Help from IT hardware champs - what to do with my Inspiron 9300

[arnprasad]

Hi All,

I have a six year old Dell Inspiron 9300. I paid 1 lac in early 2006 including 10k for 3 year global warranty - for the latest and greatest at that point of time. It has served me quite well including few home visits by the Dell engineer thanks to the 3 year extended warranty.

Right now it is not being used much as I bought a new laptop couple of years back. This laptop although of ancient specs, still has a gorgeous 17 inch 1080P display and I feel sad it is rotting in a corner.(this display infact is only 3 years old as the old one went bad and they replaced it with a new one as it was under warranty)

I would need help from knowledgeable folks on how to upgrade by not spending more than 10K - so that I can make it a mini HTPC or some kind of streaming device.

Specs I remember is Intel processor, 80gb hard drive, 1GB ram and 256mb nvidia graphics. DVD drive doesnt work. Kids have plucked most of the keys, but I use a USB keyboard instead. Wifi works

Below is a link to the laptop review:

Dell Inspiron 9300 Review - Laptops - CNET Reviews

 

[ruenigma]

The hardware is really getting old petty fast these days. And its particularly sped up during the 2009-2012 period, rendering anything old unnecessarily old than it should be. The 9300 was a real mean machine back then, and I feel for you. That said, I'd not doubt its capabilities as an HTPC even today.

A few necessary upgrades irrespective of the intended usage would be
1. Get more RAM the M760 could handle upto 3GB and that's how much you should get.
2. put a faster and more capacious disc if the board supports it. I am not sure it has SATA so its better to have someone take a look under the hood, or post a Everest report here.
3. Upgrade the OS to at least Win7 (Win8 is just around the corner i'd recommend that as its overall snappy even with older/slower hardware)

Unfortunately the nVidia 6800 did not have any h.264 capabilities back then, so most of the decoding grunt-work will be done by the CPU. It should handle it albeit the utilization may go through the roof, so grab a laptop cooling pad to take care of the imminent heat.

In the end the sum of all the efforts looks like not worth it, if I were you. Another use for that nice little display is to use VNC /Zonescreen on that machine and use it as a second/third monitor for another primary machine. There's nothing like a nice high-res secondary display.

 

[arnprasad]

Thanks a lot for your reply. I my self am no techie..so will use speccy to get the required info. I hope it starts at least. will update. Thx again:clapping:

 

[arnprasad]

Another question:

(1) I did try to see if my laptop can handle win 7 and when one goes to microsoft website it does a quick survey of your machine and tells you if machine can handle 7 and my machine passed that test. But will the drivers and all other software that came with my laptop - will those work? aren't they dependent on the system harware as well?

(2) regarding the ram - are you sure my specs can handle it? how much will it cost please apprx?

 

[ruenigma]

Another question:

(1) I did try to see if my laptop can handle win 7 and when one goes to microsoft website it does a quick survey of your machine and tells you if machine can handle 7 and my machine passed that test. But will the drivers and all other software that came with my laptop - will those work? aren't they dependent on the system harware as well?

(2) regarding the ram - are you sure my specs can handle it? how much will it cost please apprx?

The drivers should hardly be an issue unless some exotic devices like some bluetooth modules, camera and trackpads. I am not aware of the current DDR2 RAM prices. Will check and report here. I am sure it can handle upto 3gb.

 

[arnprasad]

Couple of more questions which I had asked in earlier forums but dont remember getting the right answers.

(1) I want to create some kind of home network. Not sure how to do this but I have read things like NAS server, HTPC....etc and hoping all of them kind of merge into each other.

(2) I have an office laptop, I have my Gateway NV59 home laptop, I have a BSNL Modem/wifi router, I have a WD 2 TB hard drive that is always connected to my WII. Plus of course my 9300. Now not sure if having this hardware is enough to do some streaming - by that I want to control files on my hard drive - say - wirelessly by using any of my two working laptops. Also wirelessly I want video signals to go from my HDD to my TV either directly or via by my Pioneer receiver - not sure if DLNA works in this scenario - sorry that I am throwing all these abbreviations - I have heard about them, I know people use them to work wirelessly and I keep wondering why I have to keep connecting wires everytime I want to access my HDD.

Did what I wrote above make any sense? again I am an accountant and have never opened a computer in my life or tried assembling one - but I dont mind trying - just to want create something smart in my house with all these existing hardware and if I need to buy another router or any piece of hardware I dont mind

 

[grunthos]

You have definitely picked the right abbreviations - and with so many devices in the house, I can completely understand the need to have a central repository of all my files
Initially I built a large hdd capacity PC and connected it to my TV directly - and for a while my life was bliss. Shared the drives so that all devices in the house could access the files - and anything that you wanted to watch could just be plugged into the HTPC

However, heating issues came up - the AV rack is not really a place to run a regular computer 24x7. Lost a drive too. And since this was a regular motherboard and case, I was limited to three drives only. Am now building a second computer to act as a pure NAS (without any display/keyboard) with a 6 hdd capacity (for future expansion). My current HTPC will pull all content from the NAS over WiFi N

Also have ambitions of running a DLNA server on the NAS so that media is accessible to tablets and phones etc

 

[debzkool]

Just pointing out a few things.
Ok to start off with, the 9300 had the best specs and functionality at the time you bought it.

Now keeping your requirement in mind, the 9300 supports upto 2GB of DDR2 RAM, one in each slot(256,512 and 1GB).
The 1GB Transcend RAM costs 877 each so you could upgrade to 2x1GB
Transcend DDR2-667/PC2-5300 DDR2 1 GB Laptop RAM (JM667QSU-1G) | Ram | Flipkart.com

As far as the Processor and Graphics card is concerned you really cant do much about it as they are fixed and not upgradeable.

The Hard drive may be upgraded depending upon the type of connector since your hard drive seats in a carriage it needs to be removed and checked if its a PATA or a SATA connector.

As far as your OS is concerned Win 7 should work provided you keep the theme/display setting to the minimum. The drivers should be there by default.

NOw if you are planning to stream videos, the quality may not be very good as mentioned in an earlier post, the entire load goes to the CPU. Audio streaming shouldnt be a ptoblem.

Just let me know as to what technical details you need exactly and I may be able to help.

Also setting up a NAS can also be done using a Router like the Belkin Share or your laptop connected to external storage.

 

[buxx]

before upgrading anything...
Install CoreAVC and see if HD playback is still an issue?