Inspiron 1520

So I'm ordering an Inspiron 1520

And I only have enough money for one of two upgrades I'd like to make.

The model I have right now is as shown:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB), English
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition, English
Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA Display
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
80G 5400RPM SATA HDD
256MB NVIDIA ®GeForce™8600M GT
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

Cost: $999 CAD

Now I have enough money to make one of two upgrades right now. I can either upgrade the RAM to 2GB, bringing the cost to $1089 CAD

Or I can upgrade the processor to an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (4MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB) bringing the cost to $1199 CAD

I plan on making the other upgrade as soon as I have the money but for now I can only afford to upgrade the RAM or the processor. Which should I upgrade before ordering? I'll be using this laptop mainly for gaming, but school work as well come September.

I'm guessing it's easier to upgrade RAM after ordering, but is it really going to be that big a performance difference between a T7300 and a T5450? Also, would the 8600GT or any other hardware act as a bottleneck for a processor such as the T7300? Making the upgrade worthless?

Thanks!

 

I would upgrade the processor as it's cheaper to get ram elsewhere.

 

I was debating on doing the same. $1200's steep but the RAM upgrade is $90 and I feel I can do that same upgrade myself for less money. Just want some 2nd opinions as I'm not sure how much the CPU would help.

 

Definitely upgrade the processor first. Dell overprices RAM like crazy... It's much easier to upgrade RAM later on than upgrading a processor anyway. Not to mention you'll save yourself a few bucks in the process.

 

also, upgrading the processor down the road will void your warranty, whereas upgrading RAM, my friend, will not

 

and when i say "upgrade", i mean "manually"

just wanted to clarify

 

Another excellent point, one other query I have. What of the performance difference between the processors? I noticed they're not clocked too far apart but the L2 cache on the T7300 is twice that of the T5450.

I've heard that's a big deal.

 

Unless you're doing hardcore encoding it's not going to be a HUGE difference. The weakest C2D processor for the 1520 is still quite powerful by todays standards. The T7300 is future proof though. The bigger cache will help down the road, definitely.

 

Closest to hardcore processor power required will be Spore and Crysis when they're released. You do make a great point about future proofing though. I s'pose I'll just evaluate what I need now...

and since I don't have many games that really would eat up 2GB of RAM... maybe the processor would be the more appropriate decision.

 

I do reccomend 2GB down the road though! Vista is quite a resource hog and you will definitely need 2GB later. But you can definitely get by with a ReadyBoost drive until you're read to upgrade your RAM.

 

Good advice! I believe the choice is made. Thanks very much!

 

You're very welcome. Enjoy the new laptop!

 

I'll get 2GB ASAP. Sorry! One more thing though! The Dell tech told me if I upgrade my RAM with non-Dell ordered RAM then I void my warranty... but I feel I could probably pop my old RAM back in if anything went wrong and I needed to send it back.

Upgrading RAM is easy and offers no indication right?

(It's a little dishonest I know, but I really disagree with that warranty policy. I feel if it's readily user accessible, it shouldn't void anything to upgrade. However, if posting help to that issue is against forum rules, just let me know.)

 

Upgrading RAM is a consumer upgrade and in no way can it void your warranty... don't even worry about them. They're just trying to sell you over-priced RAM. But if you really are paranoid, just pop the old RAM back in and start it up once so you can get rid of the screen that says the system detects a different amount of RAM. And then send it back if it's a mail-in to repair it. But I highly doubt that it really does void your warranty, it's a consumer upgrade.

 

Lousy Dell techs trying to screw me over. I heard they weren't the most intelligent bunch.

Thanks very much for all the help! I'll be ordering tonight!

 

Enjoy the laptop! I'm glad I could help.