Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

Actually, the HSF is the same.

My friend has a quad core i7 and it has the same HSF as my dual core i5.

I'll be attempting the swap tonight after I update the BIOS. I also have 16GB of RAM to install into it as well. Hope it works.

 

So the upgrade was a failure. Here is what I think is going on:

On the i5 systems, 8GB is the max. It will post with 16, but not boot. I get a white screen and then reboot.

The i7 from my E6520 will not work in the M4500. I could probably buy an i7 from an M4500 and have 16GB also as the memory controller is integrated into the CPU.

I spent a few hours trying different hardware configs, looking up Dell POST codes and what not.

All of this because I prefer the M4500 to the E6520 because it will take an mSATA SSD drive. I think the GPU in the M4500 is more powerful also, but I am not certain of that fact. If anyone has some info on that, I would love to know.

So my plans are to acquire an M4500 with an i7 in it. Preferably one of those parts systems from e-bay. That, a backlit keyboard (which my E6520 has and I love it), and a higher res LCD as I have the 1366x768 LCD. I also prefer how much easier the M4500 is to service than the E6520. It's a single screw to remove the bottom panel as opposed to 10 for the E6520.

Don't get me wrong, the E6520 is a very powerful machine. Mine has an i7 quad (8 with HT), Nvidia GPU and 16GB of DDR3 RAM. But I don't like typing on it, and as of last check on this forum from reading the entirety of the E6520 Owner's Thread, it will not support an mSATA SSD unless I get one like the RunCore SSD with it's own built in controller. The problem with those drive is they are very small in terms of storage. I'd rather pickup a Mushkin 240GB for $128 from Newegg.

Le sigh. The quest continues.

 

Ahh my bad. The 6520 is a second gen i7... You need a first gen i7. Missed that last night when I read that...

Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk

 

How's that? M4500 is a great machine.

 

So I got my m4500. i5-540m, 6gig ram, BD-rom, FHD screen, FX 880m, installed an m500 240gb msata, and a 320gb hdd.

It needs a new battery, and planning on upgrading to a quad core i7 and 16gb of ram in the near future.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

You have to do the CPU upgrade first as from my experience the i5 will not support 16GB of RAM.

Also if you note above from my earlier posts, we think that a 1st gen mobile i7 is needed. I think you best bet would be to find an i7 parts machine and cannibalize the CPU and battery.

 

Yeah, tracking that already. I was really happy the msata worked flawlessly.... So I will have my 320gb HDD for VMs

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

As for the i7, fleabay has had em for months around 60usd

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Still waiting on getting the funds for the i7 and 16gb ram (yay college student budget), but my crucial m500 240gb is doing great, as well as my Samsung 470 128gb. Managed to get both windows 7 and Linux mint installed on separate drives, and w/ uefi. Grub is able to kick over to the windows boot loader as well

On a side note... This thing screams on Linux...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah,

My M4500 runs the heck out Linux Mint also. I'd still be using it if it weren't for the low res screen and weight. I've really fallen for the 14" widescreen machines though.