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Ok, I have a Dell Inspiron 1720. I built it with Dell and paid for stuff I didn't really need. (like the extra large screen instead of a larger Hd) But now, I have come to want a more powerful Laptop. I was thinking that I could just upgrade some stuff on my old one. Like getting a really good Graphics Card, New HD, and upgrade my Ram.

Right now I only have like 20gb on Vista, and 80gb on Linux Free. This just isn't enough for me, so I was thinking I need a bigger HD. Then, I only have 2gb of Ram. Which really means like 1.6 or 1.8 I think. I would prefer 4, 6, or 8 if possible. Then last I would upgrade my Graphics card just so the graphics would be better. The laptop is in almost perfect condition. Not one scratch anywhere, and the screen is perfect and clear. I was wondering if you thought it would be better to upgrade or to buy a Netbook/Laptop.
x]

Just upgrade to save some money.
You can get most of the parts on www.newegg.com.

-Pycomonkey

UPGRADE u can get much better laptop

Lol, I've never really liked Dell, but if you upgrade you can make it run like a smooth criminal without spending nearly as much as you would have to to get a new one.

Depends on your Budget

Not sure if you've made a decision yet, but I would say get a new laptop. Having ~100 GB is a no-no, at least for me. I have a bigger pocket HD than that!

You should be fine with 200-250 GB of HD space.
I would also suggest getting a laptop with 4 GB of RAM. Depending on what you're doing, 4 GB will do you pretty good.

Do you plan on gaming on this computer? In general, gaming on a laptop isn't that great in my opinion. Maybe light games, but not those kinds of games you see nowadays, such as CoD MW2, WoW, etc.

The hard drive and ram are definitely doable, easy too. Although with the hard drive, instead of having to reinstall all my programs on a new one, I'd just get a 500 gig USB hard drive, or even one with a terrabyte. Why bother changing over?

The graphic card on the other hand? I'm sorry but laptops are not like desktops,and upgrading graphics cards in laptops is very difficult, if not close to impossible, if not flat-out impossible. Most laptops just don't have enough room inside them and the components aren't usually compatable anyway.

If it's an older Dell it probably only has a 32 bit operating system and isn't capable of 64 bit, and the max a 32 bit operating system is capable of recognizing is 4 gigs, even if there's slots for more. Even at that, most 32 bit processors will only recognize a 3.25 gigs of that 4 gigs regardless. So you'll be limited, right there.

You may be able to find a graphics card you can use that will be compatable, fit and at least be better than what you have now, but probably not one you'd REALLY like. Depending on the rest of your system, you MIGHT be able to install a graphics engine capable of DirectX 10, but almost certainly not DirectX11, and if there's not already a dedicated graphics card in there, well, even IF the rest of the components somehow happen to be compatable, it's just not going to fit. Laptops aren't built with much, if any, room. (Although a few are built with room for an eventual 2nd hard drive, and if that applies to yours, then theoretically, it might be possible.)

Vista sucks so much that the first upgrade I'd recommend is upgrading to Windows 7, which is much faster, smoother and has less problems.

Best of luck!

If you have the money, buy a new one, if not, save and upgrade

Upgrade is always cheaper. Depending upon what you want your upgraded computer to be used for/do.

Um, However, for 1000$ there's a amazing desktop on tigerdirect. 12gigs of ram. 5tb harddrive. dual monitors. Water cooled all that a real gaming computer

If that's to expensive. Then you should try a good computer on TD for about 200-500$ I just seen one for 250$ that you can customize and I gave it a quad core processor and a few extra addons and topped it at 491$

so you just have to careful and look around first.


Or b. There's Ebay. You can find good stuff there.

Upgrading sounds good for your computer.