Laptops - Upgradeable?

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

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Joined
17 Oct 2002
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Hi guys.

How upgradeable are Laptops? I'm trying to buy a Dell D620 at the moment but some of them have rubbish 1.6 Ghz CPU's, or the wrong graphics card, or suchlike.

Now, in days gone by, Laptops were absolutely not upgradable. But these days I see stores offerng laptop CPU's.

So, if I bought a D620, other than the obvious ones like Ram and HDD, could I upgrade things like the CPU?
 
Yeah but you won't gain much unless you're really pushing it to it's limits doing something very processor intensive like encoding/crunching/whatever. For games, the GPU applies, see below. From what I can see the D620 is fairly meaty with a 2GHz C2D, so that won't need to be upgraded. If it came with something like a 1.5GHz Centrino or Core Duo or something then depending on it's bios you could just slap in a 2GHz Core2Duo or something, we've done it with some HP laptops here at work that were Celerons/P-Ms.

It's unlikely that you can the graphics card, though :( That's quite rare
 
You can upgrade things like HDD, CPU, RAM, DVD drives, but i think anything else would be very expensive to upgrade such as a new mobo.
 
dont know about the d620 mate,

but any of the newer santa rosa chipset based machines can be done.

For example i have the acer aspire 5920 as i got fed up waiting on a dell vostro. i got it with the t7300 2.0 ghz chip. This can be swapped out for the t7700 which is a 2.4


notebookreview.com would be your best bet. Same with the graphics card in this, i have an 8600m gt which can be swaped out.

I dont think the d620 is that upgradeable though to be honest. Vostro is for sure.
 
D620 appears to come with Core Duo and Core 2 Duo Processors from 1.66Ghz to 2.2Ghz.

I'm having difficulty deciding whether it actually matters which CPU I get or not. I'll be using the machine for Uni stuff, web browsing and the occasional Eve Online/CS Source if I can.

Trying to get one with a Quadro NVM in it rather than the Intel 950 but not sure if thats worth bothering with or not. Just after a cheap, well built laptop and the D620 used appears to fit the bill.

My main machine is a Core2Duo E6800 with 8800GTS, which I'll use for most of my gaming. Just dont want something that feels a slug in comparison.
 
the quadro will deffo be better for gaming on, the intel will play eve and cs:s but on lowest settings and at a res of 640x480

Processor wise, when you get the machine use cpuz to see what socket type it is, you can then take it from there as to if it can be upgraded. Would have to be the same range of chip though.

Main thing to consider is the thermal envelope of the laptop.
 
How about a Dell Vostro instead? C2D 7100->7500 (1.8 to 2.2GHz), 2->4GB of RAM, the 15.4" one with a 8600 GT should be able to handle CSS okay, and all in for about 700 notes.
 
Im not sure processor makes the hugest difference in what the average laptop can be used for. The money I saved with getting a model with a lower CPU bought be 2GB of ram for it. I feel this made more of a difference than taking the next cpus up.
 
melbourne720 said:
How about a Dell Vostro instead? C2D 7100->7500 (1.8 to 2.2GHz), 2->4GB of RAM, the 15.4" one with a 8600 GT should be able to handle CSS okay, and all in for about 700 notes.
Click to expand...

I like the D620 becuase I used a few on placement. They are very well built and feel very high quality, with a metal case, etc. Combined with the fact they are about £400 used, and they are really tempting.

I wouldnt use it enough to justify £700 on a Vostro and I'm concerned that the Vostro won't feel quite as robust, or be quite as portable, as the D620.
 
[TW]Fox;10037704 said:
I wouldnt use it enough to justify £700 on a Vostro and I'm concerned that the Vostro won't feel quite as robust, or be quite as portable, as the D620.
Click to expand...


Fair enough - I don't have one, but was looking at them with an eye on a purchase.

Just specced one for 540 inc VAT, including 2GHz 7300 C2d, 2GB of RAM, 15.4" screen, 8600 GT. Looks like I overpriced it :)

And as they are built for the small business sector, I think they are more robust than the standard lattitude range. Does come in at 2.8kg (the 14" model is under 2.2kg though)
 
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