I just purchased a Inspiron 8200 from an associate at work for $300. He brought it into work and said it was broke - the screen was black when he turned it on and so he figured it was busted. He let me take it home to check it out and I discovered the hard drive was fried. It was the original IBM Travelstar hardrive. I found a SeaGate 100GB at BestBuy for $200 and replaced it. It ran great and my associate was pretty bummed that he'd let the laptop go for only $300. Live and learn, I say.

Anyway, this is a great laptop and I would like to ask the knowledgeable people in this forum a couple of questions:

1.) It shows my processor is a Intel Pentium 4-M mobile CPU 1.60 GHz with 512KB cache memory. Can anyone recommend a faster processor - perhaps a 2.2 or 2.6 GHz - compatible with my laptop?

2.) I do graphic design work on the side and I would like to install a second hard drive for Photoshop to run off of. Do they make hardrives that I could put into one of the bays of the 8200, and if so where could I find them?

3.) Also, does anyone know what graphic cards i could use on the 8200? Right now I have GeForce 2Go.

That's about my main questions right now. Just trying to figure out what I can and can't upgrade. Thanks to anyone who can help me out.

- dc

I have good news, good news, and good news for you.

1. You can upgrade the processor quite simply, but the problem is, of course, finding one. You have to use a Pentium 4-m processor... not a Mobile Pentium 4 and certainly not a plain old 'Pentium 4'. I'm not sure how fast the Pentium 4-m's went up to but I know it wasn't much over 2-and-a-bit GHz.

2. It is possible. Using the modular bay at the bottom right hand side of the notebook (left hand side? I can't remember) You can order an attachment from Dell which will allow you to stick a second 2.5" HDD into ur 8200.

3. The Geforce2Go can be upgraded to an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, a GeForce 4MX 440, a 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, or a Quadro 4 Go (based on the GeForce 4 Go 4200, but clocked down significantly). I would, of course, recommend the last two - the trick is convincing Dell's parts department to send you one of these cards, as they don't support 'upgrading' in any notebooks except the XPS - Whatever you do, don't tell them your service tag number. But if you want to know the best ways to get these parts, and their part numbers, visit the Dell <A HREF="http://forums.us.dell.com" target="_new">Forums</A>.

Good Luck,
Keep us informed of ur progress if its not too much trouble.

Regards,
RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

Thanks for the reply. Would you happen to know where I could find that second hard drive? I have been searching on the Web for weeks and have located nothing. I called Dell and they want $219 for a Hitachi 40GB 5400rpm (PN: 4X978). I am quite sure I could be able to find one somewhere else for less (and possibly something better than the Hitachi).

Dell also wants $559 for Pentium 4 2.4GHz processor (PN: X1124). He did not specify if it was an "M" or not. I have been searching online for this also with no success.

Any further info (and links) would be appreciated. Thank you.

- dc

P4M procs are expensive and if you already have a P4M in the machine you are probably going to have a hard time putting a non mobile in. Mobiles don't have the heatspreader that the desktop ones do. If you put a non mobile in the heatsink might not go on it cleanly. A non mobile will also murder your battery life.

If you want a decent proc upgrade put a new dothan core P4M in there. They have 2mb of L2 cache, that is a major boost for processor intensive tasks. My 1.8ghz dothan core laptop can process stuff just as fast if not faster than my 3ghz 512k L2 desktop proc. Be prepared to shell out some major bucks though.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

I wouldn't know - I'm not situated in the US. But in terms of HDDs, Hitachi (Formerly IBM), manufacture exceedingly good notebook hard drives. Try any online store though, and you should be fine.

Alright - the maximum P4-m produced is 2.6GHz - it has to be a P4-m because normal p4's have the heatspreader which interfere's with the 8200's cooling system. I'm sure there is somewhere/someone who will sell you a P4-m for a decent price (dell's isn't!!) - but you will see a notable performance increase.


P4M procs are expensive and if you already have a P4M in the machine you are probably going to have a hard time putting a non mobile in. Mobiles don't have the heatspreader that the desktop ones do. If you put a non mobile in the heatsink might not go on it cleanly. A non mobile will also murder your battery life.

If you want a decent proc upgrade put a new dothan core P4M in there. They have 2mb of L2 cache, that is a major boost for processor intensive tasks. My 1.8ghz dothan core laptop can process stuff just as fast if not faster than my 3ghz 512k L2 desktop proc. Be prepared to shell out some major bucks though.

All valid points, technically a non-mobile would destroy your battery life (if you removed the heatspreador so it could fit), which would just negate the option of upgrading it - and the other problem is, that the BIOS would probably have difficulty using the new CPU, because it does not support SpeedStep.

<A HREF="http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/processors/pentium4-m/index.htm?iid=ipp_note_proc+prod_p4p_m&" target="_new">Intel P4-m</A>

That is true - the P-M is a much more efficient CPU, but as I've stated, it is not interchangeable with the Socket 478 Northwood P4-m.

Kind Regards,
RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?



EDIT:

These may interest you:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportf [...] ing&page=1
http://docs.us.dell.com/support/ed [...] 84976&lt;P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by RaPTuRe on 12/17/04 08:16 PM.</EM></FONT></P>