Crucial's tool is good, in that the recommendations are guaranteed compatible.
On the other hand... my experience with Crucial is that
.
a) They do
not give you
ONLY the relevant/real upgrades
eg, in my case I have my board maxed, and it is not defective, but
they still tell me about all the memory modules they offer that could fit my machine.
including modules which would decrease my on-board memory.
.
b) They do not offer any upgrades other than their own.
There is nothing wrong with the crucial ssds, and I have one in one of my machines.
NO complaints. But I do tend to prefer the Samsung lines.
Compare specs and reviews and decide for yourself.
.
With your memory upgrade already done(16g)
the only real upgrade I see for you would be to upgrade the hd to an ssd.
This is an easy upgrade for you as compared to some I have done.
Some Dell machines require going in through the keyboard to get to the drive.
Yours has an access panel on the bottom!
You would need a data migration solution. Some drives used to be sold with them.
If yours is not this may be one solution.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=data_migration_kit-_-12-304-002-_-Product
SSD would give significantly quicker start times,
they have better shock resistance,
and may possibly improve battery life
(as long as you do not drain battery through usb).
If you do go with an ssd option... of course you COULD do
a 1 tb ssd
(though that would be spendy! and a
2tb more so).
.
Note... in my experience, even the SS-USB (USB3)
is noticeably slower than the internal drive (even the 5400rpm drives),
and significantly slower than the ssd.
EVEN SO...
I would tend to agree with jobeard: Use an external hd for additional storage.
... it really depends on your personal needs and preferences.
Even
this would be a possibility for you.
.
IF you wish to go deeper, there are videos showing the disassembly of the M6.
Carefully following these tutorials, you could access the fan, and even the cpu.
This would allow a more thorough cleaning of the fan than is otherwise possible;
in other words, compared to just blowing a can of air into the fan exhaust port.
It would also allow fan and/or cpu replacement.
If the fan is on the way to failure, you could experience cpu failure as well.
Though your system may provide thermal throttling for cpu protection.
Domething like Speedfan or Everest can be helpful for monitoring.
If your system goes from noisy to suddenly quiet... well...
.
I have done upgrades and repairs of several laptops,
(including screen replacement, and cpu replacement.)
As for cpu, an i7 MAY be possible for you,
but I have not yet been able to prove it for your case.
and
You do have one of the better performers for this machine already,
so if it were my machine, I would probably not go this deep
, until/unless required.
.
There comes a point where you have to ask yourself... "do you feel lucky?"
a) would you rather just save that money for a replacement machine?
b) is it really worth the risk of missing something and just killing this one?
(in which case you may just be out the money you could have saved)
c) If you have experience with this, you can avoid some pitfalls, but
if you are doing it on a first time... count on a little bit of broken plastic along the way.
.
It sounds like you really like this machine, and if you are not afraid to dig in...
at the very least, upgrading and maintaining it can be a fun learning experience.
.
HTH
