Vostro 3300 Upgrades?

Question

After all these years I'm still loving my little workhorse, the Vostro 3300. I'm finally ready to add some upgrades.

So far, I have done the following:

Replaced the dead 4-cell battery with a fresh 8-cell battery. Bonus, it's so thick that it's designed as a riser! Free extra air flow underneath!
Replaced 250 GB HDD with 240 GB SSD. HDD is now connected externally rather than replacing DVD drive with a universal HDD caddy.
Fresh install of Windows 10 Home
Replaced 2x 4GB with 2x 8GB RAM

I'm pondering a processor upgrade. Currently has an Intel Core i3-370M processor. Official upgrades are the Core i5-430M and the Core i7-640M. The i7 at $50 used is a bit more than I want to spend, the i5 is significantly cheaper, but I noticed that it's a 2.26 GHz processor where my i3 is a 2.4 GHz. Otherwise specs are dead-close identical, the i5 is about 4% faster. That doesn't seem worth the hassle to take apart my computer to swap the CPU for so little performance (although it could probably use some fresh thermal paste). Anybody know if there's a compatible chip upgrade that I could look at?

I'm also pondering a 3rd party upgrade to a backlit LED keyboard, even though the stock keyboard is fine.

One thing I'm entirely dissatisfied with is the single, wimpy speaker. Anybody know of a hack to upgrade the internal speaker to something better? My current solution is a pair of powered Logitech S120 speakers. This has an ugly green plug that sticks out of the front. I might contemplate replacing them with some Bluetooth speakers or soundbar.

Anybody have any other suggestions for maxing this PC out?

Jon61 · Answer

Hello,

Just my opinion have you consider just purchasing a new computer? With all the upgrade cost and cost for a technician to do the work (unless you can do it yourself) you might be able to find something newer with all the bells and whistles.

kamnet · Answer

No, I've not considered purchasing a new computer. Outside of the fact that the new computer will have less speakers, HDMI or DisplayPort (which means I need new monitors), and a better graphics card for games I don't play, there's no benefit in doing so. Websurfing, e-mail, spreadsheets, social media, document management all are rock solid. I can watch 1080p video from streaming services without a hiccup. If I went all-in, I'm spending $200 and upgrade to a system that performs just as well as any modern computer for these same tasks.

Vostro

Vostro 3300 Upgrades?

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