Max your 9300 out!

[sn0wl]

Inspiron 9300, the name of the humble, yet incredibly upgradeable laptop in which this entire article is based upon. As mentioned earlier, this laptop may not have the fancy paint job or design that the overpriced, so called ?gaming laptops? might have. Instead, it has a very subtle look and resembles a Mac Powerbook G4.

In this article, you will be informed on how to take the absolute most base configuration for the Inspiron9300 and ?max it out? with upgrades. You may choose any configuration you?d like, and every possible upgrade path will be explained. The explanation in this article will show you the most cost effective way to have the absolute best gaming laptop available currently. The upgrading process is very user friendly, meaning that you don?t have to go from a ?base? config to a ?maxed-out laptop? in one shot. Read more.

[®®®]

Is it just me or this guide to "max out" your 9300 kind of stupid?

1. Put in more RAM. Wow 2 GB. Ah really? No word about CAS, tRas Timings which makes the difference or a "What to Buy" suggestion. Crap.

2. Get yourself a faster CPU. Who would have known :) New ($$$) or at Ebay. Go find one, bid & hope you'll win. Or do the overprized "Buy immediately". Then replace the old one by disassembling your complete Laptop and loose warranty :gähn:

3. Replace your old GPU with a Go 6800 ($$$). Or even better a Go 6800 Ultra ($$$), but then i suggest you update you DELL'S System BIOS or your Laptop won't turn on :P , or Go 7800 ($$$), but then don't forget to buy a new AC Adapter ($$$) and a powerfull Battery (what for?, $$$). This is where i stopped reading. Page 4 :)

Thanks for the news, though! Always interesting to see what's goin on elsewhere.

[sn0wl]

You've read it till page 4? I only peaked first and the last page :) Anyway can be useful for someone, dunno :)

[Guest Guest]

Meh...

I have an Inspiron 9300. It's got amazing performance for the price I got it for. I'm not interested in upgrading it, though; it would be too much cost for a small gain.

®®®:

It may cost a lot of money to upgrade, but it'll still be a lot cheaper than an Alienware or XPS for similar performance, especially if you get the base configuration and sell all the parts you replace on E-Bay.

I think it's not worth the work, though; mine gets 3300 3dMarks (with the Go 6800) and it cost only $1700 last summer. (The only modding I did was upgrading the RAM, which doesn't void the warranty.)

[Bill]

This is kinda like how I turned my laptop into an M50 by flashing with the C480 BIOS. :) :)

Except this time your turning a 9300 to an XPS Gen2 M170 and can run a more powerfull power adapter and a considerably faster graphics card.

Also the M170 might work with a GF8 sometime down the road, that means 9300 should too.

My brother has an M170 and being able to turn any lesser Dell laptop into one spec wise is big news.

Of course with the core duos out now coupled with SLI laptops there is much faster stuff available.

Also other brands might have support for 2 HDDs or 2 SATA in a RAID0

My laptop has more HDD space than my brother's Gen2 M170, and it always will accept more than his without moddification.

Also a way to get a (probably) cheaper Gen2 without the silly lights and case look, if you think it looks silly.