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    Dell Inspiron 1720 upgrades and tweaks?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Xtra, Aug 12, 2020.

  1. Xtra

    Xtra Newbie

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    Hello,

    I have an old Dell Inspiron 1720, I still use it some times, although it has become very slow.

    It has Windows 10 Education. 6 GB Ram. Intel Core2 Duo T7500, 2,2 GHz, 800 MHz, caché L2 de 4 MB. And a Seagate ST2000LX001 2 TB - Firecuda Gaming SSHD SATA 6 Gb/s 64 MB

    How do you surpass the SATA-1 limitation? I read this is possible by software.

    Are there any economical upgrades or tweaks? I don't know if it could boot from a USB 3.0 Express Card or a USB 3.0 mPCIe adapter?

    I've looking for a mPCIe SSD but they are expensive, and may be slow.

    I've already saw some posts here:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-inspiron-1720-still-rocking.797232/
    Two of them are claiming they had mSATA SSDs in the 1720 (but reading they shouldn't work, or they have Vostros or a modified 1720)

    Or simply let my 1720 die!

    Thanks in advance!
     
    Xtra, Aug 12, 2020
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  2. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

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    mSATA is just a regular SATA SSD but in a smaller format, you will need to use an adapter to go from mSATA to the regular SATA interface.
    Even with the SATA-1 interface an SSD doesn't have seek times(at least compared to an HDD), so it will feel snappier, but for that you dont need any mSATA at all, just install a regular SATA 2.5 inch SSD.
    USB3.0 is only possible using an ExpressCard, that will be limited to a single PCIe lane, so the speed will be the same in theory of that of the SATA interface, in fact it will be slower due to the jump from PCIe to USB, then to SATA and back again, so its a loss of time and money in all those adapters.

    Unless you need it to run old versions of software, any 300$ laptop will be faster, lighter, and with much more battery run time and better display.
     
    senso, Aug 18, 2020
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  3. Temp1234453

    Temp1234453 Notebook Consultant

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    Pretty sure its sata 2, I had (have) a 1520, which is the 15" version, and with a SSD ,it worked pretty good. Sata 2 limit is around 300MB/s.
    You could also upgrade to something like t9300, which when I bought it, was just a bit over 5€ on ebay/aliexpress.
     
    Temp1234453, Aug 19, 2020
    #3
  4. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    As noted even an inexpensive new PC will be leagues ahead of this old one. I can't recommend making any investment into it, including time.

    Charles
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Aug 19, 2020
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  5. Xtra

    Xtra Newbie

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    Thank you for your answers!

    I was trying to overcome the SATA I limitation, HW is SATA II, in order to put an mPCI-e SSD (but they are very expensive), but I can't find the software to do that.

    The only thing that I miss is the display resolution: WUXGA with TrueLife 1920 x 1200 at 262 K colors.
    For reading PDFs.

    I had problems with the AC adapter, just bought a new one (original) and I can use it again.
     
    Xtra, Aug 20, 2020
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  6. senso

    senso Notebook Deity

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    The most common displays now are all FHD, that has 1080 vertical pixels, only 120 pixels less that your current one, it wont make much of a difference, but the brightness, contrast ratio and colour rendition of any new display will be better.
    That might be mostly a hidden BIOS setting, maybe searching for an unlocked BIOS would be a good option.
     
    senso, Aug 20, 2020
    #6