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    Upgrade Time.

    Discussion in 'Gateway and eMachines' started by ignite, Nov 29, 2009.

  1. ignite

    ignite Notebook Consultant

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    Hey guys so I have two choices. I can either upgrade my laptop or build a desktop and I am really leaning towards upgrading the laptop because I don't really have a use for a desktop.

    I do some light gaming, just started cod mw2, play some wow every now and then, and play 1.6 but an 800mhz slot a athlon can run that game so I'm fine lol.

    My hard drive is on its way out so I need to replace that, I figured I might as well upgrade my cpu since I have the stock t5450 in it. I have a p6831fx, the first model of the fx series i believe.

    So I am thinking about the following, a t9500 and a small ssd hard drive with a larger internal hard drive for storage. My main hard drive wouldn't need to have more then 32gb worth of stuff on it tops, my secondary drive would need to be around 120+gb I would say.

    What are your guys thoughts on the t9500, is the x9000 much better then it? What SSD/Hard drive do you guys recommend?

    I download most of my games and movies so I extract a lot of winrar files, a fast process would be nice. I am tired of this one lol. Let me know your thoughts :)

    EDIT: Also, what about ram? Is it worth upgraded to 4gigs of faster ram? And what about w7, I downloaded it awhile back but haven't installed it yet, is it a lot better then vista?
     
    ignite, Nov 29, 2009
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  2. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The T9500 is great, I would even consider the T9300 since there is hardly a difference.

    Why not overclock the FSB for a nice boost.
    I can try to help you out with that.
     
    moral hazard, Nov 29, 2009
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  3. ignite

    ignite Notebook Consultant

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    We can change the fsb in our bios? Are you talking about the ram timings, or the actual fsb and multipliers?
     
    ignite, Nov 29, 2009
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  4. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I dont know about your BIOS, I was thinking more of using software (setfsb) or a PLL pin mod.
     
    moral hazard, Nov 29, 2009
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  5. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    moral hazard, Nov 29, 2009
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  6. ignite

    ignite Notebook Consultant

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    What program do you recommend. I don't want to push it to far because it is a laptop and they have poor airflow designs, but uhhh, what program do you recommend?
     
    ignite, Nov 29, 2009
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  7. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    moral hazard, Nov 29, 2009
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  8. ignite

    ignite Notebook Consultant

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    The chipset we use is pm965, I don't see it listed on setfsb. Or southbridge 82801hmb (ICH8-M). I see ich8 on there but not ich8-m.

    Any idea what to do?
     
    ignite, Nov 29, 2009
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  9. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I have the same chipset as you, it is supported.

    All you have to do is find what clock generator is used on your motherboard as shown in the link I gave.

    But a SSD is going to give you the best performence boost.
     
    moral hazard, Nov 29, 2009
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  10. ignite

    ignite Notebook Consultant

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    Great thanks man, I will download sisoftwares sandra and go from there.

    Edit: What ssd do you recommend?
    Editx2: What program do you recommend using to monitor temps? I think my gpu/cpu are getting a bit to hot while gaming. Granted its an all stock setup that is getting old, but still.

    hmmm I can't seem to find "system clock generator" under the mainboard settings in sisoftware sandra.
     
    ignite, Nov 29, 2009
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  11. ignite

    ignite Notebook Consultant

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    It looks like the pll might be CY28549 which setfsb doesn't support.
     
    ignite, Nov 29, 2009
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  12. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Could you try using a similar PLL in setfsb?

    Try both CY28551LFXC and CY28551LFXC_DFI.

    I did download the datasheet for the PLL here:
    http://www.spectralinear.com/products/products.php?category_id=5&sort_by=part_number&page=5&

    Looks like the highest it can go is 200mhz, so you got unlucky :(

    I would still try similar PLLs in setfsb, also send Abo (creator of setfsb) an email with the link to the datasheet. He will help you and should be able to add support for your PLL.

    I'm not sure about what SSD you should get, but I do suggest looking at this thread:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=429972

    One more thing, you can try using clockgen, CPUcool and systool to overclock the CPU.
    And if you have a dedicated GPU, you can overclock that with software.
     
    moral hazard, Nov 29, 2009
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  13. t3rR0r

    t3rR0r Notebook Evangelist

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    Get a T9300 to save a little more $$$ for an SSD... or you could get two regular drives such as 2x320GB 5400 or 7200 drives and raid-0 them... I have the setup I just described to you and it performs very well....

    You would also benefit somewhat from installing 4GB RAM by buying another 1x2GB stick to replace the 1gb stick in there....then install W7 x64 and you are good to go... W7 is superior to vista in every aspect
     
    t3rR0r, Nov 30, 2009
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  14. yotano211

    yotano211 Notebook Evangelist

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    i have the same model, the 6831 with a t8300. don't bother to overclock the cpu. setfsb is not supported in this model for any Gateway FX model, lots of people have already tired with the other models with no luck. best thing to do is just upgrade the cpu to the t8300 or t9300. the X9000 is supported but you can only overclock that through the Bios up to 3.0 max from 2.8, so not really worth it. you will see very nice performance increase from the new cpu and lower temps too.

    for the hard drive, i have a seagate 500gb 5400 rpm drive. it runs pretty decent after the original 250gb crapped out.
     
    yotano211, Dec 1, 2009
    #14