Dell Inspiron 9300 - Harddrive or CPU Upgrade?

[bob1234]

For college w/ gaming capabilities

Inspiron 9300 Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.86 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Windows® XP Home Edition
Display 17 inch UltraSharp? Wide Screen XGA+ Display
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDA® GeForce? Go 6800
80GB Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
CD/DVD Drives 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
USB Key 128mb
Free Printer
$25 for usb printer cable

With 40% coupon comes out to around ~1500$

Which is a better/best bang for the buck, going for the 1.86GHz w/ a 80GB HD (Dell might send 4200rpm or 5400rpm, won't know until I get it) for $1503 OR 1.73GHz w/ a 60GB 7200rpm harddrive costing $1535?

 

[Deinonych]

The 7200 RPM drives will reduce your battery life, so they're not really worth it, IMO. I would go for the larger drive/faster proc config.

 

[bacillus]

Originally posted by: Deinonych
The 7200 RPM drives will reduce your battery life, so they're not really worth it, IMO. I would go for the larger drive/faster proc config.

you'll not notice a difference!

 

[bob1234]

what?

 

[roguerower]

Laptop logic had a review stating that the 7k60 didn't detract a whole lot in terms of battery life when compared to the seagate 100gb 5400.1. Personally i would go with the processor and then go out and buy one of the new seagate 7k100 or 7k80 drives when they come out. Have fun, the 6800 on the 9300 is supposed to be a nice card.

Heres the review

I currently have the 100gb drive in my Dell M70 and its awesome.

 

[bob1234]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm currently researching and weighing on my options for an Inspiron 9300. Looking at getting the lowest memory option: 256mb of RAM and replacing it with either 1GB or 2GB of cheaper memory from NewEgg. My question is what type of memory do I get as well as what brands do you suggest I get. From what I understand, it is 200-Pin DDR2 So-DIMM at a frequency of 533MHz and there are two slots for ram on the laptop. Which speed should I choose DDR2 533 (PC4200) OR (PC4300)?

Any help would be appreciated (I'm a total noob). If you can give me direct links on the most reliable + best value of RAM (either 1GB 2x 512mb OR 2GB 2x 1GB) on NewEgg, that would be great.

 

[bob1234]

well f**k. the coupon doesn't work anymore. I should'n't have bothered to wait for replies. I guess I'll go the non-gaming route and get a 700m with $750 off.

 

[Deinonych]

Originally posted by: roguerower
Laptop logic had a review stating that the 7k60 didn't detract a whole lot in terms of battery life when compared to the seagate 100gb 5400.1.

Good to know, thanks. I stand corrected.

 

[Deinonych]

Originally posted by: bob1234
well f**k. the coupon doesn't work anymore. I should'n't have bothered to wait for replies. I guess I'll go the non-gaming route and get a 700m with $750 off.

Dell usually refreshes their coupons every week or so. If you can wait a bit, you can probably get another coupon for the system you want. Don't settle for something else if you really want a 9300 (it's a great system, btw).

 

[bob1234]

Yeah, I think I'm going to wait. I hope another 40% off coupon comes around again soon. Damn, nice games list, I'm jealous

 

[hemiram]

I used the $750 off coupon, plus a $50 "today only" price break, the free shipping ($50), and I had a $50 coupon that I used too, for $900 off. I was like 1622 with the damn tax..

Don't get any memory from Dell, it's insanely priced. I wish I hadn't have gone to 512K from 256K, since it needed more. So, I went and bought a 1 gig stick from Newegg, and it really woke it up. I got this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820208024

Make sure you get the 6800GO. It's well worth it. A friend bought one with the slower video and it's pretty sluggish on games. Mine is great on about everything I've tried.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

IMO

Buy the cheapest processor
Buy the cheapest hard drive
Buy the cheapest memory

Buy a 7200rpm drive from FS/FT or elsewhere and sell the cheap HD
Buy 2GB of DDR2 PC2-4200
Buy a 1.6Ghz 400FSB Dothan and pin-mod to 2.13Ghz and sell the cheap cpu it came with

Far cheaper if you don't mind ripping down a brand new $1k notebook and voiding the warranty. Doesn't bother me.

 

[aznsoophat]

i was wondering how to mod the cpu such as the last person who got it up to 2.13 or 2.26.... either or.. but im at 1.7 so i know there will be a big jump even if i went to 2.0... but can someone show me a guide or what not

 

[bearxor]

Before you click the link in this post, please read the following very carefully:

This will only work if you have a laptop that has the 915 chipset and a processor running on the 400mhz system bus. Do a google search for CPUz, this utility can help you identify both of these things.

If you have a 1.7ghz 400FSB processor (The PentiumM 735) but have the 855 chipset, this pin mod is not for you.

If you have the 915 chipset, but a PentiumM 740 (1.73ghz), this pin mod is not for you.

If you have a 915 chipset and a PentiumM 735 (1.7ghz) this pin mod is for you.

Link:
http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=80879

 

[fbrdphreak]

That is pretty cool. I'd be interested to see if this actually works for all 400MHz FSB Dothan's, as obviously not all are designed to run @ 2+GHz