Solved Possible upgrades for Dell Studio 1745 Laptop

[spotify95]

Hello,

I am looking into purchasing a Dell Studio 1745 laptop for my Windows 7 tasks (there is one available on Gumtree at a reasonable price). This would then free up my HP Pavilion 15 to be reverted back to Windows 10 only, if required (the HP Pavilion 15 was shipped with Windows 10, it is dual boot with Windows 7 but the Windows 10 won't update itself at all, and the Windows 7 is very iffy regarding drivers - see my other posts about it).

The specs of the laptop are as follows:
Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 2.13GHz
4GB RAM (from what I can tell, it is DDR3)
The rest of the specs are going to be as of here: Dell Studio 1745 Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, 500GB HDD, 6GB) Series Specs - CNET
(Note: the hard drive capacity is not a problem as I can get 2.5in hard drives cheaply enough.)

The things that I am looking to upgrade are as follows:
1) Wi-Fi/WLAN card - from what I can tell, the default WLAN card is Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card. This is Wi-Fi 802.11g only and is not acceptable; it needs to be upgraded to Wi-Fi N or AC.
2) RAM: it currently has 4GB but from what I can gather, it can go up to 8GB
3) CPU: apparently the P7450 can be upgraded to a more powerful CPU - I am not really that bothered on whether it affects battery life because I won't be using it much on battery power anyway; it is for legacy programs that don't like Windows 10.
4) Graphics is Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD - I assume it will still be OK for the basics, plus some lightweight games from around the mid-late 2000s era? (By lightweight, I mean really lightweight - I have had these running OK on a Fujitsu Lifebook from 2005.)

The laptop is currently Windows 10 (originally was Windows 7) so of course I will be downgrading back to 7.

Anything else that I should be aware of/any other upgrades you would recommend?

Thanks and regards
Spotify95

 

[samuria]

It depends on price you can get some good deals on ebay I got a I7 with 8 gig ram finger print camera etc for £125. Instead of shelling out then paying more to upgrade I would look for one that doesnt need update

 

[flavallee]

Dell Studio 1745 Notebook PC (U.S. support site)
It supports an Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor with a 800/1066 MHz frontside bus speed.
It has 2 SODIMM slots and supports a maximum of 8 GB(4 GB x 2) of DDR3-1066/1333 MHz RAM.
It has Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics or ATI Radeon HD 4570/4650 dedicated graphics.
It has Realtek RTL8111DL integrated gigabit ethernet.
It has a Dell Wireless 1397/1510 WLAN (Broadcom 4312/4322) 802.11bg wireless half minicard.

If you want to upgrade the processor in it, there are several Google search links that you can look at.
Upgrading the RAM and storage drive and wireless minicard should be somewhat user-friendly.

My Dell Precision M6400 laptop came with the same wireless card that's in your laptop.
I replaced it with an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11ac half minicard.
It worked fine and greatly increased wireless speed.

With all the hardware upgrading you're wanting to do in your laptop, the cost isn't justified.
It would be better spent in a newer and faster refurbished laptop running Windows 7.

 

[SIW2]

I would look for something a little bit more recent.

Lee's Dell Precision M6400 is the same sort of vintage, but I couldn't be bothered faffing with something like that.

 

[spotify95]

It depends on price you can get some good deals on ebay I got a I7 with 8 gig ram finger print camera etc for £125. Instead of shelling out then paying more to upgrade I would look for one that doesnt need update

Was this a laptop or a desktop computer? Really and truthfully I need it to be a laptop, due to a lack of space for a tower PC. That system you describe is pretty good though

I would have kept my first Windows 7 laptop, an Acer Aspire 5742, but that has a design fault whereby it would run really hot (to the point of shutting down). I sold it on (using the Windows 10 upgrade) rather than mess about trying to replace the thermal paste (motherboard out) and it not make much of a difference!

Dell Studio 1745 Notebook PC (U.S. support site)
It supports an Intel Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor with a 800/1066 MHz frontside bus speed.
It has 2 SODIMM slots and supports a maximum of 8 GB(4 GB x 2) of DDR3-1066/1333 MHz RAM.
It has Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics or ATI Radeon HD 4570/4650 dedicated graphics.
It has Realtek RTL8111DL integrated gigabit ethernet.
It has a Dell Wireless 1397/1510 WLAN (Broadcom 4312/4322) 802.11bg wireless half minicard.

If you want to upgrade the processor in it, there are several Google search links that you can look at.
Upgrading the RAM and storage drive and wireless minicard should be somewhat user-friendly.

My Dell Precision M6400 laptop came with the same wireless card that's in your laptop.
I replaced it with an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11ac half minicard.
It worked fine and greatly increased wireless speed.

With all the hardware upgrading you're wanting to do in your laptop, the cost isn't justified.
It would be better spent in a newer and faster refurbished laptop running Windows 7.

Thanks for your detailes response!
I had a little look and the motherboards for Core 2 based CPUs aren't compatible with Core i CPUs, hence wondering what the best Core 2 based CPU was that could go in there. It's currently a P7450, but I can get a P8700 for less than £5 shipped from the Far East. A Core 2 Quad would work nicely as well but would likely ruin battery life.
I knew about the 8GB RAM, which, for Windows 7 (once I've transitioned to Windows 10 for my day to day usage) is plenty. This model has the integrated GMA graphics.
I knew about the Dell 1397 Wireless G card, which is no good at all - hence the upgrade to something that is at least Wireless N (Dell says Intel 1510 or 1530 N half size cards?). Didn't realize that you could shove an early AC wi-fi card in as well - that would work even better, though to be honest as long as it has both 5GHz and 2.4GHz, and is at least N spec, it should be OK.

The cheapest M6400 is £135 on eBay, which is more than the £78 that the Gumtree seller is asking. M6400's are also Core 2 based, and not Core i based.
Throw in the cost of a charger and an upgrade to N based wireless, and I'm still under £100. RAM shouldn't be too expensive either - and the upgrade to a P8700 would also be cheap enough. Out of interest, what sort of performance gains are to be expected from going from a P7450 to a P8700?

I did also look at the M6500s, which are 1st gen core i, but they are more expensive. Having said that, the M6400/M6500 does have 4x RAM slots and 2x HDD bays (certainly from a couple of eBay listings).

Anything that you could recommend?

I would look for something a little bit more recent.

Lee's Dell Precision M6400 is the same sort of vintage, but I couldn't be bothered faffing with something like that.

I don't mind something that could do with a bit of work/a few upgrades, as I've done various upgrades/tinkering before with computers .
Yeah the M6400 is a nice laptop, from what I've seen, but also Core 2 based. Trouble is, given the pricing of certain machines, the early i5s (particularly the M6500s) are getting close to the price that I paid for my secondary/work laptop (a 4th gen i5 based HP 15-p189na).

Apparently the Studio 1745 also has 2.1ch on board audio in the form of a subwoofer? Many laptops nowadays don't really give much detail to the audio department, and the sound from the in built speakers is often sub-par at best. My old Acer Aspire 5742 even had just ONE speaker, rather than a pair of speakers.

 

[flavallee]

(Dell says Intel 1510 or 1530 N half size cards?). Didn't realize that you could shove an early AC wi-fi card in as well - that would work even better, though to be honest as long as it has both 5GHz and 2.4GHz

The Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 that I mentioned should work in your laptop.
And it does have both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz bands.

the M6400/M6500 does have 4x RAM slots and 2x HDD bays (certainly from a couple of eBay listings).

The M6400 does have 4 SODIMM slots - 2 inside a bay on the bottom of the case and 2 underneath the keyboard.
I installed a 2 GB module in all 4 slots so mine could run with 8 GB.
It does have 2 storage drive bays.
I installed a 128 GB solid state drive(SSD) in each one so I can run a dual boot setup.

Out of interest, what sort of performance gains are to be expected from going from a P7450 to a P8700?

It appears to be about a 18% increase in performance.

 

[spotify95]

The Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 that I mentioned should work in your laptop.
And it does have both 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz bands.

The M6400 does have 4 SODIMM slots - 2 inside a bay on the bottom of the case and 2 underneath the keyboard.
I installed a 2 GB module in all 4 slots so mine could run with 8 GB.
It does have 2 storage drive bays.
I installed a 128 GB solid state drive(SSD) in each one so I can run a dual boot setup.

It appears to be about a 18% increase in performance.

Hello,
Thank you for your help and advice. I have purchased and paid for the laptop in question so when it arrives, I will check it, then get to work on upgrading it as required.

I wanted to ask on the state of the wireless card because it only mentioned the older B/G graphics cards, as well as the Intel 5100 and 5300 B/G/N graphics cards. I wasn't aware that a 7260 AC would go in.
Will the AC 7260 work on both Windows 7 and Windows 10? Because it is currently Windows 10 but my plan is to downgrade to Windows 7 (I already have plenty of Windows 10 PCs that are more powerful; this is for Windows 7 software). Also it needs to be a 1/2 height wireless card.
Also, the AC7260 already has Bluetooth integrated, whereas the laptop in question already has a Bluetooth card installed? Will this affect functionality/cause a clash between the two?

I ask all of this because I want to make sure I am getting the right components. I know that other companies (HP in particular) whitelist the wireless cards, so you can't fit anything other than what is approved by HP - hence I had to go for a USB wireless 5GHz network adapter for that one.
Also, I can pick up a Intel 5100 for 99p plus postage (auction), or £6 including postage (buy it now) - whereas the AC7260 is £11 including postage on buy it now, so I want to make sure it will work.

I also need to know that the C2D CPU in question (which is 18% better - so worthwhile in my opinion) is also going to work OK. Furthermore, I will be maximg out the RAM to 8GB (currently 4GB) so need to know which RAM will work with it. Would both DDR3-1066 and DDR3-1333 work OK? So long as I get the DDR3 RAM, and not the newer DDR3L RAM (which is used on my 4th gen i7, and similar)?
I think that might be the same spec RAM as my old Acer Aspire 5742, though can't be certain...

I might also make another thread about upgrades to other laptops, if these upgrades turn out to be successful!

 

[flavallee]

Will the AC 7260 work on both Windows 7 and Windows 10?

Yes.