Upgrading my laptop
 

Some background - I bought my current laptop just a bit over three years ago. At the time, it had pretty decent specs:

CPU: Intel i7-2630QM, 2.00GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 460M, 1.5GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3

Nowadays, the old thing is starting to show its age. I am looking to upgrade the GPU for sure. I took the laptop apart earlier today to confirm that the GPU is replaceable, so no worries there. I also saw that my power source goes up to 150W, and even the fanciest mobile video cards don't look to go above 100W, so I'm not worried about that either.

My question is: what is the best mobile GPU I could get that wouldn't be gimped by my older CPU? If it would make more sense to upgrade the both of them, I would consider that, too.

Actually, I'm curious: if I upgrade both the CPU and GPU, will my laptop game as well as a new computer with those same two components? I'm pretty ignorant to how hardware is utilized, but I don't hear much about anything other than CPU and GPU when it comes to running intensive games.

Put in a solid state drive. Night and freaking day difference.

I've had one since the day I bought this laptop, actually. I've never had a computer start up faster than the one I have now, so I love it. It has relatively low capacity, though, so I limit it to the OS (Windows) and other primary applications.

Perhaps it's worth mentioning: my motherboard is a Micro-Star MS-16F2. I have way too little technical expertise to know what's compatible with it.

Do you know what your choke point is on the machine now? That seems like a pretty serviceable machine for a lot of uses.

*edit*

But I'd kick it to 16 GB of RAM and a faster SSD.

Agreed. If your ssd is an older model, a newer model can make a big difference. I live then newer Intel models. Your ram is also low for a gaming rig.

16GB of Ram is a must... I'm pretty sure that motherboard has 4 slots (2 front and 2 back) that can each take a 4GB stick.

Since my main problem is low framerates during gaming, I had assumed that my issue was an aged video card.

You're correct. That being said, if I'm going to upgrade my RAM, I might just upgrade two of 'em; accessing all four sounds like a huge pain in the ass. You don't think that the video card is the cause of poor framerates?

It's part of our for sure, but don't neglect your RAM. Frankly, I find the whole gaming laptop silly for the reasons that you are experiencing now. Build a proper desktop gaming rig and you have far better scalability and performance.

No doubt that it's something to consider. I thought if I could replace one or two parts on my laptop I might get it to last a few more years before building a desktop, but if the replacement effort is more than that it may just be worthwhile to build a new one altogether. I'll have to research a bit more, I think.

ignore you CPU... its fine. It might not be the fastest compared to whats out there now, but it is a VERY solid CPU.

Bier do you play games on it? I sent you a pm

^^ what he said.

The easiest upgrade is RAM and it may be enough to get you where you need to go. I'd go for 16 if it were me but 12 is ok too. I'd definitely try to max out RAM before attacking the GPU. It can get a bit tricky getting a different mobile GPU to actually fit and line up with the heatsink and all that jazz.

So.. if you want to step it up piece by piece until you are comfortable.. go 12GB ram, 16GB ram, new GPU... after that you are better off going with a desktop.

Yep. Sent a reply just now.

Alright, thanks for your advice. I reached out to the company I bought my laptop from (it's a pretty small website that prides itself on customer service) with questions, so we'll see what they have to say about the upgrade. Hopefully they won't be put-off by the fact that I'm just asking questions and not buying anything extra from them. :)

Got a prompt and helpful response from the company:

NVIDIA itself advertises the 570M as being "up to" 20% faster. That doesn't sound like a big enough increase to merit replacement. What do you think?

I guess the next question I have is how many of the components from my laptop I could successfully transplant to a desktop. I'm thinking that I could use both of my hard drives and maybe the CPU as well.

Doesn't sound worth it to me... but you may want to check this thread out.
http://forum.techinferno.com/msi/419...ease-help.html

Dude - the first few pages of this thread have more useful info than my combined efforts over several hours. Thanks a ton for sharing!

Got another response (well outside of working hours, mind you), and damn if these guys aren't helpful:

My email:
Their response:
If you guys are at all looking to buy a gaming laptop, definitely check out the guys at powernotebooks.com. Their support has been outstanding in the past, and they're giving me recommendations right now that almost certainly won't net them a profit from me directly.

This thread has inspired me. Among the computers I use, I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 that I've now decided to upgrade. It was formerly a business computer, but has sat around gathering dust for a couple of years, since it wasn't needed for that purpose anymore. I think I'll tinker with it a bit instead of just letting it lie there. Thanks guys.

Please help!!!!

I'm looking at buying this laptophttp://www.powernotebooks.com/config...p?special=1791 It says that it doesn't come with a disk for the operating system, they just install it for you. Will this cause problems down the line. The same goes with Office, they give you a product key, but no disk. Will this still work if I need to reinstall at some point?

Thank you in advance

Lenovo features a recovery partition with internet install capabilities. You should be able to reinstall over the internet as long as you don't bork your partitions or something. Office can be installed via the internet as well if you do have a legit key.

It's not the best solution, but it works in most cases. They do it to save money. There is still a chance that you have a HD hardware failure, in which you'd be SOL.

Thanks Fish, you and Hometeam helped with my build and I really appreciate your advice. I'm getting this for my wife who is going back to school, so she'll need Office and the ability to look at Facebook, listen to music, work on Office and search for shit at the same time. Is the one I have listed powerful enough to handle that? I had it upgraded at first with a 1TB SSD and 16gb of ram, but I thought that might be overkill for her needs. Thoughts?

Per your explanation of her needs, this will more than suffice even without the upgrades you listed. That would be overkill. It's a fine computer, and I've setup many Lenovos for family and friends, and they've all been quality.

At most, I would consider upgrading to 8GB of RAM. That would be the only upgrade I'd consider. An SSD would be nice. But I doubt the cost would be justified if this is just a simple school computer.

Sounds good, thanks a lot Fish.

Well, my shit ass HP finally croaked. Power cord popped out and the computer shutdown. When I turned it on it went straight to system restore and the internal restore is corrupted and errors. So now it's time to get a new one for school/programming.

Right now I'm thinking about the Lenovo T440p with the i7-4700mq, a 1080p screen, and the upgraded dual band AC wireless. The rest of it is pretty much stock (4gb ram, integrated gpu, 500gb hdd) since I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible and I can upgrade those later, I'll probably upgrade to a 512gb MX100 as soon as I buy a laptop. Total is around $1200 + the ssd.

But, does anyone have any other recommendations for a good laptop? I'd like a quad core processor at least, pretty much my only requirement. I don't really care about gaming on it too much since I have a top of the line custom built desktop for that. I might load Civ5 or something on it but the intel 4600 integrated graphics will handle that.

<a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/buyers-guide-the-best-laptops-for-every-budget-macbook-air-is-tops-1407277203?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj">Joanna Stern reviewed twenty some odd notebooks</a> recently.

Nice quite as powerful as I'm looking to get.

I've started looking around at more "multimedia/gaming laptops" and have come up with the Lenovo Y50, Asus N550JK, and the Gigabyte P34G/35G v2.

Not sure about the missing dvd drives on the Y50 and P34G, though.

I haven't had a DVD drive on a personal laptop since 2010 and now don't have one on my home desktop. You can always go get an external if you need one.

Ya. Just not sure I want to go that route. Throwing in a DVD or a something to watch inbetween classes is just too convenient and and external drive would just be a pain in the ass.