Maximum memory Dell Insipron 1720

Nice thing about the 1700/20 is the extra drive bay. I put a 2.4?/2.6? with 6MB cache in it... then added a 128gb ssd as my OS/Apps/Swap location. I have a 640GB drive as my data drive. Much faster now.  I recommend the SSD.

Shame no one has hacked the bios yet.....here's hoping someone can help us!

In related news, I'll soon be upgrading my Vostro 1700 CPU to a brand new 2.8GHz X9000 (the fastest possible CPU allowed in 1700/1720), and will report back about that for reference.

i have put two crucial realssd 256GB C300s in mine :). the cpu will be the biggest performance boost (apart from drives), can't wait for it!!

Please let us know as soon as possible, when you finish your upgrade on your Vostro. I hope you get good results...

I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 that started out life as a 1.8Ghz CPU (T5550), 4Gb Ram, Vista 32, and one 5400 RPM Drive, and Intel M965 GPU.

It now has: 

2.2Ghz CPU (T7500), 6Gb of Ram, W7-64 OS, and 2x Momentus XT 500Gb drives...

It is solid as a rock....  Don't believe Dell.... CPU, Ram,  OS, Drives CAN be Upgraded!

When I approached Dell to purchase a new Laptop... They could not supply a Firewire or Express card Slot on new laptops... That doesn't help me, I'm using those ports and slots!!

WHAT GOOD IS AN I5 OR I7 Chip without some way of exporting that data?  I5 & I7 for email and websurfing????  DUMB!

So I upgraded CPU and Ram.... and it has extended the life of the laptop...

I'm seriously considering an X9500 CPU upgrade

The price I got for what I needed was $2600, and even with that price, didn't  include 7200 RPM Drives, and smallest about of ram to get the large ram motherboard...  Makes the $130 I spent worthwhile!

There are still systems that provide for adding a firewire port - the Latitude and Precision models have Express Card slots.

Consumer-grade models don't have these any more -- even Apple is phasing out firewire completely now.

Well, as sorry as it sounds, it actually si the fact that these units...most all units are engineered to become 'out of date within a time frame that has nothing to do with the build quality, but rather the governance  placed into the build.  Its called planned obsolescence and is nothing new nor attributable to the consumer PC market.  Ford , G.M, Chrysler, and most every American manufacturer of vehicles built with this philosophy until relatively a short while ago ...after being stepped upon by the foreign (particularly Japanese and German firms) that truly were putting the quality in before the name went on.

What RAM did you purchase for this conversion?

While Dell indicates an official max of 4gb for the 1721, through much investigation, I had learned that the 1720 (based on the Intel chipset vs the 1721 AMD chipset...otherwise same chasis) could actually work with a 2gb chip + 4gb chip in either memory slots. Trying to speed up an older laptop, after removing Vista and loading Windows 10, plus adding an SSD as the primary drive, I purchased a 4gb chip and after several tests, the 6gb is fully working and the system recognizes it well while able to utilize all but the 256mb reserved for additional graphics memory. It apparently will not work with 8gb from what I have read in the that the bios and hardware support just shy of that and there are no other memory configurations in between 6gb and 8gb. Still, the extra 2gb beyond the 'supported' max makes the machine run that much smoother!

While Dell indicates an official max of 4gb for the 1721, through much investigation, I had learned that the 1720 (based on the Intel chipset vs the 1721 AMD chipset...otherwise same chasis) could actually work with a 2gb chip + 4gb chip in either memory slot. I had 4gb of RAM installed upgraded some time ago from the original 2gb when the machine shipped initially. Trying to speed up this older laptop as a secondary machine, after removing Vista (which was so bloated, I could no longer use the PC altogether) and loading Windows 10, plus adding an SSD as the primary drive (keeping in mind that you will only get 1.5 read/write speeds from the SATA I hardware configuration, not 3.0 as with SATA II or even 6.0 from SATA III; still, the numbers show 4x increase in speed read/write improvement over a standard HDD), I had decided to purchase a 4gb DDR2 chip, installed it in RAM slot 2 (easier to get to it on the bottom of the laptop rather than removing the keyboard for slot 1) and after several tests, the total 6gb is fully working and the system recognizes it well while able to utilize all but the 256mb reserved for additional graphics memory. It apparently will not work with 8gb from what I have read in the that the bios and hardware support just shy of that and there are no other memory configurations in between 6gb and 8gb. Still, the extra 2gb beyond the 'supported' max makes the machine run that much smoother!