Hi guys!

I've recently bought a basic Vostro 1310, and swapped the Cpu from a celeron to a T5870, and added an extra gig ram to it (nicked the good stuff from my boss' work laptop :grinthumb)

however, one thing i couldn't swap was the optical drive. i've got a CD-RW DVD-ROM in this now. does anyone know if i can upgrade it? and if so where would i find one.

thanks

Assuming you have a standard laptop drive, any slim optical drive will do just fine. ASUS, Lite-On, Pioneer, Sony and Plextor are among the best brands to choose from.

i was assuming there to be brand-specific connections or power consumption restrictions...

is there nothing to limit my choice? (i don't mean to sound disappointed!) figured this would be more difficult

after a quick search for a new drive i've stumbled on a problem. the drive in this laptop is a slot loading drive, which has its eject button above the keyboard along with its media keys, and not on the drive panel.

I doubt it will make any difference. The only real problem might be fitting the drive into the slot, since you may need to remove a screw or panel for the drive to fit or close properly. Measure your drive's specs, and get the specs for the drive from the the manufacturer's site or the website selling it. Then just compare and get what you find fits best. Also, make sure you buy the right type of drive, there are SATA and E-IDE laptop drives out there.