just joined the gateway family

hey yall i just received my p7805u from ebay and i'm so excited to see how great this budget lappy really is. I've heard so many great reviews and now i get to be a witness. I know the processor is upgradable but I was wondering if the GPU is upgradable (say to 260m)?, i know the 9800GTS is more than capable of playing many games but i'm concerned about the newer ones coming out, especially Mass Effect2 and COD-MW2. Also I want to upgrade to a better screen resolution (and blu-ray drive) so i can watch hi-def movies but I'm not sure what exactly to look for as far as compatability. I know some of you will say "you should've paid more and got a better laptop" but i'm poor and $860 for this beast is a great deal. I'm also unfamiliar with BIOS and BIOS updating (its all greek to me) so can someone explain the significance of upgrading/updating the BIOS? And if theres any suggestions or advice on getting better performance please enlighten me. Sorry for the essay of questions but I just want to make sure I'm getting the best performance from a great lappy. Thanks

 

Welcome, and the 7805u is a great laptop. You are correct the processor is upgradeable, so is the screen. There are several sellers on eBay with good deals on the 1920x1200 wuxga screens by LG. There may be some of the AOU brand screens but I looked for the LG for the better viewing angles and I think the LG has better color. Its not a hard process to swap the screen or the disc drive either... The GPU is a different story. You can't change it but it is a very capapble GPU and should handle those games you mention with no problem... This thing handles Crysis pretty damn well so I am pretty sure you will be just fine with ME2 and MW2. I doubt many in here will tell you that you should have bought a better laptop because for the cost you can't beat it honestly... Even the Asus doesn't use DDR3 ram like this one does.

The bios is basically your hardware controller that posts(loads) all of the necessary hardware for your computer to boot and controls some of the functions of that hardware till the operating system can take over most of the function. Updating is questionable though. If you are having no problems with the hardware you have then you shouldn't need to update the bios. If you plan on upgrading any hardware or are having any issues the newer bios is supposed to fix then an update is probably warranted. This is of course only true if you don't have the latest bios.

As for best performance there is a wealth of knowledge in the stickies on here. I would suggest just reading up on those.

Upgrading the processor is a sure fire way to help out and some will say a solid state drive and others will say setup 2 drives in RAID0. Both will improve performance with the SSD edging out the RAID0 setup. However, it is more costly... I myself went with a P9700 processor(I wanted the P series to keep heat down and keep battery life good) and a RAID0 setup with a Sony blu ray drive and the LG 1920x1200 screen.

Hope that helps.

 

yes that did help, thanks

 

No problem man. Glad to help.

 

oh btw how do i set two hdd to raid? thats what the BIOS is for right? does this lappy require for me to update the BIOS in order to raid 0?

 

depends one what bios version you have now. and yes that is where you setup raid... check your bios version and let us know

 

Bios 9c.11.00 or the newer 9c.17.00 both support Raid. You need to first create the restore disc as this WILL clear the drives of all data! Raid0 is not for the faint of heart either as if you loose the Stripe or a drive you loose it all as well! If you are going to go Raid0 do it early in the systems life. This will save you alot of troubles with programs and data from the get go.

Especially for new game compatability think CPU first. The P9700 or all out with a T9900. if you upgrade get a good thermal interace material ICD is the best one so far. If you can a good laptop cooler is a must have as well. Not only will it help cool things down it protects your investment as well.

As far as 1920x1200 be sure you've seen a few screens first and you are comfortable with the resolution at that size. The text and icons get rather small. I actually prefer it small so this is a boon for me. You will find at that res AA is not required, or even prefered left off, as the eye candy is amazing.

As mentioned if you are a battery/portability junky stay with the P9xxx CPU's or a plugged in to power a T9xxx series. Also if you run battery alot don't Raid the drives as this eats the battery with both drives running.

Another bonus of the CPU upgrade is L2 cache at 6 megs compared to the 3 megs. This will smooth out the desktop and multitasking as well.

Good luck with it and enjoy. These are extreemly capable machines and quite a deal at that too..............

 

seconded; especially when you have spare cash to burn (now/in the near future) to splash out on aftermarket upgrades like better CPU/SSD etc.

 

I think Im gonna get an SSD first (like 64GB) and just keep the OS on the SSD and games on the 320GB HDD (not RAID). I can do that right?

 

oh another thing what is the best laptop cooler for this one? trying to stay below $50 (or cheaper). is a cooler even necessary or can i just lift it up and save $20-50 (for more games )?

 

Yeah you can do that, and I believe depending on which SSD you get single SSD is better than raid 0 SSDs. To get a great improvement in raiding SSDs you need money.


Home made laptop cooler would be best.

 

so im assuming 128gb x2 in raid 0 work well ? hey do you know a guide to install a bluetooth device?

 

oh sorry (forgive me ima newb), will the sony BC-5600S work in this lappy? thanks

 

if im not mistaken the 5600 is a slot load drive

 

yes it is but i was reading about how those slot -load drives dont sit flush... so maybe i'll get just the bc 5500s

 

but you won't have a good bezel that matches the laptop, that would drive me nuts

 

whats a bezel? (lol like i said ima newb) which one should i get for this laptop?

 

The Bezel is the "face plate" on the DVD drive. They are removeable and can generally be swapped over to a new drive so it will match your laptop.

Even slot loaders can make this switch, but you're going to have to find the drive bexel from (if i remember correctly) the 172X FX i believe they had a slot load... though honestly i'm not sure which 17x model really had it i just know it was the "top end" one of the generation

 

my bad, i never knew there was an FX with slot load

 

lol no worries, some times there are so many FX models out that its hard to keep up with all of them. I think at one time during the 68xx line there were like 7 available... all the same just different hard drives and some had the t8300. It was madness

 

lol.. whats the point in that... I don't get that at all...lol

 

It was back when Gateway actually sold computers on their website still (before the Acer buy out)

Yeah it was excessive though, but just one of those little quirks that gateway has that make no sense.

 

Haha yes, makes almost as much sense as selling their new high end gaming laptop only in Canada, those silly business people, I really think we should start running Gateway if you ask me, lol.

 

That would rock... i still think my gameing system line up idea would rock and sell out faster than they could be built

Unfortunatly Acer will never listen to us


But honestly i dont mind Canada getting the 7901/7902 first. They have gotten hosed for a long time trying to get the FX that its about time they got some love

 

so batman, you're saying in order to get the slot load, ima have to find a 71xx model and get the bezel?.....that sucks. Im fine with disc tray Im just afraid one day i'll break it or something lol

 

Yeah it was the top end 172 or 173 that had a slot load DVD.

You might can try to look around ebay and some might be for sale... not sure though.

I prefer tray loads anyway. They dont look "cool" but run quieter and you never have to worry about a stuck disc

 

when i overclock my gpu what (frequency) settings should i use for the 9800mGTS? i've seen the gpu o'ced guide but that guy has a 7811 and im not sure his settings would be the best for my 7805. On that note, I want to get GTA4 but I've heard its choppy unless you've got a quad. Will o'cing my gpu help when I play this game?