upgrade inspiron 8200

For $200 you can max out your RAM to 1 GB (you'll have to pull the two 256 modules). 8200 RAM at Crucial

Get a better video card (you don't say what MB you have now).

CPU upgrade? Maybe not cost effective for that model and you won't gain a lot. The M series is not the best video-editing laptop system, but a heck of a lot better than laptops three years ago. Watch out for heat because long DVDR sessions take a toll on the internals...get a cooler pad. I like the $20 Traveler at www.roadtools.com

HTH,

Texruss 

Message Edited by Texruss on 03-15-2004 06:46 AM

CPU: Contrary to the Texruss's post, I do believe this is worth upgrading for you. I suggest that you go from your current P4 1.6GHz to the 2.4GHz model, as this has the best price-to-performance ratio..... and you'll notice a very good boost in speed over your existing CPU! Make sure you get the Mobile Pentium4 2.4GHz-m (400 FSB) however, as other varients won't work. Here is a pricegrabber link to that processor.

Memory: I agree with Texruss here, Crucial is you best bet and the boost to 1024MB you will find very useful for video editing! If you are really wanting to pump it up, contrary to the system description the i8200 can take up to 2048MB (2 x 1024MB sticks, use the ones offered for the i8500). However, I think this may be excesive, I would just go with the 1024MB. 

Video Card: For video editing this is important, and you can't go past the 64MB Quadro4 700 go gl for this. The card is optimised for this type of work, and is the best card available for the i8200. However, its price may be a sore point at US$300+. If you want to order this you should either find one on ebay (much cheaper option!) or buy from Dell spare parts, Part number 6X935. If you can't afford this, your second-best option for the i8200 is about half that price! This is the 64MB Mobility Radeon 9000, Part number 4U284 from Dell spare parts. Download the Service Manual from here, this has detailed instructions on how to remove and install all the components in your system, including the video card.

Hard Drive: I'm guessing your internal hard drive is a 4200rpm hard drive or 5400rpm at best, both would only sport a 2MB cache. You will notice a huge improvement in Disk intensive tasks like video editing (where you are contantly reading and writing to the drive) with the upgrade to the Hitachi 7k60 (60GB, 7200rpm, 8MB cache). This is an internal 2.5" drive that will handily replace your existing one... and you'll love it . Have a look at this pricegrabber link, you can get it for as low as US$200, which is an  absolute steal for the performance you get out of it (plus, you can sell your old one to make back some of the price).

Good luck

stu

Message Edited by sakor1 on 03-15-2004 11:12 PM

>Make sure you get the Mobile Pentium4 2.4GHz

Good idea on second thought, look on eBay for this component and try to get it for less than $150. Think I saw one yesterday still in bidding mode at around $100. I forgot how far up that model goes...2.4 would be a big boost.

Good information for the 8200...love the part about the hidden specs for max RAM.

We're talking big bucks for all these upgrades, but to extend the life of the 8200 it would be a good choice. Either that or save up for a new machine.

Cheers,

Texruss

No. I don't think you can have a graphics card external to the system, it won't work (plus, PCI graphics cards may be cheap, but are not very good at all).

stu

---

@x0lliex wrote:
You can put a video card in the C/Dock, personally, I haven't done it, but I have read posts in the port replicator forum. Search through there and you will find cards that should work. Sakor1, why do you say that PCI video cards are not very good at all, I think it is a definite improvement on the GeForce2GO.

---

Really? I didn't know you could have graphics cards external to the system.... but then again I'm not familiar with the docking stations .

Sure, a decent PCI card would be better than the GF2go, that's for sure.... but I'm just saying that an upgrade internal to the system of an AGP4x M9 or Quadro4 would be better than the PCI card. This is due to the Bandwidth limitations of the PCI interface. If you could have an external AGP card, then that's another story completely... but since you can't (I'm assuming), then performance wise an internal M9 or Quadro4 would be superior (the best PCI card currently available is an GF FX5200 or ATI 9200 SE, neither of which are that good as AGP cards..... let alone PCI cards).

stu

>why do you say that PCI video cards are not very good at all, I think it is a definite improvement on the GeForce2GO.

It's not that that they're not good...it's just AGP has a much higher bandwidth. I put a 32 MB PCI card in a older Dell Optiplex with 8MB AGP integrated. Guess what...video clips looked terrible....the frames couldn't keep up. Went back to the AGP onboard. It didn't have an AGP slot unfortunately.

Wait until PCI Express hits later this year and we'll see if AGP falls to second place.

Texruss

Yeah I don't know much about PCI v AGP, I assumed an internal upgrade would be more beneficial, I was simply looking at the cost angle. The C/Dock II has two PCI slots, and in the BIOS you have the option to disable the onboard video when docked, that's how you do it. The Quadro is ridiculously priced, but it is the best available, if you have the cash, then why not?