In my last post I dissected my Dell Vostro V13, today I want to tell you about my recent upgrades. I recently upgraded the RAM from 2GB to 4GB. I also replaced the stock Hitachi 256GB HDD with a 120GB SSD. After these upgrades I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and everything is running great. Although Dell does not post 64 bit drivers for this laptop most of the 32 bit drivers for Windows 7 also have 64 bit drivers packaged with them. The other drivers which are 32 bit worked fine as well. Basically just use support.dell.com, get the Windows 7 drivers and you’ll be fine.
Many folks were wondering how to upgrade the ram on the V13 and it’s very easy and requires no tools. You simply pry up the panel above the keyboard where the power button is and the RAM slot is under that.
You do have to remove a few screws, however, to get to the HDD. I have recorded a video of opening the Vostro V13 which you can see in my previous post. Swapping out the HDD for an SSD was very painless.
Overall I’m very pleased with the Dell Vostro V13. I can run Windows 7 64bit, Photoshop CS4, and browse the web with smooth speed. All this and it’s very light, portable and sturdy. The metal clamshell design gives this laptop a very sturdy feel while also being very lightweight. It’s a great design.
If you’re curious about my upgrades here are the parts I used. I have linked directly to each item to make it really easy for you.
- OCZ Agility Series 2.5″ 120GB SATA II MLC SSD
- Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500)
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
I enjoy hearing from you so please let me know if you have questions.
{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve ordered mine today. Nice to see someone doing this kind of things with the V13. Very useful info. Thanks. ;-)
Thanks for the detailed information
I have a v13 too and love it so far
i might follow your guide and upgrade the HD and Ram in the future (though i’m still figuring out how to get to the RAM, since i don’t want to apply too much force that’ll break the plastic)
If you just lift up the edge of that panel with your fingernail and then work your finger along the edge you can pry it open. I’ve opened mine twice now and didn’t break it.
Very nice! Thanks for the info! What was your final cost when all was said and done? If you had it to do over again, would you have gotten the better processor? Thanks again.
$449 for the laptop and $687 for upgrades so about $1136. So I saved about $500 off what a refurbished Adamo would cost but I missing the backlit keyboard. Yes, I would have gone with the faster processor, but it does everything I ask it to do, including Photoshop CS4 so I can’t complain. Thanks for stopping by!
Can you take a good picture of the keyboard. I have been looking for a good keyboard picture of the Linux version of the v13 and can’t find one anywhere. Thank you.
Thanks for the blog entries. I was curious about the ability to upgrade this laptop – this definitely answered the questions.
Hello.
When you change the OS to 64-bit Windows 7 do you have to download and install all of the drivers? Does the webcam still work when you do this?
Thanks a lot. I’m new to the concept of modifying computers and your blog has been really helpful!
I have not tested the webcam. I used all of the 32 bit drivers from Dell.com and they worked fine.
Hi I also installed win 7 64 bit, it is running fine
i did not found the web cam drivers and software.
I’m thinking about purchasing the v13 as well. I really appreciate you showing how to open the unit and install a ssd drive and upgrade the memory.
I was wondering if you could do a video showing how to replace the 6 cell battery if it happens to go bad in the future.
I don’t have a video of that specifically but once you’re inside the battery is basically there for the swapping. Nothing special to remove it.
Quick questions…I also load a 64bit windows to my vostro (celeron 743) Everything seems to be fine…except for the touchpad. It doesn’t have multi touch or scroll capabilities. Any ideas?
Thanks
Download the 32 bit driver – there are 64 bit drivers in the package.
after reading your review and watching your videos on the vostro v13, i decided to buy it. i’m glad you mentioned that you wished you had gone with the more capable processor because i didn’t know for sure if i should invest 100USD more just a small boost in cpu. here are my specs:
*1.4ghz core 2 solo (SU3500)
*320 gB (7200 rpm)
*2GB RAM (ddr3)
*Ubuntu OS (I plan on installing win7 pro)
my total cost came to 607.65 USD tax and overnight shipping included!
Awesome! You will be happy. It runs Win 7 really well.
1st of all, thanks for ur review of this v13
as im buying one, it did helps me a lot
i would like to ask, do u feel any increasing in battery life after changing to ssd? u did say u get at least 4 hour in web surfing, that is using hdd or ssd?
thanks in advance
hola mi nombre es mauricio soy de argentina y estoy interesado en esta notebook V13 , mi pregunta es :
* Con el disco SSD se puede decir que el rendimiento general es optimo ?
* yo uso 3 aplicaciones al mismo momento 1)Explorer 2)MSN 3)music , funcionara bien ?
muchas gracias por tu aporte a la web y espero que mis respuestas sean contestadas.
Hi, Mi name is Mauricio from argentina, im interested in this notebook v13, my question is:
with ssd disk can we say that general perfomance is optimal?
generally i use this 3 apps at the same time 1) explorer 2)msn 3) music. This 3 aplications will work fine whith this notebook?
thank you for your help and hope this question can be answered
I upgrade to windows 7 Pro from Ubutu , every thing work fine except I can’t get the microphone to work(webcam works after I install windows 7)
They didn’t offer v13 webcam driver for windows 7. I google search and see that Dell doesn’t have webcam driver, windows 7 automatic install 2006 genetic webcam driver driver that the microphone is not working
It looks like the Vostro V13 disappeared from the Dell website.
It’s there now.
I’ve bought dell vostro v-13….configurations are:-
processor-U7300 1.3GHz CENTRINO 2
500 gB (7200 rpm)
2GB RAM (ddr3)
OS- Windows 7 (32 bit)
I wanted to know what difference does it make if my laptop is not having Core 2 duo or any recent core processor.Will that make any grave difference?
Any chance i can change it in future?
You could upgrade the processor but you’d have to replace the entire motherboard. I doubt you’d notice the difference and by that time you’d be better off just buying a faster laptop. If you want to improve performance replace that HDD with a SSD.
What all can be upgraded in this laptop? Kindly tell me please….
THANKS
You can upgrade the RAM and the HDD. You could also add a WWAN card for 3G. That’s about it.
What’s the difference between a Celeron and a Core Solo cpu? How many slots does it have for ram? I see a 2gb card on your pic but I don’t think there is a 4gb ddr3 card.
How much batt time surfing can I expect with the base (Ubuntu package) model?
If I were to install a 3G card, where does it go? What kind of card? Where does the sim go?
Hi,
today i ordered the Dual Core version, 4GB, 320GB, UMTS …
It is so beautiful and i also plan to insert a SSD. Can
you tell me thats about the akku runtime after you changed
the HDD?
Thanks in advance,
Alex
Hi. I Live in Japan and just bought a Vostro V13. The Only options in Japan are Core 2 solo 1.4 and, 2GB ram… and also wireless is up till b/g. I opened up my V13 and changed the wireless already to Intel 5100 Lan Card and made it 11n, and also plan to customize the RAM to 4GB muyself. I find that not much of a problem (except the cost to buy a 4GB DDR3 RAM) but I’m also thinking of getting a Core 2 Duo Processor for it too. Do you think it is possible for managing a Core 2 Duo Processor SU9400(1.4Ghz) or 9500(1.6 Ghz) on the vostro V13? thanks.
What about the guarantee?
The man in Dell Support said that i will probably loose mine when trying to
replace hdd in my vostro…?
It’s possible but if you have an issue you could just put the old drive back in and send it to Dell.
Excellent Work! I just ordered a Dell Latitude 13 for work and have been unable to find any kind of info about upgrading to a SSD. There is documentation on Dell’s website for repairing/replacing parts, but nothing about the compatibility of parts. The 13 can be configured with a SSD, but it would be much cheaper to do it myself. Since the V13 and the 13 seem identical, I’d assume the SSD you used should work, but how do I know for sure? By opening up the 13, I void the warranty, but I care not.
@SIN Don’t worry, you won’t void the warranty. Dell isn’t that strict on their return policy. Most any SSD you buy will be smaller than the platter drive so you’ll have no problems. Enjoy the SSD speed and let us know how it turns out!
Thanks for being so kind in sharing your knowledge. Just want to acknowledge your generous contribution to the public, especially for people like me that are not familiar with computer hardware. I just ordered mine, it is on sale for $399 on Dell website with Verizon card installed.
@Mike thanks! I’m glad you found the info useful. Enjoy your V13!
Tried opening the panel, but it only gets me from the power button to the middle, after that it won’t come up…. strange. Any tips?
@Ben you’re on the right track, just keep pulling (gently). You may want to use a letter opener to slip under that panel and provide even upward force – in other words – don’t bend the plastic panel too much – with the right amount of force it will pop off. Good luck!
@sysadmin – what are you getting for Windows Experience results with that new SSD? Also is it truly putting out performance boasted by that drive or is the MOBO downplaying the HD capabilities? I called Dell and asked them about putting in a SSD but they said no. Please post the Windows Experience rating and some benchmarks on teh drive if you would please? Thanks OCZ states…
read speeds up to 230MB/s and write speeds up to 135MB/s
If you send back great results on that SSD in the laptop, I will for sure purchase one! Thanks again for your time and answering these questions, much appreciated. I will post my results after I receive the laptop. If I end up picking one up that is. Although it’s looking about 90% certain that I will as they are down to $399 @ dell.com right now. Schweeet! :-)
@t.BONE I wish I could give you that number. I no longer have that laptop but when I did the performance was excellent. I now use an Adamo, which also has an SSD and the boot time is really impressive. Perhaps someone else on this comment thread could provide you with the Windows Experience results as I know quite a few people have done this upgrade. If you decide to go for it good luck and let us know the results. I’m sure you’ll be pleased. $399 is a great deal for that laptop.
I just got my V13 ‘monster’ – dual core 2 CPU, 2 Gigs RAM, and I went for the 500 Gig HD upgrade (got a WD Black 7200 RPM drive) for $439. Mine came with Verizon Wireless network card installed, and I saved well over $350 on this configuration.
I just finished putting the case back together because ‘I just knew the RAM upgrade ($35 for a 4 Gig DDR3 sodium) went in the bottom!’ (it doesn’t)
This is a great laptop, I’ll probably get an SSD for it, but I’m still enjoying my deal!
its wonderful what u did. i hav just order the v13 and want to upgrate like u.
but i have a question, how long does it take to boot after adding the ssd? is it a big different between hdd and ssd when using? if i buy the ssd, do i need to buy any cable to connect the ssd to the board? and is it very different between su9300 and su7300?
I don’t have an exact time for booting to SSD but I can tell you that boot time is where you will notice the biggest improvement. You will not need any additional hardware, the SSD simply plugs in where the old HDD already was. Regarding the su9300 vs su7300 I cannot say because I did not test both of those systems. Sorry I don’t have more info for you. Good luck with your upgrade, I’m sure you’ll love it!
i still hav question. i have order a ssd, in ur opinion, is it necessary that change the momory to 4g and chang the system to win 7 64bit.
thanks for answering me.
@yongguan You certainly do not have to upgrade the RAM or install Windows 7. You will see a performance boost regardless of the operating system you use. Start with the SSD and go from there. Enjoy!
u r so nice. i hav the last question, is th cpu of v13 sticket welded into the moterboard or not?
@yongguan Thanks :) Yes, the CPU is permanently attached – you cannot upgrade it.
Good morning again. Now that I have replaced the 2GB RAM with the 4GB RAM, I am ready to move on to replacing the HDD with the SSD. Is there a brand that you recommend? I read through the Crucial board and found that most people are having problem with their 256G SSD using Windows 7.
I have a 320GB HHD but would like to replace it with a 256GB SSD.
Will there be a problem replacing a HHD with a smaller SSD?
Which software should I use to clone the HHD to the SSD, anything I should look out for during the cloning because of the difference in size?
Thanks again for your help.
@Mike I have not owned a Crucial SSD. I have 2 of them and they are both OCZ. You will not have any trouble reducing size – You could go much smaller. I run a 120GB and that works fine.
I also have a new V13 (wife bought it, gave it to me), and it was badly in need of some more RAM. 2GB is NOT ENOUGH for a good Win7 experience, 4GB is just fine and is very cheap these days. Thanks for posting the details on how to access the RAM Slot — mine came up with a little firm prying.
For those with the Celeron (crappy processor) version of the V13, RAM is a very worthwhile upgrade, but I’m not sure why you’d bother with a SSD — the disk I/O on mine scored a 5.9 on the Windows User Experience, the highest rating of all the machine’s components. The CPU, on the other hand, is a wimpy 2.9 rating, and there’s no amount of disk storage or disk I/O speed that’ll help it much. However, if you just need a machine for regular work (not 3-d rendering or gaming), the Celeron is just fine and is much better on power usage (battery life).
For other folks out there, I’d caution you to be VERY careful when prying that piece up, and again when pushing it back down to re-seat it after you swap out the RAM. The plastic is not brittle, but it IS thin and will flex if you aren’t paying attention. I was worried I’d bend/stretch it permanently, and have a sloppy-looking bezel afterward. I used my fingernails, but was careful to gently get 2-3 fingers under the edge, to distribute the upward force as evenly as I could.
I would NOT suggest sliding a letter opener around under there, as you might ding something (there are loose cables and exposed circuits that might suffer). If you can’t get it with your fingernails, maybe try the edge of a credit card (or something else plastic and soft-ish), but only stick it in about 1/4-inch, just enough to get under the edge.
Now on to the Windows7 64-bit upgrade…
The Dell 64-bit upgrade disk won’t run from within Win7-32bit, so you have to shut down, reset your boot order in BIOS to put the DVD-drive as first boot priority (if you don’t know what this means, don’t bother buying a V13) and reboot. After setting the BIOS to initiate booting from the external DVD-drive, the installer goes to work. Takes a while. After it installed successfully, I let it run through several rounds of Windows Online Updates, where it just connects to the web and finds all the necessary update packages. Be patient, the whole process took north of two hours.
As for drivers, I didn’t need to do anything: whatever default drivers came with the x64 upgrade all worked fine. I tested the webcam and speakers, touchpoint, USB, and Wifi, all fine.
After all the ugrading and updating, the machine runs much more smoothly — no page swapping to disk every time you change windows. In my experience, that’s the most-frustrating symptom of insufficient RAM. The new Windows Experience scored 5.9 in memory, up from 2.9. CPU went up from 2.9 to 3.1, presumably because of reduced page-swapping? In all, a huge improvement for about $thirty-five-bucks.
@Ronster – thanks for sharing your experience!
@disco when you are ready to sell your v13, please let me know – I would love to buy it from you!
@bworth Thanks but I sold it on eBay a while back. If you’re looking for one I’d check there. Otherwise, you could get the new V130! Good luck!
First of all, I really want thanks this great website for the information. Nice work and keep my life easier.
I just finished upgrading my V13. (I want an adamo so bad, but sadly I did not get any good deal on it)
So here is what I do.
I purchased a refurbished V13 – $329 (dell outlet)
PNY 4GB DDR3 8500 $32 after rebate (newegg)
Kingston 64GB SSD $75 after rebate (newegg)
total comes to $436 (I have an extra version Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit)
For warranty purpose, I did not sell the hdd(WD 320GB 7200rpm) and 2GB memory that I took off. So I bought an external case to mount the WD hdd in as an extra drive. (you can probably sell WD 320GB 7200rpm for 50 on ebay)
Windows 7 64 bit Installation
You dont need a external DVD-ROM to do that.
what you need to do:
1.download “Windows 7 USB DVD Download tool” from Microsoft(free)
2.make image of your windows7
3.use the Windows 7 USB DVD Download tool to mount the image file to your USB flash drive
4.plug the USB drive in and boot , then press F12 , select USB
Most of the drivers will be installed properly (even the webcam and microphone) But there still one device is not installed properly, I am not sure what that is, but maybe you can find the driver in V130 support page with Windows 7 64bit.
So far I am happy about it, I can use photoshop CS5, watch 1080p movie without any problem, now I am thinking to get an extra battery if I can find a cheap one in case they dont make it anymore once Dell pull the Vostro off the production line.
@mike thanks for sharing your experience – glad to hear you enjoy the V13 as much as I did
For those of you who are still confused regarding how to access the SO-DIMM to upgrade it, please see Dell’s instructions (with pictures)…
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vosv13/en/sm/TD_Power_Button_Panel.htm
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vosv13/en/sm/TD_Memory.htm
First, thank you for taking the time to put your experiences on the net to help us noobs. :-) I have 4GB of RAM on order and look forward to upgrading the memory. The next upgrade that I would like to do is USB 3.0. Is that something you’re considering as well? Do they make a USB 3.0 adapter small enough to fit in the V13?
@Sant: I seriously doubt you can add USB 3.0, that is a system component that must be part of the motherboard.
Just let everybody know that Dell direct has now lowered the C2d Vostro V13 price to $349.00 + $8.00 shipping!!! Just purchased two for my family.
Very nice laptop, great deal! :)
Okay, thanks. Time to look for eSATA external HDs.
Yup bcw, that’s the deal I got, paid $40 more to bump the HD up to 500 GB. Dell wanted $150 to bump RAM up to 4 GB, so it’s great that I came across this site that showed me how to do it for $40! For $429 this is one heck of a great laptop.
Hey thanks for all the info you have posted for the rest of us here. I just bought a Vostro V13- got the deal for $349 plus $8 for s/h and also plus sales tax.
Nice and light, but had an issue with mine out of the box- the touchpad wasn’t responding. I called Dell and the support guy had me let him takeover the laptop and he downloaded some new drivers. The touchpad responded after I restarted the laptop. However, it has been erratic for the last couple days. Need to call Dell on Monday and see what they can do.
Anybody else have the issue with the touchpad?
Also if this isn’t a permanent issue with this particular laptop, I would like to upgrade the memory to 4gb and make it faster with the 64-bit.
I did ask my Dell rep about the 64-bit and he said the drivers weren’t available.
Thanks!
Just bought the i5 V130. It’s already at 4GB of RAM but i wanted to upgrade the HDD to a SSD.
Thanks for posting the links to the hardware you used. I needed to confirm a 2.5in SSD could swap with the included 2.5in HDD with the same connector bracket.
Anybody know if not having some 64bit drivers available is an issue with the V130 as well as the V13?
I would have loved the V130 with an i7 option… effin Dell
You will not be able to replace the CPU, it’s all one piece of the system board.