Upgrade my Inspiron 1720 or buy a new laptop?

Hello everyone, I am considering on spending some money for a more powerful notebook.

I own a very basic 17" Dell Inspiron 1720 with Windows Vista, with a Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5250 (2M Cache, 1.50 GHz, 667 MHz FSB), 160 GB HDD, 2GB RAM, and a 128MB 8400GM GeForce graphic card.

My processor fan died and I just bought a replacement, and since then I started doing some research since CPU usage is most of the time at its fullest compromising the performance (Temps are very high too) of the computer in general. I did my research and this are some of my options to upgrade it:

A Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T9500 (6M Cache, 2.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB), cloning my HDD on a 500GB Seagate Momentus® XT Solid State Hybrid Hard Drive, upgrade my RAM to 4GB (Maximun capability, it seems), and the graphic card to a 256MB 8600M GT GeForce (only replacement for my current one).

And my buying option to replace it would be a 17" HP dv7t series, which is what I think would best suit me:

Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-460M Dual Core Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz edit
Graphics card: 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 switchable graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For Dual Core Processors
Memory: 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm) edit
Hard drive: 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Primary optical drive: Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner

I love my Dell we've been through our ups and downs but it always came through, considering the upgrades I would spend around $500. The new HP is $1000 (with an extra oversize battery). I like gaming once in a while and the graphic card and blue-ray are two things why I am considering replacing my Dell.

Any advice?

 

If you want to keep your 1720 to minimum cost of upgrading, go for a T8300, T9x00 don't offer much over the T8x00 besides more speed/cache. Momentus XT can be bought for ~110 right now, and the 8600M GT is ~90 dollars if you have the right motherboard.

I would avoid the HP, the new ones are terribly designed, terrible to service.

 

Thanks for the advice! I found that the new dell inspiron would be cost-effective since for $400 more, I get more for my money: a 1GB graphic card, 6GB DDR, a 500GB 5200rpm HDD (will still get the seagate hybrid, hehe) and the processor is 2.53 that can be over-clocked to 2.88, check that out. I will still upgrade this old one in the future. But how can I say no that new deal!

You were right about the HP it is just...girly looking!

So what do you think worth it?

 

Well that's a personal decision you will have to make. I prefer older laptops, I feel newer laptops aren't made as durable as they used to be. The Inspiron 1720/1520 was the last generation Inspiron to use the bulkier chassis, as with the Inspiron 1525 went to that thin chassis design and that's where I feel they went cheapo. But just my opinion on it.

The newer Dell will offer you a whole new jump on the newest (or last generation now with SB). If you don't do a whole lot with your notebook, it isn't a significant jump to the Core i platform.