Beginners Help with Optimizing a 7809?

Hey guys, I just signed up to post this request for help.
I've been lurking for a while and you all seem like the most knowledgeable folk
for the Gateway FX Laptops.

Anyways, my story is. I got this laptop in August and have had this for about three months. I've been doing my hardcore gaming on here, but some of my games have been dipping in performance when they really shouldn't be, not with these specs. (Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Bioshock etc.)

While checking out some tweaks etc I came across these forums.
What should I do to get my laptop running a little bit faster? I'm all about Over Clocking, I'm not scared about any risk there. Although have you guys changed the fans up in the FX series?
How do I go about pushing my GPU's clock speeds (newb here in that regard)
Should I upgrade my CPU? What kind of options do I have in that regard?
Also have you guys been able to push RAM speeds at all?

Sorry if it's really wordy with all the questions and all.
Thanks for your time.

EDIT: If not for common knowledge for those who don't know.
Here are the 7809 specs.

P8700 2.53 ghz
4GB RAM
Nvidia 9800m GTS 1GB
500GB HDD

 

Well, what I did was start perusing the forum and looking through threads. Check out the stickied threads in this forum. Check out how to overclock cpu's and/ or gpu's, cpu upgrades, HD, DVD or even OS upgrades.
See what the results are and go from there because your results will vary from others. Do searches of particular items relevant to your laptop model. Spend a little time doing this may put some perspective on what your trying to accomplish. I think your already half way there though, because your here in the right place asking questions. Good luck in your choices and have fun doing it.

"What should I do to get my laptop running a little bit faster? I'm all about Over Clocking, I'm not scared about any risk there." Can be done-do search

How do I go about pushing my GPU's clock speeds (newb here in that regard)
Do search

Should I upgrade my CPU? That depends on you
What kind of options do I have in that regard? quite a few- do search
Also have you guys been able to push RAM speeds at all? I haven't heard of this technique but someone here will eventually answer that and also do search

 

Hey, thanks a bunch for the response!
The first thing I did was search "7809" under this forum section.

I'm not quite sure what type of socket my cpu is, I'll be sure to search.
If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your T9900?
Thanks for the help!

 

The 7809 is the same as all of the other 78xx series, so any of those guides will help you out. Most of them will be listed for the 7805 (the most purchased model of that series)

Its pretty basic though,
* Clean out the bloatware/do a clean install (your choice)
* Upgrade the CPU if you feel the need to (t9600/t9800/t9900 seem to be the most popular)
* Upgrade your GPU drivers to a better version (follow the driver guide stickied here)
* Update all of your other drivers to the newest versions

After that its just tweeking. OC the GPU if you want to and just generally enjoy your machine

 

I got it here. Its actually a "Hot Topic" on the first page of this forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=423866

 

There is a thread where someone posted that they flashed their RAM to a lower latency and included a guide on how to do it. I don't believe anyone else tried it though.

 

Thanks for the advice guys!

Also what's everyone's Average Performance Score?
Mine is 5.4 but that's because of the processor which is going to change soon.

Thanks for all the help, and for being patient with a noob.

 

Thats also searchable. Go to this link and you will find scores, temps, WEI's and more for the setup that you have. Just look at the posts.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=374381