In what ways can I upgrade my laptop

Hello!

I am looking to upgrade my laptop which I plan to play games on. Here is the setup:

Operating System:Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
CPU: Intel Core i3-330M dual-core (2.13GHz)
Memory:3GB DDR3 1066MHz dual channel
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M, 512MB DDR3
Hard Drive:250GB 8MB cache 2.5" SATA2 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM


Where do you think I need the most help and what would you recommend?

 

Hey there!

Which brand is your laptop?
What is your budget?
What do you plan to use your laptop for?
Do you specifically feel any part of your laptop is slowing you down?
What's the screen size?
Do you like fish&chips?

From the looks of it, your laptop is pretty powered up. You can opt to boost your i3-330M to an i5 series, perhaps install a SDD. Other than that, you don't have much options.

But at the moment, I don't recommend upgrading:- the performance gain doesn't warrant the price paid, unless you are able to sell your current parts at 60+% of the value.

 

Thanks for the reply!

My laptop is an Alienware M15x and my budget isn't too high, I would say around $500. I guess the one thing I was worried about was the i3-330m. Do you think upgrading the CPU would give a performance boost.

Also, I don't have any particular problems at the moment.


and I love fish and chips!

 

The only thing I could think of is 4GB RAM, SSD, and an i5 processor. Mix and match between those.

 

I would choose the ATI Radeon 5850 over the 240m as my very first option. Then an i5-540m, and 4GB ram if your budget allows it.

 

If you already have in hand I would not recommend anything for the same reasons fishsticks said.

Yes a SSD is cool if you want one and have the money. GPU/CPU upgrade can get expensive. CPU won't help much on gaming.

If you were configuring this new I would have very different answers more in line with jt and kosti.

Once again if in hand no upgrade unless you want SSD. Just wait because you can upgrade in 6 months with components that will be cheaper than now or maybe not even offered now.

 

The Core I architecture was quite the leap; an i3m is on par with higher end Core 2 Duo processors (I'd say round about a T9500).

That should be sufficient power even for demanding titles such as Crysis.

Upgrading your graphics card will be harder; generally only MXM standards are easily replaceable.

If you do go for an CPU upgrade, try to avoid the i5 series.
They include a intergrated GPU that you pay more for and serves no real purpose for you.

Unfortunately, the next option is i7-740QM @ $380... a bit pricey.

If you're willing to wait, Sandy Bridge is supposed to come out this quarter (Q4 2010). Save up the $500, put it into your next laptop/desktop

>: (
You don't see me going around eating humans and chips, do you??

 

Although Intel may begin producing Sandy Bridge chips in late 2010 (i.e. December) I doubt that we will see laptops shipping to consumers with those chips until late Q1 2011 (i.e. March 2011) at the earliest. Arrandale was supposed to be ready in December 2009 and was announced formally in January 2010 and didn't start shipping until Feb/March 2010 and then only in limited quantities (I believe part of the reason for delay was that they were holding up production so that vendors could move C2D inventory). Only in the last 2 months has Intel ramped up Arrandale shipments to meet demand.

If you are going to upgrade anything now I would vote for SSD. That would definitely be the most noticeable performance improvement for the dollar spent.

 

Well since you are looking for a performance gain in Games,mainly, I suggest a better CPU, as most games for the PC are in fact console ports that rely very,very heavily on the CPU.


The PS3 and Xbox360 will be top-tier in the market, which will most assuredly control what/whatnot is released for the PC-- for the next 3-4 years, so in other words most games will be ports.

 

But they don't because a weak PC CPU already crushes console. An i3 does fine. Bad porting and all. What processor do you think your console games have? Yea not a power house. The i3 even with bad coding/porting can still run circles around a console.

But in general I tend to disagree with your comment to the point of not even responding?

 

M15X has an MXM-B slot.

Try to find either an HD 5850 or 5870 mobility with GDDR5. Thats the only way to really improve its gaming ability.

 

everyone knows (well most people know) that the gpu is the best upgrade you can get for any laptop or desktop if your cpu is good enough, that i3 is very decent.

the ati 5850 is the best upgrade you will get for your laptop.

 

u can buy a 5870 for about $300 from babayhemi and than u can buy 4GB RAM and a i5 at most... by selling ur old CPU and GPU.. this is what i would do..

 

SSD, which you can always use again.

Personally i would save the money to buy a new rig and sell off the current one, when u r ready.

 

That would be silly tbh.

 

the point of getting an M15x nowadays is to save money and upgrade urself to better stuff available which is cheaper compared to the rip off prices from alienware..

 

I actually bought the M15x cheap so that I could upgrade it myself. This thread has given me some good ideas on what to upgrade!

 

look on the alienware forum.. u'll get even more ideas