jbnishida80 said:steveotx said:512MB. No thanks.
that's a deal breaker?...you must be new around here.

4gb of sodimm RAM for $50 AR this past week as an example.

Don't like rebates either...

Any links to ram deals for the D620, I just pulled the trigger, and yes I'm lazy

I'm looking at the 620 for my parents who believe it or not are still using dial up.. cant tell if this is something that is standard on all laptops? I cant see where it says it has one on this model.

-

I was wondering how can I buy it, if I don't own a business or can't get it through my company. Is there a way to buy it for personal use.

Please help.

What is upgradable on these laptops? The CPU? The video card? It sounds like the RAM definitely is, as well as the drives. Suppose I had a T7600 processor laying around...could I put it in there? Do I understand correctly that with a docking station, you can use a PCI video card to improve the graphics for gaming?

Thanks,
Tom

Okay, it looks like there are a few options for using a PCI graphics card with the D/Dock. It sounds like it can be problematic. I still haven't found anything about whether or not you can replace the graphics card inside the laptops.

Tom

TomInOregon said:What is upgradable on these laptops? The CPU? The video card? It sounds like the RAM definitely is, as well as the drives. Suppose I had a T7600 processor laying around...could I put it in there? Do I understand correctly that with a docking station, you can use a PCI video card to improve the graphics for gaming?

Thanks,
Tom

PauNJa said:Can anyone advise me if the D820 with Quadro NVS 120 M is good for occasional gaming, i.e. world of warcraft and hopefully the upcoming starcraft.
Many thanks.

I have the exact same questions.

What else is upgradable besides the RAM? Can I upgrade the video card on my own?

About upgrades:

- First and foremost, consider once you start adding costs like a PCI graphics card or considering upgrading the CPU or Video, you might as well get an outlet %off D630.

- D-Dock video card slot is PCI only, and PCI graphics options are pretty limited. If you have integrated graphics, you could add a simple PCI card at the level of a 9550 or so and get some boost. But PCI graphics options are limited (and expensive). Not sure you could get much improvement over the NVS solutions.
- Blizzard's games are usually very scalable and video card friendly. WoW would be fine on the NVS solutions. Given their history Stracraft would likely be playable with the right settings.

- Video cards probably aren't upgradeable. CPU should be upgradeable within the same family. It depends on BIOS support so you should check Dell BIOS history for that information, it looks like 7600 is an option so I would think that would be plenty of upgrade path. Really, I'm not sure how that would ever make sense because the mobile CPU's are so expensive.

- Memory is DDR2 Sodimm (2 slots) and HDD is SATA. DDR2 is about is cheap as it can get right now, some rebate hassles might go away but it can't really get much cheaper. Hitachi's 7k200 series drives are the current best mechanical disks.

troop said:mcmd8700 said:Check out the prices now!

D620: $510
D820: $530
ATG: $630

Wound up ordering the 820 and bumped up the battery. Great deal for under $550 with free shipping.


i m not seeing these prices. $579 is showing for the d620.

The lower prices were showing up earlier before I went to bed, but they seem to be back to the prices mentioned in the OP's post....

Maybe it was a one day pricing thing, who knows when it comes to D3ll though....