Upgrading Asus G46VW

Hello,

Several months ago I bought an Asus G46VW laptop and I am interested in upgrading it because I decided that PC gaming is the path I want to take (rather than investing in a $500 Xbox One or PS4). What kind of things am I able to upgrade on the G46VW (processor, graphics card, etc?). Any ideas and links to products would be appreciated.

 

You can upgrade the CPU, RAM and Screen, but not the graphics card.

 

Thanks. How could I go about upgrading the cpu, ram, and screen?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7Ut1FGFj0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmI9IdtrLp8

For the CPU, i suggest looking at the Ivy Bridge Quadcores (i7-36xx,37xx,38xx,39xx) and a 900p display. RAM can be upgraded to 16GB, however you could wait a year for 16GB DIMM's to appear on the market so you can upgrade to 32GB since the laptop has 2 slots.

Here is a compatible CPU:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTEL-i7-37...set-/221317100837?pt=CPUs&hash=item338786f525

 

Thanks a lot. How difficult is installation of a new CPU? I have no past experience

 

Check out the Asus Gaming forum here, TONS of great info there... I upgraded about everything you can upgrade on the G46 with great results, and documented most of the process with details and pictures, as well as a few other users here have done and shared their results:

Asus Gaming Notebook Forum

I upgraded the HDD to a mSATA SDD (AWESOME upgrade), i7 cpu, faster RAM, 900p screen. All details in that section.

It isn't the easiest machine to work on, not sure how familiar you are with laptop construction or repair, but there are good guides over in that section of this site.

Good luck!

 

Well if you never installed a cpu I question whether or not you should do this.

I recently swapped my 3230m for the i7 3940xm(totally overkill). If you do upgrade to an extreme, or unlocked 3720qm, let me know, I can refer you to someone at tech inferno that has a unlocked bios you might want. Alternatively you could just use intel xtu to down clock only. If this is your first time be very gentle and methodical about it. When tightening stuff, don't over tighten. It doesn't take much to tighten the screws down, too much force and you can ruin something.

Some tips, Use an egg shell container to store the screws, and label it. If you have a photographic memory disregard I suppose. So once you run the credit card around and remove the keyboard, lift it up slowly while looking underneath, making sure you don't pull the ribbon cable too much...after that prop it up against something. The keyboard cable has a grey latch that you need to flip up...pulling it out without releasing that latch could mess it up. Make sure on all ribbon cables that you are pulling it out, not pulling up. This is especially important when your removing that keyboard. I could see someone forgetting about that ribbon cable and just pulling it up, and possible damaging that connector on the Motherboard.

As your removing screws pictures might help so that you understand what goes where when putting it back together.

The hard drive cable at the connection to the motherboard, you simply pull out gently, there is no latch. If you upgrade the hard drive the ribbon cable is taped on the metal hard drive cage, so you need to pull that up, and then you can remove the sata connector from the back. The ribbon connector to the right of the hard drive cable also has a grey latch that needs to be flipped up and pull out before motherboard removal.

The motherboard has to be completely removed from the housing to do this. Flip the motherboard around and you will see the cpu and gpu.Once you follow that youtube video and do get that far, To remove the cpu you need a small flathead. There is a grey plastic screw hole that releases the cpu from the socket, I think if I remember correctly you need to turn it counter clockwise. But it can only go one way. Then when you install the new cpu, make sure you turn it the other way to lock the cpu in. Apply non-conductive thermal paste like arctic cooling mx2 which is what I use. Just need a small amount, but if unsure, you can spread it thinly with your finger. Some people are against that method. Youtube it for more info. Then you just put the heat sink back, on, and tighten the screws according on the cpu part of the heat sink to the numbered order on the screw holes(1, 2, 3, 4). I actually bent up the little little metal arms a tad before doing this just to make sure I got good pressure I suppose. Not sure if it made a difference, but my temps are fine. I'd recommend the 3610qm, or 3840qm, the XM isn't really worth it, though I like it.

One important thing:

If you have to force something you are doing it wrong. Once you've taken this thing apart a couple of times, you can do it in your sleep.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll definitely check out the forum and read up on some stuff. Do you have a link to your documentation of the process? Also, after all was said and done about how much did this cost you?

 

Thanks a lot, I'll do some more research into this and see what I can find.

 

I'll look for some thread links, but most of it is buried in the G46 owners thread... lots of great info in there!

Curious, what are your expectations and performance goals before you proceed with the upgrade process? Going from i5-i7 (~$150) is a decent upgrade in some games, and adding a mSATA SDD (~$100-300) will really improve system snappiness, but neither will make a game enjoyable that isn't playable now. Often times in the laptop gaming world, you are better off selling your current machine and buying something with the parts you are wanting already installed money wise.

What are you wanting to play? Is the G46 meeting your current needs before you considering upgrading? It's a great portable gaming package but will never be running brand new demanding games on Ultra if that is what you are expecting no matter what you upgrade.... the biggest gaming component is the GPU, and it is built into the motherboard on the G46 and not upgradeable.

 

I probably am looking to play some of the newer more demanding games. Any suggestions on a laptop that will be able to run these type of games in the future? I bought the g46vw partially as a college laptop before school started but I also wanted something that would be decent for gaming.I would most likely want to sell my g46vw and buy another laptop for less than $400 out of pocket after using the money from the sale towards the new laptop

 

I'd wait for the 800M refresh of the Lenovo Y510p (in march), retails for around 1000$ USD and offers excellent performance if you don't need lots of battery life.

Also the refresh of the Clevo W230ST will have a QHD display.

 

I will keep those in mind.. Thanks again!

 

I used jwpwns video on youtube: Disassemling Asus G46vw - YouTube. He doesn't really go into taking out the motherboard, and removing the heat sink on the cpu, etc. Won't cost you much, sell your i5 3230m like I did, then I'd recommend you upgrade to the 3610qm, which would cost maybe $40 after selling the 3230m or so. SSDs were real cheap on black friday, probably can still get them for pretty cheap right now.

What game can't you play at 1080p? I think you'll get about $700 or so for a used G46, so with a $1100 budget I'd try to find a laptop with a GTX780m.