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Vostro 1710 CPU options
Hi,
I have a 2-3 year old Vostro 1710, T5670 (1.8GHz) CPU, 2G Ram, and 160GB WD Hard Drive, currently running Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit. I would like to give this a speed boost, and I am thinking of replacing the hard drive with a 320/500 GB 7200 RPM drive (WD Caviar Black or Seagate Momentus 7200.4), upping the RAM to 4GB, and possibly changing the CPU to something faster. I was looking around, and have seen some postings here by others who have changed to a T/P8100, T9300/9500. Is the T7XXX series usable with this machine, or how about a T8300? The Bios is A10 right now, but I can update it to the A12 on the support site if this is required for the new CPU. I am looking for snappier overall performance, to put off replacement of this machine for another year or two.
Also, if I was to update the OS to WIndows 7, would it still be able to use the video camera and microphone, as the Vista drivers are installed and working fine, so will they continue to be used in Windows 7 (32 bit)?
Kostas
P.S. The machine only has the integrated video, so I know it would be a little unbalanced in terms of graphics vs. CPU power, but I don't run games or any heavy graphics on it; I have a quad core desktop for that.
ejn63
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January 10th, 2011 17:00
The RAM or hard drive upgrades make sense - the CPU upgrade probably doesn't. The very applications likely to benefit from the CPU are games -- unless you're doing some serious calculation applications on your system, skip the CPU upgrade. It won't make value/price sense.
kkritsilas
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January 10th, 2011 22:00
Thanks for your thoughts. I was thinking that a CPU upgrade would help with graphics somewhat, as being a machine with integrated graphics, the graphics processing is mostly done with the CPU, so it may have helped with making the Aero graphics move a little better. With currend prices on the T7700/T8100/T8300 parts on eBay, I was thinking that it may have been a worthwhile performance improvement in general.
ejn63
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January 11th, 2011 04:00
The CPU will have zero effect on graphics. Be VERY, VERY wary of buying CPUs on EBay - it is rife with engineering samples, remarked processors and other subpar merchandise.
kkritsilas
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January 11th, 2011 10:00
Thanks for the information on the graphics. I am well aware of what is going on at eBay with CPUs, but have already bought 2 CPUs there, successfully. Without any significant improvement in graphics performance, I will probably not go for the CPU upgrade.
Kostas
Tidsa
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May 26th, 2011 04:00
Hi Kostas,
Apologies if this post is now redundant because you have already completed your upgrade!
I have exactly the same spec laptop as you and I also came to the conclusion that I would rather upgrade one or two components than buy a completely new machine. Generally I am still quite happy with the performance of my Vostro, which I've had for 2-3 years. So I was looking for upgrade info for the Vostro 1710, which was how I came across your post.
So far I have only upgraded the software to Windows 7 (32-bit) and the video camera and microphone still work fine. I also noticed a big improvement in overall performance once I installed Windows 7 and really wish I had done it sooner.
Did you upgrade the memory to 4G RAM? If so, can you tell me whether it was worth doing in terms of cost versus performance?
Many thanks and all the best,
Matt.
kkritsilas
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May 26th, 2011 22:00
Matt:
I have my Vostro out on loan right now at a friend's. In a couple of months when I get it back, I will be bringing it up to 3GB of RAM, not all the way to 5GB, snf upgrading to WIndows 7 32 Bit. While there may be some advantage to going to 4GB, I think that the advantage of 4GB of RAM vs. 3GB will be marginal at best, and in my opinion, probably not worth the cost (even though RAM is cheap these days). It would be double the cost, to gaim maybe 400-500MB pf RAM availability at best. possibly even less. On a low RAM machine (less than 2GB), it would be a significant difference, but on a 3GB machine, I don't think the improvement will be either significant or noticeable.
I will be adding a 500GB, 7200 rpm hard drive, probably as a replacement for the original 160GB drive.
Kostas
Tidsa
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May 26th, 2011 23:00
Hi again Kostas,
Many thanks for getting back so soon. I'm guessing you are in Europe? How much does a 2GB RAM module cost over there? I am currently in Singapore and was wondering whether it was worth buying the RAM modules here before I leave?
Just one thought. As I understand it, RAM works better when the two modules are of equal size, so do you think pairing a 1GB and 2GB module together would be a good idea?
I plan to add a 320GB HDD into the 2nd compartment and make that the system and program-running disk, whilst keeping most of my photos and music files on the original 160GB disk. That way my main disk won't get fragmented and should hopefully work much faster than the original disk.
Cheers, Matt.