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    Limiting factor of my laptop

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Kickpeople, Aug 29, 2007.

  1. Kickpeople

    Kickpeople Newbie

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    Can someone please tell me the limiting factor of my computer? I want to use it for gaming. I know i need to upgrade the ram, but how much. I am thinking of either 2x1gb sticks or 1gb+2gb sticks. So unless I am mistaken thats either 2gb with dual channel support or 3gb without it. Also I need to know if something else limits the ammount of ram, maybe 3gb ram will be useless without a faster processor or something?? I dont know, I am new to this.

    Dell E1705
    CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.00GHz/667MHz)
    Screen: 17 inch WUXGA, 1920 x 1200
    RAM: 1GB (2x512), DDR2, 667MHz memory
    Hard drive: 80GB 7200RPM
    Video card: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS (will overclock later)
    Optical drive: 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
    OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit
     
    Kickpeople, Aug 29, 2007
    #1
  2. Crimsonman

    Crimsonman Ex NBR member :cry:

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    video card is always the bottleneck, but get some more RAM in that thing
     
    Crimsonman, Aug 29, 2007
    #2
  3. Waveblade

    Waveblade Notebook Deity

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    More At the moment? Probably the 1 gig of RAM. And IMO, 2 gigs is enough RAM


    Obviously the thing holding it back is the graphics (which is to be expected since it IS a laptop :D).
     
    Waveblade, Aug 29, 2007
    #3
  4. moon angel

    moon angel Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    Another GB of ram should be your next purchase for sure. After that a GFX overclock could work well.
     
    moon angel, Aug 29, 2007
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  5. Kickpeople

    Kickpeople Newbie

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    Kickpeople, Aug 29, 2007
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  6. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    That Latency is nice and you are correct most 667Mhz is 5 so yea I'd pay the extra $20.

    Edit: You do not need matching RAM in a notebook to run in dual channel. Notebooks have 2 slots for RAM, desktops have 4, two groups of two. With a desktop the two within the same group must match but it is not required that it match the other group so just as all four in a desktop do not need to match neither do the two in a notebooks. Matching pairs do however have a little more real world bandwidth. Maybe 3% to 5% on current Intels.
     
    powerpack, Aug 29, 2007
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  7. Incursis

    Incursis Notebook Evangelist

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    Just wondering...isn't the hard drive usually the most limiting factor? Its (usually) the slowest component and load times depend on the hard drive.
     
    Incursis, Aug 29, 2007
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  8. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    You can never say one thing is always the bottleneck, you have to look at the system as a whole. But the generalization that the GPU is the bottleneck is in the real world often correct in games. In games they do not rely on the HDD for real time performance as it is too slow. And I would go so far as to say lack of RAM does not slow down graphics (GPU) performance but if it has to fight with the system for resources then yes a problem. But yes HDD is what it is, slow but large capacity.
     
    powerpack, Aug 29, 2007
    #8
  9. Kdawgca

    Kdawgca rotaredoM repudrepuS RBN

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    Its a nice price for DDR2-667 ram with CL of 4. You can find some good deals on 2x1gb(CL of 5) for less then 80 in the Hot ram Deals thread(the thread also has good deals on 1x2gb sticks)


    Also here is a "guide" that shows you how to overclock the 7900 gs

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64385
     
    Kdawgca, Aug 30, 2007
    #9