Upgrading my M1730 Dell

[TheMagicTurtle]

Hi guys, i am faced with a choice that i would like to be giving some advice on. I have an 2007 Dell M1730 and when it comes to gaming it have done an outstanding job. It can play very early games with no problem, but now that we are in 2013 i have had to resort to the lower setting of games. I was playing on either doing an overhaul, or just buying a brand new computer. The question i have is what is cheaper, and what gets me a better machine. Newer gaming computers can cost as much as my mac book pro. Below i am going to list some basic specs of the m1730. Anyone who could give me advice on price management, or even suggestions for new processors, ram, hard drive, video card, and other important aspects would be much appreciated.

XPS-M1730
Processor -Intel(R) 2 Duo Core
Processor- Type t9300 @ 2.5 GHzz 2.50 Ghz
Video Card- NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT
Ram 256mb

 

[townsbg]

Is that 256 mb of ram or video ram? If that is all of the ram that you have you have no where near enough to run Vista.

 

[TheMagicTurtle]

Is that 256 mb of ram or video ram? If that is all of the ram that you have you have no where near enough to run Vista.

Yes, i have 2256 MB of video Ram. My Ram is 3.6

 

[TheMagicTurtle]

I have done some research, and i am really looking for a new CPU and a new Video Card. I have gone on Can YOU run it. Those are the most problematic issues. How much would a top of the line cost and a good cpu and video card cost. I am just looking to get my computer up to at least recommended specs.

 

[townsbg]

Your cpu isn't bad. The only way you could improve would be to get a quad core with a little extra speed. As for video cards I don't know if it is possible to get a new one for a laptop.

 

[Allan D]

Hello TheMagicTurtle,

The XPS M1730 was shipped with the PPGA478 Socket supported Processors. This only supports Core 2 Duo processors. According to your system specs, I would suggest the following upgrades:
-- Processor - Type T9300 can be upgraded to T9500 (6M Cache, 2.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) or Core2Duo Extreme X9000 @ 2.8GHz .
-- 4 GB Memory can be upgraded to 8 GB, as this is the maximum memory supported by the system.
-- NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT (512MB) can be upgraded to NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX (1 GB).

Hope this helps!

 

[Patonb]

This is a laptop... and I know Allen is a Dell guy, but while technically the gpu upgrade is possible you will need to find a gpu that is properly supported or start flashing the gpu bios with "special" bios configs.

The cpu upgrade is fairly easy, I'd go x9100, as theyre cheap on ebay. I did this to my Acer 8930g. This ewill cost about $200 used on ebay,... Though you'll see modest improvement in gaming.

G/l finding a gpu like the 9800m gt on ebay that'll work on your system, and new your looking at $3-500 i believe last time I checked.
The next issue is ensuring your stock cooling system can handle the extra heat output... I don't think it can.

8Gig of ram is useless don't waste your money.

 

[TheMagicTurtle]

This is a laptop... and I know Allen is a Dell guy, but while technically the gpu upgrade is possible you will need to find a gpu that is properly supported or start flashing the gpu bios with "special" bios configs.

The cpu upgrade is fairly easy, I'd go x9100, as theyre cheap on ebay. I did this to my Acer 8930g. This ewill cost about $200 used on ebay,... Though you'll see modest improvement in gaming.

G/l finding a gpu like the 9800m gt on ebay that'll work on your system, and new your looking at $3-500 i believe last time I checked.
The next issue is ensuring your stock cooling system can handle the extra heat output... I don't think it can.

8Gig of ram is useless don't waste your money.

Thank you, what would you recommend for a graphics cards?

 

[Patonb]

I honestly can not recommend anything... I'm sorta in the same boat as youj with my Acer.. my 9600m is crapping out but I'm reading sooo many oops and what not.

I used notebookrview for my ansswers... So I'm honestly going to say ask that here:Dell Laptop Forum
Had it been a desktop I can help, but the quirks of laptops I will not touch.

 

[townsbg]

This is a laptop... and I know Allen is a Dell guy, but while technically the gpu upgrade is possible you will need to find a gpu that is properly supported or start flashing the gpu bios with "special" bios configs.

The cpu upgrade is fairly easy, I'd go x9100, as theyre cheap on ebay. I did this to my Acer 8930g. This ewill cost about $200 used on ebay,... Though you'll see modest improvement in gaming.

G/l finding a gpu like the 9800m gt on ebay that'll work on your system, and new your looking at $3-500 i believe last time I checked.
The next issue is ensuring your stock cooling system can handle the extra heat output... I don't think it can.

8Gig of ram is useless don't waste your money.

An additional question is would it even be possible to change out the graphics chip? If it is soldered onto the motherboard it would be tricky to get out without breaking something plus the new one would have to be soldered back into place. As for a ram upgrade with Vista you probably won't get anywhere near your 4 gb real memory capacity plus if you have Vista 32 bit you won't be able to use more than 4 gb so you would have to install vista 64-bit. As for the cpu upgrade I think at best by only being able to go up 100-300mhz in speed your performance increase will only be nominal but I could be wrong.

IMO the biggest problem with a laptop is that they are incredibly difficult and sometimes impossible to upgrade. The manufacturers frequently make is easy to add ram or change out the hard drive by providing access doors but anything else is a real challenge due to the size and constructions of the laptop. Not to mention the size/price of the parts, heating, and battery performance. The changes that you are considering will affect battery performance and could cause heating issues. If you really want something for high end gaming save that money for a powerful desktop.

 

[Patonb]

On certain levels of laptops, like my Acer 8930g or this top end Dell, yha you can change them.

They are actually tiny pci-e cards that pop in.

The big issue is that the cards run custom bios that the mobo bios reads codes from. It's even things like wifi cards.

So a 8700m gt from a dell will not work, in my Acer as the codes are different, thus the BIOS POST gets messed up.

Hey Turtle.. You may be in luck depending on your model
For Dell XPS M1730 NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT2 1GB Graphics Card 48DDM G92 720 A2 | eBay

Is a SLI 9800m gt SLI which may work in yours and it's under $300! That's a HUGE upgrade

 

[townsbg]

Well as you can tell I'm not a big fan of laptops and the only ones I've ever had are work provided. I'll grant you that XPS is Dell's high end line of systems so I suppose he's in luck if they designed it so that the card can be replaced. As for a BIOS update personally I don't recommend them because although it's a remote possibility the potential damage could be catastrophic. $260 just for the card will go a long way towards a new desktop.

 

[Patonb]

Actually its 2 9800's for $260, so no it doesn't go along way to a desktop as that's not even the cost of windows and a monitor, which he'd need.