XPS-M1330: processor and menory upgrade?

I am about to order the upgrade components for my beloved XPS-M1330

Mine came with a whopping T5250 and 2GB DDR2-667
I am now looking to upgrade to a T7700 (Dell only ships till T7500) and a 4GB OCZ DDR2-800 kit.

However i hear mixed messages about the Santa Rosa platform: Intel says it supports up to DDR2-800 while some members here say the Dell implemenation is only supports up to DDR2-667.

Who can state the facts and clear this up for once an for all? before is spend money on 800Mhz capable components, while i could have bought cheaper 667?

 

It supports up to 800 Mhz, in that it will work but its speed is brought down to 667. Its not Dell doing this, but rather, industry wide for the same components.

Also you had better do alot of reading before throwing the T7700 in there. Dell discontinued that because of, I believe, extreme heat and conflict issues, and I know of more that have been sent back than are being used presently with success.

I would like to hear otherwise regarding the processor though.

 

I can also order a T7500 but this one is also 800Mhz. Why is the speed brought dowfddn to 667? are there any links, reviews on that?

 

Tons...it has nothing to do with the processor or ram, but rather the motherboard I believe.

 

It is because the Santa Rosa platform only supports up to 667MHz RAM.

 

Ok, so if i understand you guys correctly: buying 800Mhz FSB components is a waste of money since the will run 667 on the xps-m1330 regardless.

I'll think i will stick with my T5250 then and only buy a 4GB OCZ 667 kit.
My GF can then put my 2GB in her Dell Inspiron 6200

 

yeah you don't need anything more than ddr2 667 and you wouldn't be able to notice a difference even if it supported running ddr2 800.

 

More bad news if Windows 32, will only recognize just over 3GB's.

 

3582MB, to be precise, on the M1330.

 

without 64bit OS, 4GB RAM is useless.

 

Seems to be some confustion in here.

It is worth getting the 800mhz FSB processors becasue teh Santa rosa platform supports 800mhz FSB. But it is NOT worth getting the 800mhz ram beacuse the Sanat Rosa platform does not support 667mhz ram.

So get a 800mhz FSB processor but 667mhz RAM.

 

Ok, that makes more sense. And 4GB is usefull even under Vista32
3596mb is still 1.5gb more than 2048mb, so you loose 512mb addressable memory, big deal.......

 

Exactly, i thought vostrouser1400 saying it was useless was a bit much.

Not the end of the world but you'll see it all with 64bit.

64bit isn't a walk in the park with the m1330 either though. Your choices of a T7500 and 4gb of ram is working out perfectly for me. You definately won't be dissapointed by the performance.

 

Ok, i've ran Vista x64 since november on my desktop (AMD X2 4400+ with 2GB) and though there is a decent amount of drivers available, it does not support the 100mbit broadcom on the xps-m1330 also the CPU utilization when idle seems to be a bit higher than on x86
and games seem to have some latency problems which aren't there on x86 (or have these been solved by now?)

So overall no interest in x64 atm, but who knows when a compelling reason arises. The processor supporting the EMT64 extensions is not enough reason for me.