Suggestions for upgrading my Dell Inspiron i7559?

[zawaad]

I bought this laptop about a week ago and with black Friday coming soon I figured I'd make use of the discounts to upgrade it. Right now I have 8GB of ram and a 256gb SSD. I'm considering getting another 8GB of ram and a 1TB HDD. So I was sort of hoping for suggestions on what I should get. Also I'm considering changing the wifi card beacuse I feel like the one I have right now isn't really giving me the download speed that I should be getting(my one has the intel 3165 wifi card). So I was hoping to find out if I can actually change it or not and what sort of wifi card would be compatible or that I should get.

 

[WyomingKnott]

IMHO, if you _replace_ the SSD with a larger HDD you will notice that your system is more sluggish and takes longer to start up and boot. I'm looking for specs on that system to see if it can take two drives. Adding a second drive will increase weight and decrease battery life; it's not a choice that I would make myself.

Do you know if the 8 GB of memory is 2x 4GB or 1x 8GB? Going to dual-channel memory (2 matched sticks) will usually result in an improvement.

On the other hand, what kind of improvements are you looking for? More memory won't increase frame rates. Besides Wifi transfer speeds, what do you want to improve?

 

[zawaad]

IMHO, if you _replace_ the SSD with a larger HDD you will notice that your system is more sluggish and takes longer to start up and boot. I'm looking for specs on that system to see if it can take two drives. Adding a second drive will increase weight and decrease battery life; it's not a choice that I would make myself.

Do you know if the 8 GB of memory is 2x 4GB or 1x 8GB? Going to dual-channel memory (2 matched sticks) will usually result in an improvement.

On the other hand, what kind of improvements are you looking for? More memory won't increase frame rates. Besides Wifi transfer speeds, what do you want to improve?

There is actually a free slot for me to add the HDD so I won't really be replacing the SSD. And tbh I'm pretty sure I'll be needing the extra disk space in the future. The ram is 1x 8GB so I'm hoping to add another 8GB.

As for other improvements, I don't think there's really much else I can add other than the ram and HDD. Personally I feel that changing the wifi card takes the highest priority for me.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Simple answer, you can add a second stick of RAM but should get a matching one. A purist would suggest that you replace the existing one with a matched set of two.

Second bay is a great solution for more storage. It will still add weight and sap your battery life; it's all tradeoffs.

What kind of router or WiFi access point are you using and what kinds of speeds are you seeing? It might just be as fast as you can get. One easy test is to plug in an external USB 3.0 adapter, put the machine in the same room as the router, and test the speed you get. A comparison with your current speed will tell you if it's worth the replacement or not.

You may do better with an external device just because it gets the antenna outside of your case.

 

[zawaad]

Simple answer, you can add a second stick of RAM but should get a matching one. A purist would suggest that you replace the existing one with a matched set of two.

Second bay is a great solution for more storage. It will still add weight and sap your battery life; it's all tradeoffs.

What kind of router or WiFi access point are you using and what kinds of speeds are you seeing? It might just be as fast as you can get. One easy test is to plug in an external USB 3.0 adapter, put the machine in the same room as the router, and test the speed you get. A comparison with your current speed will tell you if it's worth the replacement or not.

You may do better with an external device just because it gets the antenna outside of your case.

I currently use my college's WiFi. The router is fixed at the top corner of my room so I can't really check it.

 

[WyomingKnott]

Ahh, a dorm. it's possible that you are sharing the bandwidth with 20 other students and will never see full speed. There's a lot of competition for that access, even if it is in your room.

 

[Lavawar]

Look at the intel 8260 to replace the 3165.

 

[dranzerv]

My configuration of this laptop came with a 1TB HDD and 8GB of RAM which I ended up upgrading with a 256GB SSD and I intend to add another 8GB of RAM or more likely replace both with a 2x8GB kit. My suggestion is that if you do intend to add a external hard drive, purchase a 7200rpm hard drive. For me at least, the performance difference is very noticeable. And as stated in a previous answer the wifi issue is probably due to shared bandwidth.