Dell latitude D610

Hi
I just purchased a Dell D610 off eBay for quite a good price. I do need the computer to be fast and I know it's a pretty reliable machine, but I was wondering 2 questions, and yes there both to do with upgrading. Now I know whenever someone asks about upgrading a laptop people straight away say 'no it's not possible!' And I understand that. But I wanted to know if one of the newer centrino processors would fit in the laptop? The current one is a 750 socket but I don't know about the newer ones.

Also I found a place were this person upgraded his Precision M70's Graphics chip. Now I've seen quite a few places say that the D610 and the M70 are practically the same, so would it be possible to do the GPU upgrade on the D610?
Thanks for your help.

 

For the cpu, you have to stay in the Pentium-M line, any newer cpu won't work, like the Core duo, Core 2 Duo. The socket is not the same so it won't fit and the chipset and the Bios in the D610 won't support newer cpu. This is the family of cpu that will fit in the D610 : http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumm/index.htm

As for the GPU, do you have the integrated Intel or the Nvidia in it ? Generally speaking, it's very hard to swap the gpu in the D610. I would advise against it.

 

Also, you compare the D610 with the Precision M70, note that they are NOT similar, the D610 is a 14 inches laptop and the M70 is a 15.4 inches. Maybe you meant that the D810 and M70 are similar ?

 

Thanks for your help, I have the X300 ATI card.

 

Okay so I have done a little research, and I still don't see why a GPU upgrade is not advised. I'm no laptop expert, but my logic, ignorant it may be, just makes it seem possible to me. I mean it has a PCI-E 16x slot so shouldn't any of the newer cards, yes even the 8 series fit? Is it size of the card or heat thats the issue?

 

You can't upgrade the card to a GF 8 series, because:

1. It won't fit in a 14,1" chassis.
2. It will be too hot for a 14,1" chassis.
3. The d610 was never designed for it.
4. The motherboard probably won't have enough power for it.
5. The BIOS won't detect it.

So in one word its impossible.

What you can do is to look around and see what Dell offered as the best graphics for the d610, I think it was the X600. That will work. An X700 could work flawlessly in a d610, the problem is that Dell uses a special interface not compatible with MXM in their notebooks, so the only choices are the cards which have the interface for Dell notebooks.

 

It will not fit

 

What about the 7800 or is that still to big? And will the X700 work or not?
Thanks

 

Like I said the X700 could work...but it has no guarantee. 7800? No chance. But first you should find a card with an interface compatible with the d610.

 

Hello,

This is Richard from Dell's Online Community Outreach group. The Latitude D610 is a rock solid system, I have one.

There are two video options on the D610, Intel and the ATI X300. Both of these option are onboard, you can't install a video card into this system. Currently, you have the best video option available for the D610.

You currently have a 750 Intel 1.86 GHz at 533 MHz. You can upgrade this system with the following processors.

2.0 GHz, 2MB, 760, Pentium-M Dothan, 533FSB, C0
2.13 GHz, 2MB, 770, Pentium-M Dothan, 533FSB, C0
2.26 GHz, 2MB, 780, Pentium-M Dothan, 533FSB, C0

Good luck!

Regards,

Richard B

 

Yup, I can second that solidness...2 years of use and the only defect is that the Windows XP sticker came off, no kidding, and I have an entry modell (Pentium M 730J, I950, XGA screen, 512Mb RAM later upgraded to 1Gb)

By the way look around at the RAM, mine had originally only 400Mhz DDR sticks in it, but it supports 533Mhz sticks.