My_pet_squirrel wrote:
I was looking to try to upgrade to a 512 mb graphics card called dell they told me i couldn't i needed a new mb a intel 86pe they didn't mention there are like 7 of them.
Upgrading a laptop is way more expensive than upgrading a desktop and its really a more INVOLVED process extracting a mobo from a laptop. It will definately void any warranty you have.
I asked if my ram was still good they said the 865pe doesn't support my ram running at 533MHz.
Do you have last years xps m170 or do you have the new one with the core duo chip?
So what im asking all you people that know alot more about pc specs than me what should i do?
I am going to assume you're using the single core pentium M edition of the XPS M170 and not the core duo, in which I am not sure how Dell handles motherboard upgrades because I could not find anywhere on their website for the life of me where I can upgrade or purchase a different motherboard.
I just spent 2k on my xps m170 and already i can't upgrade it a little w/o buying a whole new laptop.
You're pretty much correct, they dont have slot graphics cards like they used to. The motherboards have the graphics chipsets built onto them because its never expected that piece will be upgraded. The older generation XPS laptops and Inspiron 9300's allowed you to change the graphics chips but as I stated the new mobos have integrated graphics abilities w/o the possibility of upgrading. Hence why they're telling you that you have to get a new mobo.
Dell may ship you a new one out and have a tech come on site to install it but then you'd be stuck with a mobo getting no use out of it and ram that wouldnt be used either.
Another problem with dell specific laptops is their ram does not have specs on it. Just size so you have no idea what kind of comperable ram you can buy to replace it. I spent almost 600 dollars for the 2 gigs of ddr that I have in my inspiron 6000 that I was previously gaming with before I built my TANK.
What a waste that money was on ram
