video Card Upgrade Question

hey there,
i have the exact same question... i have an at x300 and want to upgrade to a x800.... did you learn if it is upgradable? or only to the nvidia 6800?
thanx

Laptops are famous for only accepting what the maker offers. Please check with Dell to see if they offer after the fact upgrades.

Cheers,

Bob

typically with laptops you can only go with the options that the manufacturer, in this case Dell, says. I would recommend calling them and making sure and you may even have to order one specifically from them to make sure it will work in your laptop. Generally desktops can be done with about any card but laptops are limited.

I own a Dell Inspiron 6000 with an ATI mobiliby x300. For fun, I dismantled my laptop to play around with (not recommended unless you know what you are doing!) - and to see what is upgradeable. I wanted to see the components. It turns out that the manufacturer of the video chip (ie nvidia, ati - the two main gaming video card manufacturers) contribute the chip (ie mobiliby x800, or geforce 7800 go) only. Now for those non-computer savvy, there is a distinct difference between a 'chip' and a 'video card'. The chip simply runs everything; all the information is passed through the chip, but a chip by itself is useless. I am not entirely sure if you can simply purchase a chip from the manufacturer. However, companies like Dell use the chip and solder it onto a video card, and run the correct circuits, in order to be able to plug it into whatever interface is required. PCI-express is the main way a video card is connected to a computer nowadays, as it allows for the greatest bandwidth (16x pcie vs 8x agp). in effect it allows for 2x the bandwidth, as a simple answer. (it's much more complex than that). however a pci-express inteface on, say a desktop, looks the same for all desktops, but a pciexpress interface (where you plug it in) is very different on a laptop. that means that in order to upgrade a video card ,you would have to obtain a chip from nvidia and ati, something likely only available to OEMs and developers, and then after you obtained that chip, you'd have to make your own board, run the circuitry, and custom fit it. that's another thing - the mobility x300 on dell's laptops is a different size and shape than one on another oem; the similarity lies in the chip that runs the video card. If dell were to manufacture Inspiron 6000 video cards, then experienced users (those confident/foolish enough to dismantle their 3000 dollar laptop) would be able to upgrade the video card. but in general, no it's not possible. You can upgrade your ram, hard drive, optical drive, and in some cases processor, but that's about it.