now and let the future happen.

And the answer to your question is no, they want to sell you a system not an upgrade.

 

Dell does not use MXM, they use their own proprietary format.

If Dell ever releases the 1520 with something else, then it should be upgradable(or downgradable) to that, but is limited to what Dell says.

With that being said, the 8600GT is already the best at the 15.4" range(though the DDR2 8600GT is a bit slower then the GDDR3 8600GT), the step up onto the 8700/8800 requires a larger notebook.

 

I'm aware of all this, but do you know if in the past they've offered better video cards for laptops than the ones that were initially available for it?

 

In the past, the only ones were the 17" notebooks. Though the e1505 had the x1300, x1400 and 7400 all available at the same time.

Considering Dell, and considering their current price point for the 1520/1500, I seriously doubt it will happen.

 

While Dell may not offer GPU upgrades, there is always ebay! haha anyways, while the upgrade from the 8400M GS to the 8600M GT probably will be possible (according to the service manual), if you wanted to upgrade to something more powerful, it most likely will cause overheating.

What sucks is the fact that Dell doesn't use MXM. I guess sooner or later, the Asus C90 will start to look very tempting