Upgrading my Studio 1555 help

Hi guys, I'm gonna be going to uni soon so I'd need a new laptop. But instead of splashing out like £600, I thought I might aswell upgrade my Studio 1555 thats 3 years old cos I still like it. It has a T4200, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, GMA4500MHD, HDMI, eSata (and Blu Ray haha which I got under warranty when my DVDRW drive died.)

I'm just looking at getting a T9900, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD and the backlit keyboard (maybe a new 9 cell battery too) Do you guys think it'll be worth it? And would the laptop support those components? I'd need a CPU upgrade cos when I play blu rays or League of Legends theres some FPS drop due to the weak T4200 maxed out at 100% usage. I'd want 8GB RAM so I can "futureproof" as this will last me about another 2-3 years and DDR2 RAM prices will just keep going up. Playing League of Legends max out the RAM usage to 2GB already. Lastly I might aswell get a SSD, I have 150GB free in my 250GB so space is not a issue. I'd rather have a speedy SSD with 120GB. So what do you guys think? I know my GPU is weak but I only play LoL with it and the GMA 4500MHD is fine for the job. Backlit keyboard is just a gimmick and looks nice, might need a 9 cell battery cos my 6 cell only holds about 60-70% of the original charge now.

Thanks in advance,
Anthony.

 

The Studio 1555 is a nice laptop. Certainly much higher quality than the Inspiron series. But think real hard about how much money you are spending vs the price of a new laptop.

You could sell your Studio 1555 for about $200. Some quick math of the components you want to buy makes it over $400 in upgrades. That is $600 that could be put towards something new. However, you aren't going to find any $600 laptop with 1080p, blu-ray, a 120GB SSD, and a backlit keyboard. I think the cheapest you could spend to get all that would be about $1000.

Just think about costs vs useful lifespan of each idea. Throwing $400 at a 3-4 year old laptop is a lot.

 

Its a hard decision indeed. The upgraded Studio 1555 will be nice but as you said its already 3-4 years old. However for the price I'm willing to pay it won't buy anything similar. That said I don't mind having no blu ray since I don't really use it much its quite a nice thing to have though. And the newer laptops come with a better GPU which I could take benefits from and run some games that I play a bit smoother.

But I really like my Studio 1555 as its quite good quality. I'd probably just stick to upgrading unless I can find a really good laptop for the price and maybe sell the parts that I have replaced. The T9900 or P9700 upgrade should still last some good time and its probably the best I could get for my money compared to a new laptop, its got to be better than an i3 right?! Alss I could get a SSD aswell which I really want. The blu ray is quite nice to have aswell and the backlit keyboard ain't too expensive to replace. And after cleaning out the fans when upgrading and applying some good thermal paste it should run cooler and quieter, might also get a laptop cooling pad to house the new more powerful CPU.

This may sound stupid but one question about the SSD though are they all built universally compatible with laptops? Cos' I know my laptop takes 2.5" drives but its a slide in slot so the Sata slot on the SSD would have to be a specific position. And also are 3rd party batteries good/safe? Cos' Dell sell the OEM 6 cell battery at £100($150) but I can get a new 3rd party 9 Cell battery for £50($75) on eBay.

 

I would highly advise against a T9900, it runs so hot likely your machine with throttle it down. I would suggest maybe a T9400, as they are super cheap, like 45 bucks on eBay. 4 GB DDR2 is like 50-60 bucks, 8 GB just seems so unnecessary. But your biggest bottleneck is your on board graphics, X4500MHD. You might be better off as Qing Dao stated at selling your current laptop and buying one that up front suits your needs.

 

Maybe your Blu-ray software can do some sort of video hardware acceleration/DXVA using your Intel 4500MHD GPU to play the 1080p videos.

The 4500MHD is the first generation of Intel GPU that does DXVA, but it uses "Intel ClearVideo" which is different from the standard DXVA thing that AMD and Nvidia do so no guarantees that you will be able to get it to work.

 

I use DA player for blu ray cos its free so I guess thats why the Hardware acceleration from my GMA4500MHD isn't kicking in. And I don't mind the GMA4500MHD really as it more than satisfies my needs, only occasionally play some RTS, League of Legends and Football Manager isn't too demanding.

I was looking at T9900 as thats the highest clocked model and I wanted to get the best I could really as this laptop is gonna last me a while. But if it does run hot stepping down to a T9600 or P9700 ain't too bad, I'd need something that would match my Athlon II X2 250 really as thats what I'm used to on my PC. Since this laptop is 800FSB, 1MB L2 and 2GHz CPU, I'd think moving to 1066FSB, 6MB L2 and 2.8-3.06GHz a good improvement? Especially the Intergrated GPU can communicate faster due to higher FSB? Which is only a side benefit to me. Primarily I just want a CPU that is faster for general usage like Youtube on 1080p, Blu Ray playback and the occasional games which is already maxed out at 85-100% usage on this CPU, compared to 50-70% usage on my Athlon II and its a lot smoother on there.

And suppose 8GB is abit of an overkill however the Laptop shares 812mb of VRAM with the 2GB RAM which is probably why my RAM usage is soo high in game compared to my older rig with 2GB RAM. I'd presume the more RAM you have, the more it shares so 4GB might not be enough? But I've had a glance at RAM prices perhaps its more economical and bang for buck staying with 4GB.

The reason I'm pursuing these upgrades is that I like multi-tasking alot e.g alt-tabbing to browser whilst waiting for respawn or loading in games and having youtube for music on the browser also running Skype etc. These prove difficult on the current spec of my laptop as the 2GB RAM being used up lead to a 5-15sec "freeze" when I alt tab and I'm forced to use Google Chrome when in game as Firefox is more RAM intensive which makes the freeze time longer. And I experience some FPS drop in game when I have Youtube running which I presume the CPU isn't up to the job and its pretty near 95-100% usage. Also getting a SSD should help load time, alt-tabbing and just multi-tasking in general?

Tbh those problem shows that my laptop is aging and I suppose for the money I could buy a new laptop with an i5 or AMD APU, 4GB RAM and with the new Intel HD4000 GPU or APU. I'm talking £600 British pounds budget so thats almost $1000 in USD but stuff over here is more expensive (stoobid high tax rates) so I'd have to forgo extras such as Backlit keyboard/Blu ray/SSD. But I really like this laptop and I feel the upgrade should be good enough to last. Thanks for all your input btw

 

You could swap the motherboard with the integrated GPU out for the motherboard containing the ATI 4570. Since the motherboard was offered with the 1555 I don't see any problems with this aside from having to dismantle everything. You would also need the corresponding heatsink.

This would be approximately £120 for the motherboard and heatsink if the parts were ordered from eBay. Don't forget thermal paste.

One of the processors mentioned in replies coupled with 4GB RAM would improve matters quite well.

I understand your reluctance to replace your laptop with a new one - my 1558 and I have been through quite a great deal in the two years I have owned it, including an accidental bricking or two.

 

If you are going to replace the motherboard you might as well just buy a new laptop. At that point there is really no reason not to.

 

Thats actually a genius idea that I didn't think about. Looking at ebay the C235M board with HD4570 goes for around £80-100 which would be quite nice indeed. Along with £10 for the HSF. £50 for a T9400, £30 for 4GB RAM, £100 for 120GB SSD, £25 for backlit keyboard. Comes to only about £315, much cheaper than a new laptop whilst still a good performer.

That said it'll be a BIG hassle to rebuild the laptop but perhaps worth it. Thanks for the suggestion man.

My current battery don't hold much charge anymore Are 3rd party batteries safe to buy?

Also are P series CPU's worth paying extra for their lower TDP? I'm hoping to spend £400-500 altogether so I still have headroom to push for a better CPU. Maybe the T9900 or P9700 if I can.

 

Actually you're right if I was to spend £500 on upgrades, a new £500 laptop would buy me an AMD A6 APU or i5 Sandy Bridge + HD3000 which would outperform the upgrades considerably and perhaps sell this old studio for £200-250. I'll need to rethink this deeply. But thanks for the reply