Inspiron 1720 with 6GB RAM Tested

[Commander Wolf]

For sure T9500 will work. I think X7900 and X9000 might work too; I seem to recall seeing that in someone's sig, but no guarantees on those.

That being said, you should not get a T9500 because it is nearly double the price of a T9300 and only 100MHz faster.

[teoabroad]

Hi all, I know my specs do not mach this post but still might get some answers...
I got a VAIO VGN-AR750E: PM 965 (BIOS Phoenix R2080J8), T 9500 (upgraded from T 8100), 4GB 667 RAM, 8600M GT.
I want to also upgrade to 8 GB RAm...
Therefore, is PM 965 platform capable of 8 GB RAM?
Can (has ever been) the BIOS Phoenix R2080J8 be tweaked / modded to support 8 GB RAM?
What can I do?
Many thanks for your kind understanding and (hope) cooperation!

[Apollo13]

I've never even heard of PC2-5400, but I know that PC2-6400 works on our models just that I believe it downclocks the RAM to 667MHz on its own accord.

I didn't know the PC2-6400 would auto-downclock. Thanks for the knowledge!

Just nosy.... What is the fastest CPU that will fit the Dell Insprion 1720 and the Intel Mobile 965 display? I believe I'm limited to a 800FSB in this.
T9500?

The X9000 will work. Whether you'll be able to overclock it to any meaningful degree is less certain - if you do, you'll need to use ThrottleStop. The main concern is heat - at least on my 1520, if I don't dust it often enough, even the T7500 will get too hot eventually. So, I doubt you'd be able to overclock it much over its stock speed.

[JanJ]

It's been a couple months.... Everything is still fine... No Problems with this mod... Thanks to all who provided input...

[frenchglen]

did i mention that I successfully upgraded my Vostro 1700 with the highest possible CPU that the mobo's chipset can handle? (the Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000)? It's been quite fine, but recently it's been having severe overheating issues, just completely turning off and going to liek 100C. I think I may have done the themal pasting not optimally (I did use the best paste out there though and followed good guides carefully! maybe have to apply it more thickly?? but ALSO there's been a weird sound every now and then, maybe the physical components in my vostro are just aging after 4 years of super heavy use :/).

observations speed wise are: surprisingly, it wasn't that much of a difference to general snappiness (like upgrading to SSDs did) :/. BUT, where it DOES excel over the T9500, is CPU-intensive tasks like encoding, unrarring, etc etc. Huge speed difference. so I am glad for that, but disappointed that it didn't again transform my PC like I was hoping it would like the SSDs. but it also does seem to add a layer of just general 'solidness' and stability to my insane computer-thrashing things I do on my vostro . It's like I can punch it and before it would heave back a little but now it only flinches subtly in the face of what I do to it .

so all in all, worth it.