thanks for your help that answered it I think :)

to be honest IF I did decide to upgrade, paying $1000+ for the video card is much better than paying $3000 for a new laptop, but i'll have to see how the price of the new xps drops over time, there's no urgency for my upgrade yet.

Thanks again.

No one will have the card, other than Dell - and they may not sell it as a spare part (yet) - you will have to call to find out.  Expect a breathtaking price - the 8800 dual card was over $1,000 as an upgrade.  And the 9800GTX is $800 more than the standard card at system purchase - so if you can get one, I'd expect $1,500+ just for the video card.

 

The memory ceiling quoted by Crucial is 4G max - it's possible Dell allows more now, but whether that applies to existing systems is open to question.  Current systems can take 4G/slot (remember you need a 64-bit OS to support more than 4G of RAM).

 

 

Welcome to the forums :emotion-21:

 

 

paying $1000+ for the video card is much better than paying $3000 for a new laptop

 

You reckon :emotion-3:

I'd personally rather put $1,000 towards a new laptop, than ploughing $1,000 into an 'old' one :emotion-55:

Everything on the new laptop will be better/faster - not just the graphics card(s).

 

You may not be able to fit anything other than 8x series cards without a motherboard upgrade?

And assuming your laptop has 8700M GT's in it just now, I personally don't think you'd be getting enough of an improvemen upgrading to 8800M GTX's, to warrant spending $1,000+?

as I said in my first post I have 8800s in already.

I was wondering about the 'will I need to upgrade my motherboard' thingy too, but I read on another forum that the motherboards are all the same in the M1730s? I guess I'll probably end up getting a new one and selling this one anyhow like you reccomend, once the price drops a bit or I can find a refurbished one online.

Cheers.