Hewlett-Packard - Pavilion 3200+ Notebook

hi..im new to the forums and a new notebook owner...my notebook has a ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M IGP with 128MB DDR dedicated video memory...from what i heard this is a pci express chipset...can i put a grapic card in my notebook or am i just stuck with the chip set???....forgive me if this is a really nooby question...i am a noob just trying to figure this out..thanks...

 

Nope, you're stuck with it.

 

As he said, you're stuck. PCI Express is just a bus...not a socket. On desktops, the standardization they have keeps the cards all the same...but in laptops, that's not entirely true. If you search, there are some laptops that are upgradeable, and there's two socket solutions out there(MXM and AXXIOM, MXM being the more common), but even when the socket's standardized, there's space issues and temp issues to be concerned with.

Currently, it's just not reasonable to buy a laptop and really expect to be able to get a future upgrade. If you can't confirm the upgrade's availability now, for video, I wouldn't assume it's gonna happen.

Hopefully this won't be as much of an issue in two or so years.

 

i guess its no big deal..i dont plan on really gaming on it...its a good laptop from what ive seen so far...its just i am leaving for the army in the next few weeks and i was gonna take this and maybe play some games on my time off...i can run battle feild 2 but its alittle laggy...and i also only have 512mb of ram...maybe if i add a gig it will be ok...i dont know..i guess gaming should be the last thing on my mind..thanks for the responce...

 

Last thing in your mind? If you're heading into the army, whatever helps you relieve stress and doesn't harm anyone else is A-OK in my book.

Get a machine that does what you want it to do so you don't regret what is obviously a big purchase.