Laptops Dell Inspiron Laptop Upgrades - The Road to take ?

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LaatSahab

Skilled
I am currently using a hand-me-down Dell Inspiron 15 which I want to upgrade in terms of RAM and SSD and I think it also needs a battery replacement. For ease of understanding, I'm attaching reports/images of the system so please advise me on what would be the suitable component for the given config and the ideal place to buy them besides TE classifieds. Below is the CPU-Z dump along with actual screenshots.
batt-snip.jpgssd.jpgram.jpgcpu.jpgmainboard.jpgmemory.jpgspd.jpg
 

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  • LOPTAP-config.txt
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To comment on battery buying experience , speaking from personal experience it's best to buy battery from Dell . Rest online shops are almost certainly duplicate batteries even though they look the same . The performance of these after market batteries are almost less than half as good as original as best . So buy original battery from Dell if still available else any cheap battery from a reputable site with maximum warranty is preferred .
I guess for win 11 now 16 gb ram is preferred although it runs fine with 8gb too .
Regarding ssd make sure if it's nvme or M2 slot . Buy accordingly . 512 gb is the minimum you should buy .
 
One of my friends has this Dell Inspiron series laptop. He recently went to replace his laptop's dead battery with an aftermarket one, but after doing so, he was greeted with pre-boot battery warnings, and further, the notification led kept blinking orange-white, and his laptop performed very poorly upon entering Windows; it was lagging a lot. The laptop performed flawlessly without that battery. So it's better to spend a little extra and get the official battery from Dell.
 
Get another 8GB RAM stick. The extra memory and the fact that it's running in dual channel will help performance. Even iGPU performance will increase due to the extra bandwidth.

If it does not already has an SSD, I recommend getting a 500GB M.2 at least.

As for battery, TPSTech.in stocks original Dell batteries. I've purchased from them before for an Inspirion and an Alienware.

Here is the link for your model. Confirm if the part number on your current battery matches the info on the site.
 
@StygianClaw Thank you for pointing in the direction of the correct battery for my unit. Is 16GB the maximum that this laptop can support? As for running Dual Channel config, can you please tell me the exact specs like frequency and latency that I should use? I'm open to swapping the current module too if it means better performance.
Another question that I have is as the Mainboard screenshot says Bus Speed is PCIe 3.0, should I use a solid-state drive that's PCIe 3.0 or can I use PCIe 4.0 drive also?
 
LaatSahab said:
Is 16GB the maximum that this laptop can support?
Click to expand...
You can go up to 32GB (2x16GB) on this laptop.
LaatSahab said:
As for running Dual Channel config, can you please tell me the exact specs like frequency and latency that I should use?
Click to expand...
Any standard DDR4 2400MHz CL17 SODIMM module should be good.

Don't pay extra for modules like HyperX/ Fury with faster timings because it will slow down to match the existing stick.
LaatSahab said:
I'm open to swapping the current module too if it means better performance.
Click to expand...
Not worth it I'm afraid. 2400MHz is the most this processor can support and tighter timings will make little to no difference on these laptops.

But running two sticks in dual channel will give a significant boost as it doubles your memory bandwidth.
LaatSahab said:
Another question that I have is as the Mainboard screenshot says Bus Speed is PCIe 3.0, should I use a solid-state drive that's PCIe 3.0 or can I use PCIe 4.0 drive also?
Click to expand...
You can use a 4.0 drive if you have one already. It will just be limited to 3.0 speeds for sequential read/write but other performance parameters should not be affected.

But if you're buying a new one, I suggest going with a budget or midrange PCIe 3.0 drive as there is some limitation in this laptop model that limits sequential speeds to ~1800MB/s. Here is the link if you want to read about it. Mid-range drives also run cooler and sip power which is ideal for laptops. Preferably get one with TLC and DRAM cache.
 
So what would be better, adding in another 8GB stick or putting in a new set of 2x16GB sticks? As for the NVMe drive, I'll be opting for the pre-owned route and thus will keep my eyes peeled for listings here.
 
LaatSahab said:
So what would be better, adding in another 8GB stick or putting in a new set of 2x16GB sticks?
Click to expand...
Depends on your use case. If it's regular office work, browsing etc then adding one more 8GB stick and an SSD is enough.

If you don't need the extra RAM for your use case, there will not be any difference in performance.
 
LaatSahab said:
So what would be better, adding in another 8GB stick or putting in a new set of 2x16GB sticks? As for the NVMe drive, I'll be opting for the pre-owned route and thus will keep my eyes peeled for listings here.
Click to expand...
Another 8 GB, unless you use this laptop for video editing. You don't need 32 GB RAM for day to day use.

Get an SSD instead, that would be more useful. Your laptop has an M.2 slot, so get a used one from the market section here.
 
Right now my usage is general browsing, occasional PDF creation, and editing. Down the line, in a coming couple of months, I'll also be doing Python and C programming on it and practicing Burp Suite.
Edit: Came across this RAM on Amazon, will it fit my bill?
 
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Ordered the Crucial RAM that @gourav quoted and, a 500GB PCIe 3.0 500GB NVMe of Crucial from Amazon. As for the battery, went with @StygianClaw recommendation and ordered it on TPS Tech site. Meanwhile, updated the system drivers and BIOS. Now going to watch YT vids on how to install all of them myself.
 
I recently changed battery, ram and ssd on my dell inspiron 7569, bought the battery from tpstech, no issues. You can check of they carry the same battery you need.
 
gourav said:
DIY guide for how to install
- Align contacts
- push forward
- push downward
- for SSD, additionally, screw

Done.
Click to expand...
That takes care of the hardware side, still need to know how to config the BIOS and the system for SSD and port the OS on it and boot from it, leaving current platter drive for data storage purposes.
 
LaatSahab said:
That takes care of the hardware side, still need to know how to config the BIOS and the system for SSD and port the OS on it and boot from it, leaving current platter drive for data storage purposes.
Click to expand...
Ah, yes. My own experience with this was an absolute nightmare.

Just a word of warning, whatever you do, do not install windows on anything other than C drive.
 
If the SSD doesn't show up on its own during installation, then unplug the hard drive and then try installing. That should usually work.
 
Personally, I would suggest the official manuals for the hardware stuff and reinstalling the OS

Also, as long as you are pimping your system, might as well upgrade your wifi adapter. which one do you have?
Edit: looks like a DW1810 which is a decent card, but you can upgrade if you have a better router

Wi-Fi Cards: Intel 9260, Intel 9560, Intel AX200, Intel AX201 and Mediatek MT7921

Intel 9260NGW WiFi5 , Bluetooth 5.1 https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/99445/intel-wirelessac-9260.html http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Intel_Dual_Band_Wireless-AC_9260_(9260NGW) Rs 1250 per card Intel 9560NGW WiFi5 , Bluetooth 5.1 ****9560NGW modules are...
techenclave.com techenclave.com
 
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