Upgrade Dell 1745 to a 1747

[hdpartman]

Hi, I have a dell studio 1745 with a bad video. Replacement 1745 boards are in the $200.00 range. I found a few 1747 motherboards that are refurbished by Dell for a great price of $66.00.
From what I have been able to track, it seems the only differences are the CPU and the CPU Cooling heat sink.
Looking for Cost on e-Bay it seems I can wind up with a I7 1747 for less money than simply buying a used motherboard.

Any and all responses are welcome...

hdpartman

[jeffmd]

Unfortunately since you probably won't find anyone who has both, prolly won't get an answer on if the shell is exactly the same.

[Commander Wolf]

It looks like 1745, 1747, and 1749 all share the same base assembly, so I don't see why this swap wouldn't work. Can't make any guarantees having not tried it myself, though.

[hdpartman]

Actually the case is the exact same part numbers for both the 1747 and the 1745, I have found older post that were not complete. These have done the change for better Video.
Thanks, Al

[bamaman]

I am in the same situation hdpartman. I have a 1745 with a bad motherboard and want to make this swap to a i7 1747. Have you done it? Any issues you ran into? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[hdpartman]

The reality, it is truly a very easy exchange. There are lots of factory Refurbished mother boards for sale just now on e-bay. However, I also went through 2 refurbished MB before I found a good one.

You will need a heat sink for a 1747 a 1749, about $25.00 or less, and also a i5 or a i7 1st gen chip.

Heat is a huge problem with all of these laptops, #1 failure, keep your laptop clean from dust and use an fan control to run the fans. I just keep mine on medium all of the time. If gaming, go to manual full speed.

If you take your time, and follow the dell 1747 manual, there should not be any problems in making the change. Total parts cost should be around the $125.00 range.

Good Luck

[bamaman]

Thanks for the advice! I ran into the exact same situation. I've been searching for a good used 1745 MB on Ebay and the prices are crazy, $200+. It's great that I can get a good 1747 MB, a much stronger processor, and end up with a much more powerful laptop for less than the cost of an outdated 1745 MB! I'm taking the plunge. I've built several desktop PCs/Servers over the years. Always been afraid of modding laptops tho, too many proprietary parts.

[hdpartman]

There is no modding at all, it's a drop in.