Hi,
Re your question: I look to having the most robust system I can afford and sometimes an upgrade isn't really worth it if you need to upgrade any components to add because the technology is changing so fast. That being said, when I built my husband's PC to use for his photography, I used the best HDD I could find and built it for gaming for speed. He's had if for over 6 years and it's still going strong.
I don't know what you may need to do the upgrade, but here's a reliable Manufacturer's opportunity if you have the right hardware for SATA III to hook up the new Drive - You should probably call Dell and ask them if you can use this: ($109.99
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With solid-state drive technology, you benefit from load and access times for your files and programs that are faster than a conventional 7200 rpm hard drive. As SSDs have no moving parts, they are also more durable than traditional hard drives and are better protected against damage from drops and bumps. Having no moving parts also means that SSDs receive less wear and tear, as there are no read or write heads for the drive media to come into contact with. SSDs also help to deliver improved battery life and cooler operating temperatures. Protection is provided by a limited 5-year warranty."
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https://www.dell.com/community/Lapt...ou-upgrade-a-Dell-Inspiron-N5050/td-p/4471759
11-14-2014 07:43 AM
RE: Can you upgrade a Dell Inspiron N5050?
OK, all done and dusted.
1) New keyboard- c$15, new, ebay. There are videos on youtube showing how.
2) 2x4GB RAM (Total :smiling_face_with_sunglasses: from Crucial (DDR3 PC3-12800 (800MHz))- c$65. Again, videos on youtube for those new to this.
3) An i5-2540M to replace the Celeron, using Liquid Ultra for Cooling Block/CPU c$70, used, ebay. Again, videos, some referenced above.
4) I thought of getting an SSD drive but relatively expensive perceived bang/$ given what I use the machine for (light gaming (WoT), work, email, browsing), so decided against and the standard 300GB HDD will have to do with an external drive as needed.
Total $150 and machine greatly improved. I looked around for a new machine but didn't see any improvements in form factor that would justify a $500+ outlay, and this should last a year or so.
Of the Qs navigating through this process (to help others), and anyone please correct me if I'm wrong:
1) The i5-2540M is the top processor this machine can handle as shipped. The limit is its cooling ability as these CPUs go to 100 degrees C.
2) Paste- Maxxxem recommended Liquid Pro as best versus Liquid Ultra (thank you and for all your other advice, greatly appreciated), but research suggested Ultra and that's what I used- as new to this process I found very easy to clean off old/apply new.
3) Overclocking. Maxxxem suggested the "i5-2540M Mobile Processor 2.6GHz@3.3 Turbo" and this seemed to imply some overclocking (3.3 Turbo from stock 2.6). But the BIOS is locked down (you can't change clock/speed settings for the CPU here) and all I could find as a way 'in' to overclocking was using Intel's SpeedStep where the processor speed ramps up or down according to load/temperature to save on power and avoid overheating when not heavily needed (the BIOS allows this to be enabled/disabled). I got Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility to help with specs and this shows the CPU speeding along @ 3.2GHz (off the 2.6GHz stock) which is a handy # (and puts me #1 in my category on
www.hwbot.org where you can post/compare results (admittedly out of only 3 but older machine now)).
I hope this helps others as Maxxxem helped me. If anyone has any pointers on how to overclock (more out of curiosity/interest than necessity at this point) or get better performance from this new config I'd be all ears and thank you.
Good Luck