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15050
disc & memory upgrade
Hi,
I'm planning to upgrade my hdd and memory in Inspiron 6400. Currently 60gd hdd and 1gb ram. Is there any limit on capacity of new disc i can put into this laptop? My bios is A13. Can I get 1tb disc?
I have 2 slots for ram so i I want to get another 1gb to have 2 altogether.
Please let me know what I should take into account when getting new stuff for my laptop, are there any restrictions, limits etc
Thx
ieee488
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December 5th, 2013 15:00
The maximum RAM according to Crucial is 2GB.
you might want to read https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.sys.pc-clone.dell/Eo7rEiYtR-M
Philip_Yip
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December 6th, 2013 00:00
You should update the BIOS to A17.
Although Crucial state a maximum of 2 GB of RAM, I put 4 GB of RAM into my Inspiron 6400. It can utilise up to 3.24 GB of RAM.
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT2KIT25664AC667
One thing to note, although you have 1 GB of RAM it will have came in 2×0.5 GB modules and not a 1 GB module and an empty slot. Both modules have to be replaced so I recommend replacing each with a 2 GB module. Moreover you will lose performance with mismatched modules.
Upgrading the hard drive, I have had a 250 GB drive on mine once, not tried a larger one. However you should think about getting a solid state drive, the price per GB is more expensive but will significantly improve the performance of this system:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/upgrade/Dell-memory/Inspiron+Laptops%2FNotebooks/Inspiron+6400-upgrades.html
In addition I installed Windows 7 32 Bit on my Inspiron 6400. For more information on installing Windows 7 32 Bit see Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean Install of Windows 7:
http://philipyip.wordpress.com/dell-community-forums/
Use the following drivers:
http://philipyip.wordpress.com/unofficial-driver-sets/inspiron-laptops-windows-7/inspiron-6400-windows-7-32-bit/
danoPe
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December 6th, 2013 13:00
Thx a lot for info.
I've updated bios right now.
My usage pattern is, say, 80% web browsing, 20% other stuff (watching videos, pictures editing etc) you reckon i should go for 4gb ram anyway? Computer is around 6y.o so wouldn't be suprised if it just popped off forever one day ;-) therefore i'm quite reluctant to overinvest.
I need a lot of disc space thou and see no problem to pay a bit more for capacity hdd to store my loads of pics. Do u think 0,5tb can run ok?
As to windows i'll either change for some lite version of win7 or go for total makover and install linux.
Thanks again
ieee488
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December 6th, 2013 14:00
The 4GB of RAM is going to cost you about $59 on Newegg
If you don't want to overinvest, leaving the OS on the main hard drive and getting an external USB drive for additional storage is a good way to go. There are lots of deals right now.
What about your OS? If you are running XP, you are going to have upgrade come April 2014.
danoPe
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December 7th, 2013 11:00
I'm using vista at the moment, but heard from my cousin there r some lite versions of win7 so i'll probably upgrade to it or some linux distro.
$59 seems to be a reasonable price. Didn't shop around yet so I'm not quite up to date with prices, I wanted to get some info here on what to go for regarding upgrade i planned and then search for parts
Thx for response, take care!
ieee488
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December 7th, 2013 13:00
The cheapest price I have seen for Windows 7 is about $99.
I spend 99% of my time using my Dell laptop with Ubuntu installed.