Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron 1545

3 days ago

The Dell Inspiron 1545 was Dell's mainstream laptop circa 2009. There were a variety of CPU options including Celeron, Pentium Dual-Core and Core 2 Duo models. Memory configurations included anywhere from 1 GB to 4 GB with 4 GB being the maximum amount officially supported. Likewise there were various hard drives available ranging in size from 160 GB wo 500 GB (all 5400 rpm models). There were two screen resolutions available including 1366 x 768 and 1600 x 900 though the higher resolution screen was not very common. One option not available though was a discrete GPU. All models used Intel's GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics.

My particular model currently includes:

CPU: Pentium Dual Core T4500 at 2.4 GHz
RAM: 4 GB DDR2-800 (PC2-5600)
Hard Drive: 320 GB
Screen: 1366 x 768

Mine is also black though it came in a variety of other colors including blue, red, pink, and purple. Check out the report from HardInfo for more details.

Depending on your configuration, this model made for a decent general use laptop though the lack of a discrete GPU option meant that it wasn't useful for gaming. Also, if you wanted a higher resolution screen, then there were better options. A lot of people seem to like the keyboard on this model. It isn't anything as fancy as a mechanical keyboard but it does have a more tactile feel and is less mushy than most laptop keyboards.

There are several possible upgrades depending on you specific configuration. The two most important are probably to upgrade the RAM and replace the hard drive with an SSD. While 4 GB is the max officially supported, this laptop will actually support up to 8 GB. You can also upgrade the CPU though whether or not it is worth it depends on what you are starting from. the fastest CPU supported is the Intel Core 2 Duo T9900.

My laptop had a single 2 GB SO-DIMM. Whether it was configured like that originally or was cannibalized I don't know. The only upgrade I've really done is to expand it to 4 GB and install Xubuntu. It runs pretty well with this configuration. Even web browsing is ok if a little sluggish. Like all the hardware I use, I installed BOINC on this laptop and attached to several projects. It is currently crunching tasks for <a href = "">Einstein@home, Milkyway@home, Asteroids@home, and World Community Grid. You can check out how it is doing overall at FreeDC.

Even though there isn't anything particularly interesting or special about this laptop, I'll probably hang on to it. It's in nearly mint condition which for a laptop this old is pretty special in itself. I don't upgrade the CPU in laptops very often but this one may be a good candidate. The CPU is easy to access on this laptop and there is a fairly significant upgrade path.

Check out some of my other recent posts:

Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (693-696)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-693

Antic (August 1984)
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/antic-august-1984

Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (689-692)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-689

Ultima III: Exodus
https://ecency.com/hive-140217/@darth-azrael/ultima-iii-exodus

Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (685-688)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-685

Byte (May 1982)
https://ecency.com/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/byte-may-1982

Vintage Photos - Lot 3 (681-684)
https://ecency.com/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-3-681

Check out my other Social Media haunts (though most content is links to stuff I posted on Hive or re-posts of stuff originally posted on Hive):

Wordpress: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/darth-azrael
Blogger: https://megalextoria.blogspot.com/
Odyssee: https://odysee.com/@Megalextoria:b
Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-2385054
Daily Motion: https://www.dailymotion.com/Megalextoria

Books I am reading or have recently read:

Red Star Falling by Steve Berry.
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson