Inspiron Upgrades

Question

Just some questions for those who know more than I do. I am currently using a Dell Inspiron 5100 with a 2.8ghz processor and 256mb RAM, with the Radeon 7500 mobility Radeon 32mb card. Updated the bios and defragged and used a driver mod to update the drivers for the card. Currently playing World of warcraft the game looks good on the minimum settings, but at parts it freezes up jumping the CPU to 100% for a few moments, but otherwise it runs smoothly. I wanted the opinion of what I can upgrade if I am upgrading in parts to see a decrease in the freeze-ups that occur periodically in game. It usually seems to happen in large towns where there are a number of other players present.

the phoof.

Phoofboy · Answer

As a side note some of the upgrades I had in mind: Ati mobility radeon 9000 64 mb 512mb RAM addition possibly a HD with a higher RPM than the 4200 I am currently running. the phoof

ejn63 · Answer

The RAM and hard drive are no problem, but the video card likely will be. Those who've tried the 5150 ATI9000 64M have generally found that it either fails to work or doesn't work for very long. The 32M version generally works fine, but the 64M doesn't.

Phoofboy · Answer

will moving from the 7500 to the 9000, since they are both still 32 meg, make a marked improvement in graphical performance?

If I were to purchase the RAM as the 512 single dimm is that going to be compatible with my current(I believe single dimm) 256? 768 Just seems like a wierd number for RAM.

As for the hard drive, I think the fastest I found for the 5100 was 7200RPM, if I were to upgrade is that going to show a noticeable increase in performance from the 4200? Also any advice of how I would go about changing the hard drives around without the use of a third computer at my disposal so i can keep my information intact would be much appreciated.

the phoof

ejn63 · Answer

The 9000 is quite a bit more capable than the 7500 but still considered low end these days; it'll work at reduced settings for many games but is the best you can do with this chassis.

Yes, a 7200 rpm drive will boost performance overall.

You'll need a 2.5" external drive shell and a copy of a cloning program (Acronis TrueImage or Symantec Ghost), total of about $50-60 to clone.

NemesisDB · Answer

you can get acronis true image 9 (downloadable version) for $30 at newegg ... i think that's still the cheapest place to get it.

i wouldn't pay over $20 for a 2.5" enclosure, unless you want one with both usb2 and firewire connections

Phoofboy · Answer

Thank you for the information. I ordered the 512 MB RAM upgrade listed for the Inspiron 5100 on the site. There wasn't more than about a $10 price difference between the different places I looked. Hard drive and graphics card next as availability and price make them available. Thank you again!

the phoof

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Inspiron Upgrades

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