Is it possible to make my old Dell Inspiron 6000 fast?

I have a 5 year old laptop. Its a 15.4 Dell Inspiron 6000. I like it a lot because the build is very sturdy and i am very comfortable with this laptop. Its specs however are Pentium 4 Processor, 60GB 5400rpm and 2gb ram. It use to be 512mb only but i bought memory and the max is 2gb and it got faster but still is extremely slow. I have formatted this laptop many times and everytime i do, it gets faster but slows down after i use it for a few weeks.

I bought a new laptop that is 15.5, a sony vaio eb series with i3-370m processor, 320gb hard drive 7200rpm and 4gb ram. However, right now it has touchpad problems and i will either return it or have technician to come and fix it. The sony LOOKS VERY NICE but i prefer my dell over it. Its really sturdy and well built. Touchpad is right in the middle and no numberpad unlike my sony.

But is there away way to get this dell laptop real fast or is that impossible b/c my laptop is pentium 4 processor. i done the defrag, virus scan etc but is there something i can do to make this computer run faster? I wouldn't mind spending a couple hundred dollars to make it faster because i like this laptop so much compared to my new sony vaio. I do know however that 2GB ram is the max for this dell inspiron 6000. Would buying an SSD be a bad idea or would it be waste of money? I also heard that SSD might not be compatible with these old laptops.

 

SSD would cost 5011x what the Dell Inspiron 6000 is worth. If you really don't like the EB, return it for a refund and get something else. I wouldn't spend money on the Dell. Upgrading it is a practice in futility. You won't EVER be able to make it as fast as even a mainstream computer that's sold now.

 

Sell your 6000 on eBay for $150, and buy a new laptop. Actually, as I'm typing this on a Dell Inspiron 6000. It good for VERY basic use(e.g my little sister owns this 6000).

 

Someone wants a thinkpad....

 

Maybe you should buy a new laptop thats similar to the dell?

 

I'm pretty sure it's a Pentium M which is pretty decent.

 

The same thing will happen with your new notebook if you don’t keep it cleaned. The Inspiron 6000 is a pretty good notebook, even with all the new stuff out now. Upgrade the HDD to a 100GB 7200RPM drive, make sure the memory is the correct memory or that will hinder performance. If you have 133FSB, then you can pin mod. If it’s 100FSB, then buy a cheap 2.1 CPU (which I do have). On your next clean install, download CCleaner and use it every day if you must.

 

Would it be very hard to install that hard drive into laptop? I have to open it up ?

 

Just two screws on the right side of the laptop under the card slot that are marked with a cylinder. For the CPU, you will have to open the rest of the laptop up, but Dell provides an official service guide.

 

No, but the cost of upgrading it would not really be worth it. It'd be more worth your time and money to buy a last-gen business-grade laptop (ie; a nicely-equipped, very well-built and sturdy Dell Latitude D630 for $250 or something). It'd blow your old single-core Dell out of the water.

 

Can you guys tell me what laptop have the built quality similar to my dell inspiron 6000 and also 15.4'?

I check latitude d630 and see its only 14.1.

 

Upgrading your Inspiron 6000 to be fast would probably require custom fabrication, and definitely require thousands of dollars. My own fast laptop cost $3,800 and I'm a cheapskate and bought all the parts at closeout prices waiting for months for the best deals. There's nothing you can do to make your old computer faster in your price range. The inspiron series is a super budget computer, you can't even touch it's price level with aftermarket parts, let alone including a case and screen. The big manufacturers have to get huge discounts for the entry level parts just to get into the price range of these computers.

You need to find a good computer that you like and buy it second hand. The entry level bargain basement computers have drifted from having good build quality to being pieces of junk and I understand your frustration. I've physically destroyed several recent computers due to build quality issues.

The good thing is that computer depreciate fast, so what you need to do is find a mid-grade or high-grade notebook that has depreciated to your price level, because the entry level ones aren't as well built as they used to be.

A thinkpad will probably be your best bet. The good thing about buying used is that if you don't like it you can sell it for about what you bought it for and just try something else. Get some suggestions from others about what computers you should look for, ThinkPads are my suggestion.

 

You could possibly get a D830, I'm typing on one right now, and I love everything about it. Very sturdy, great for daily use - I do not have the nVidia chipset so I do not do too much multimedia activity on it though.

Last year I got a Dell Inspiron 1505 and I turned it into a media laptop. It built very similar to the 6000 series, just has a Core 2 Duo chip. I understand where you are coming from. The older DELL models are incredibly build well, strong and they feel great at your finger tips. I personally love many older designs over the newer ones, and if money wasn't a problem I'd retrofit a i7 into my D830 (if there is a will, there is a way). I even purchased a M1710 when the M1730 came out because I favored the design better, I put the O/C CPU in it and spent a ton of money because in the end, I felt that it was a computer I felt more comfortable with.

Good luck with your decision. If you really like the 6000 design and want something just like it but faster just get a 1505, put a nice HDD into it, max RAM to 4GB, it will work perfect. It has a 15.4" screen, and you can either get a glossy or anti-glare depending on your needs. I believe this computer was shipped with Windows Vista (original release circa 2007).

 

I love how the old Dells look. After the E1505, they started going down hill. You can get E1505's from eBay for around $300. Decent for low end stuff.

 

don't bother upgrading it. Newer hard drives for example, uses the newer SATA interface, you're on PATA interface. When you install your OS, make sure it's a clean install, not the install that comes with Dell bloatware. Make sure you have installed all the correct drivers for your laptop, otherwise it will be slow and unstable. Use CCleaner regularly.

 

don't bother... buy a new laptop...