E1505 upgrade/overhaul: lookin' good?

Hello everyone, I just wanted to check with other people here to make sure that this big overhaul that I'm looking at is doable. It's almost 4 years old, and I'm in need of a more capable laptop.

Current specs:
Dell E1505
T2400 (1.83 Ghz)
1 GB RAM
ATI X1400
Windows XP Media Center

Upgrade to:
- T7200-T7600 - $100-$230
(prob 7400, best bang for the buck, I'm still looking for the best deal.)
- 2, 3 or 4GB RAM PC5300 - $52-83
(I understand that the Intel i945PM chipset limits it to 3.3 GB or so?)
- Windows 7 Ultimate - $30
(Make sure to get 64 bit edition, no? Also, using win741.com offer)
- New Battery - $87
(from laptopbattery.com, I haven't had a battery for almost 3 years)
- Arctic Silver - $5

Additional steps needed:
- update BIOS to A17 from Dell
- download I8KFANGUI

Total cost: $274-$455

Anything else I'm missing?

(BTW, I used coupons here from notebookreview.com for my original laptop, and helped up the specs a bit to enable the laptop to last this long. Thx guys!! )

 

What about the hard drive?

Personally, I'd just buy a new laptop. The parts that you are upgrading to aren't great by today's standards, and there is not much more you can do with a laptop that old.

 

Yeah, I'd consider a hard drive upgrade as well, even at the expense of the CPU upgrade.

 

I agree with Xiphias. Upgrading the T2400 is not a big priority as it can deal with Windows 7 just fine, and upgrading the hard drive would be cheaper and more beneficial for general system performance. Upgrading the CPU tends to be expensive and should only be done if the current chip cannot perform your tasks adequately.

 

I have a 100 GB 7200 RPM hard drive right now that works well, and I have a new 500 GB My Passport Elite that I am using too.

Well after finding new charts, it does appear now that even Dell's baseline C2D T4300 bests the T7600 by a fair margin.

My biggest concern now is how to reduce the cost to around $500 while maximizing benefits. But, alas, that is what every consumer does.

 

You mean to tell me that a T4300 beats a T7600? I think you are wrong there...

 

The E1505 with a T7400/T7600, 4gb of memory (3072mb recognized) and a speedy 320gb or larger 7200rpm drive, is not a slouch. I use my E1505 for everything. It has always served me well.
Unfortunately it looks like my only last upgrade is to go to an SSD, so I will be looking there for my next upgrade path.

The E1505 is limited to 150mb/sec data transfer. Just a heads up

K-TRON

 

According to these charts they do.

T4300 scores a 1442 and T7600 is at 1286.

Is there another site/thread that shows different?

(On a side note, all the different designations by Intel is really starting to annoy me, their similarities and all.)

 

I see the rank in notebookcheck is more like it ..

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

I don't believe T4300 beats T7600 in real life without OC..

 

Technically there is no reason for the T4300 to outperform the T7600 at anything, so all I can say is that either someone made a mistake in compiling the list, or the data is correct and the T4300 does in fact outperform the T7600 at one task. As I said though, this is not possible.

 

The information you've collected from that chart is incorrect, the 7600 has 4mb of l2 cache, 4 times the 1mb the 4300 has. It also has a slightly higher clock speed. In no circumstance should the t4300 outperform the t7600.

 

Hmm, I don't think that site is quite right. It shows that my P8400 is being beaten by a P7350, or something similar, when they are exactly the same, except my P8400 has a higher clock speed.

 

Okay, well good to know that the site is invalid.

After scouting laptops again, and reconsideration of the site I mentioned, I'm back to belief that upgrading at about $350 is better than any 15" laptop I can get for under $600.

One of the biggest concerns I have is how you usually have to break $600 on any laptop in order to get a dedicated graphics card. With my usage patterns including occasional gaming (Civilization IV is my most common), and some GIS work, I'm very hesitant to get any laptop without a dedicated graphics card.

 

Oh I see. I guess upgrading is worth it then.

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5254389&CatId=4935

 

The 4330 isn't great though. It would be better to save up a bit more and then get something like a GT 230M.

 

That wasn't my main point.

Main point was that it's possible. lol

It is, indeed better to save up, but if your budget is fixed at $600, the MSI is a decent deal. The 4330 outperforms the X1400.

 

I'm sorry, but to which component are you referring to at 150 mb/sec?

Thank you dtwn for linking me to that. Yes, $600 is about my max, and I do need the laptop for this upcoming spring semester, so unfortunately I can't wait that long.

 

HDD transfer rate.

 

What is the bottleneck then that is limiting it to 150 mb/sec? Is SATA not 3 GB/sec? What is the transfer rates then for newer laptops?

 

Op, please get a new computer. i realize your's may have been reliable in the past, but updating the components in it would literally be to "polish a turd" in a sense. It can only be upgraded so much, and for the price of the upgrade, you could buy a NEW computer with even better hardware.

 

You can actually polish a turd...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJ9fy1qSFI

 

SATA II is 300MB/sec data transfer, but the E1505 is a SATA I connection, meaning a max of 150 MB/sec limit.

Incidentally with Bing Cashback of 15% currently, the MSI will cost you $510.

 

Lol, lovin the comment on that video:

"This is how Macs are made".

 

Yeah I saw that.

What really made me laugh was how many thumbs up it had.

 

if ur spending $500 to upgrade this laptop , u might as well get $500 more and using the bing cashback , get a Hp Dv6t quad edition with core i7 and GT230M... it will pwen the dell...