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    Dell Inspiron 1520 Upgrades?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by huntr1117, Feb 28, 2012.

  1. huntr1117

    huntr1117 Newbie

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    My 1520 has been crashing constantly and I've run every spyware, virus, and malware program to find the problem and nothing shows up. I've even wiped the hard drive with dban and started over from scratch. Worked ok for about a year but now I'm just tired of it crashing and how long it takes to load anything. I've decided to go ahead and replace the hard drive and add 4gbs of RAM. Will these hard drives work with my 1520 and which one should I get?

    Western Digital Scorpio Blue
    Amazon.com: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 2.5 Inch, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD5000BEVT: Computers & Accessories

    Western Digital Scorpio Black
    Amazon.com: Western Digital WD Scorpio Black 500 GB SATA II 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM 2.5 Inch Mobile Hard drive - WD5000BPKT: Computers & Accessories

    Will these work?
    Amazon.com: PNY OPTIMA 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit DDR2 667 MHz PC2-5300 Desktop DIMM Memory Modules MD4096KD2-667: Electronics
     
    huntr1117, Feb 28, 2012
    #1
  2. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    Does your Inspiron 1520 have the GeForce 8400 or 8600 card? These are known to break prematurely due to heat.
     
    namaiki, Feb 28, 2012
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  3. huntr1117

    huntr1117 Newbie

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    It's the 8400. I don't think that would be causing it to crash constantly.
     
    huntr1117, Feb 28, 2012
    #3
  4. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    namaiki, the 8400/8600 is a removable, Dell proprietary card in the 1520/Vostro 1500. Even if it breaks down, it is a cheap part to replace. My 8400M GS had over 2500+ hours of gaming on it, still good.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Feb 29, 2012
    #4
  5. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    To answer the original question, all of the linked parts in the first post should work in the 1520.

    If you aren't seeing any obvious artifacts with your 8400M, try stressing it with FurMark or what not and see if it's stable...
     
    Commander Wolf, Feb 29, 2012
    #5
  6. ScottyBoy

    ScottyBoy Notebook Consultant

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    You also might want to consider checking out this thread by Mihael Keehl here at the NBR Forums. :)

    Dell Inspiron 1520: Viable After Market Upgrades

    Extracts from the aforementioned thread...

    Hard Drive: Any 2.5" Form Factor SSD up to SATA II*, 80GB SATA @ 5400 RPM or 120GB/160GB/250GB/320GB/500GB/750GB SATA II @ 5400 RPM/7200 RPM or 1 TB SATA II @ 5400 RPM

    SATA Note: All SATA II (3.0 Gbps) Drives (SSD or HDDs) are backwards compatible with the Dell Inspiron 1520 SATA interface (1.5 Gbps) at no performance loss whatsoever. So do not worry about that, SATA III speeds will not be reached on the 1520.

    Maximum Memory: 6GB (4GB Shared Dual Channel) and (2GB Intel Flex Mode) DDR2 SDRAM.
     
    ScottyBoy, Mar 2, 2012
    #6