V-day Gift! Help!! [mx15 Upgrade]

Hey all,

I'm trying to find my girlfriend a gift for V-Day. She plays a lot of games on her Alienware MX15, however she always complains how slow it runs and how is not up to par with graphics.

What can I buy to add into the laptop to make it run faster and more smoothly with games/internet browsing?

Also, what could i buy to make the graphics better?

I don't know much about computers so bare with me, I'm in need of much explanation (i.e. what to buy exactly).

Thank you,
-Jack3d

 

I would say buy a new or SSD graphics card, but if you don't know how to install it that may not be the best choice. Could she install it if you bought it for her?

 

Upgrade the graphics card to the GTX 560M and throw 8 gigs of RAM into it. It'll be good for another year or two.

Edit: just read that you aren't very good with computers. The GPU upgrade requires some experience messing about with hardware for you to do. I won't recommend that you do it, unless you feel comfortable taking apart electronic equipment like a laptop.

A SSD is always a very nice upgrade, but won't provide any FPS boost... however it will reduce load times significantly. I'd recommend something like the OCZ Vertex 2 or Agility 3. For the m15x, since it doesn't have SATA-3, it won't matter which you get - so go for the cheaper one.

 

Upgrading GPU isn't as hard as it sounds, what graphics does she have right now? There's a bunch of video tutorials, such as the M15x teardown teaching you how to reach the graphics card, and inap has a guide on pasting too. I'm terrible with computers and I figured it out super quickly, since everything in the laptop seems to be organized pretty well. GPU will probably give the most noticeable boost as well. good luck!

 

cant really suggest much as we dont know the current setup, but it sound as if you could also benefit for a fresh windows install. But as stated above you would probably have a better overall performance increase with an ssd upgrade.

 

Without knowing more, I'd also say SSD. Windows will boot faster, games will load more quickly. It definitely makes the computer as a whole feel snappier. In my opinion, it's the best whole-system boost, not something you'll only notice in games. Also, its probably the easiest upgrade besides RAM.

EDIT:
Also, if you want SSD suggestions, we'll need to know how much you're wanting to spend.