e1705/9400 - need some upgrading advice - Page 2

I never did any of the performance benchmarking tests that I probably should have, but here's what I did notice: I first tried the T7200 in my WinXP system and honestly didn't notice a huge difference over the T2400 that came in it - that system was pretty speedy as-is. Yes, programs lauched fractionally faster and it seemed to handle multiple tasks better, but it was a subtle change rather than a dramatic one.

I then decided to try the T7200 in my Vista system (the one from my sig that has Win 7 in it now) and it was dramatically faster at practically everything - launching programs, gaming, multitasking, etc. Out of the 2 operating systems, it seemed that the bloated and resource hungry Vista really could make the best use out of this sudden increase in processing power, so I left it in that laptop. Having said that, if I come across another T7XXX series processor for the right price someday, I may eventually upgrade the XP machine even though it doesn't seem to need it as much.

Welcome eoy4 As for upgrading your 9400/e1705, here's what I'd recommend (as I have done the upgrades you're asking about).

Video: 7950GTX is nice. I personally have ran my 7900GSX for the last 18 months and have been extremely happy but remember this one caveat, it will ALWAYS be a DX9 card


CPU: t7600 is a bit of an overkill IMHO. I put a t7400 in mine back when prices were ridiculous and always thought...I should have only upgraded to the t7200. Now that prices are lower, I suppose the t7600 is a logical choice, but if the opportunity knocks for a cheap t7200...I'd say go with it.

RAM: 2x2GB FTW. Although the BIOS will only allocate 3.25GB to the OS, it still runs great and 2GB/1GB setup is just sloppy...stick with the 4GB kit.

As for the OS, the 945 chipset being 32bit based hasn't stopped me from running 64bit Windows 7 like a champ :P. My 9400/e1705 motherboard was a first generation so don't fall for the "oh your processor was a Core Duo, so your mobo is stuck with 32bit" nonsense. Upgrade to the C2D CPU and press on knowing that if you'd designed the motherboard, it would have been 64bit compatible .

Glad to see others are still rocking one of the greatest laptops Dell has manufactured! Best of luck to you...

Although the Inspiron 9400 cannot use the full 4GB RAM due to the chipset limitation, I would like to point out that it can in fact run a 64-bit operating system.

You can try going to crucial.com, plug in your model and see what they offer as alternative. I usually stick with what specs call for and not to worry about incompatibility.

cheers ...

I had tried playing with higher speed memory modules on many notebooks and hope that they would work, either in native speed or throttling down "as needed".

My experiences so far? Too many negative instances to even be worth considering.

Let's hope that we can get all positive feedback on this model from some members here.

cheers ...

I have used the 800 mhz memory in my E1705, it simply down clocks to 667 mhz, but you get the benifit of faster SPD timings

I'll second dave-p...my 9400/e1705 is also running 4GB of 800Mhz ram and runs fine (just underclocked to 667Mhz).

All DDR2 must work if JEDEC standards. Nice to get the 64bit bit info from the guys. So only the RAM is the 64bit issue? Nice to know. Thanks.

have fun with it all

It will definitely be a nice upgrade for your latop, and you will notice the improvement

Some burning questions!

I read on here that the bios is able to handle faster ram on the inspiron / m1710 series, that true for sure? How fast? (What you know for sure). Also I've been 'trying' to get the timings down, but for some reason, the CL value of 5 refuses to change, I'm using rightmark's memory analyzer to do it. Everything else changes though and I've confirmed THEY work, so my timings are something like ""5""-4-4-12 now. Does show improvement too in benching.

I was also wondering about the hinges on this thing. I'm looking at replacing them but has anyone found that they tend to just be loose under the bezel? I'd check but it's exam period....thus...no time for anything at all.

I was also curious about replacing the pathetic right hand side video card fan with something with some more umgff. Do you think a bigger fan would be too much draw on the board if I plugged it in directly to the mobo?

Thats too bad about the 32bit chipset, I was under the impression myself that it could handle 64 bit. A 64bit cpu though.

NOW this might sound like a huge newbie question, but if I were to install win7 64bit, would it be able to access all the memory? Or still not because of the chipset. Also...ummm...will any apps that are running on my xp 32bit setup work? At all? Or do I specifically need 64 bit versions, this includes games and office as well, along with rivatuner.

And does anyone know which drivers are the ones for nvidia which stop allowing overclocking IF YOU flashed your video card?


AND haha, FINALLY!! Has anyone tried putting a fan where the battery is in order to directly cool the vcard (since it heats like a behemoth and I already put as5 on it) with just removing the hinge cover for airflow?

I know that's a lot of questions, I appreciate anything you guys can give me. You're always helpful.

Oh and to the dude eoy4. I hate to break it to you, but a 7950 go gtx is JUST a stock 7900 go gt PRE-Overclocked to 575/600. You can overclock it with rivatuner and the newest drivers, and so long as you have GOOD cooling going on, it's exactly, EXACTLY the same. I know this cause a friend of mine has this exact laptop with a 7900 in it, and it really is zero better than mine.

Soooo, spending the extra dough doesn't seem logical. I have a 7950 because I didn't know better at the time myself. I think if a card back then at least, failed at higher frequencies, they'd downgrade it if it were the same type. I'm sure they do that, they do likewise for making core 2 solo's, they are just already made dualcores either ones with a defective core or a disabled one, to save money.

Yeah wow, cheaper than a 7900, Thats impressive. How much did it end up being?