MSI GX740 capabilities

Hi all, I am new here so go easy on me, I am relatively new to the world of laptop upgrades also, so I may say things that make no sense. Basically I have had this MSI laptop for a couple of years now (sadly I am out of warranty) and have had a couple of issues with it, first the microphone port broke, then two of the USB ports, and i also have three keys missing. The keys are simple to fix, I have purchased some new ones and will be putting them on shortly, as for the USB ports, I am using a 4 way splitter to power everything currently, and the microphone port problem I get around by using a USB audio device.

Now, all that aside, the computer has worked well for me, and ran most games at full spec with no issues,but recently this has declined, games like Guild Wars 2 and Sleeping Dogs, can't run at full spec without alot of fps issues, causing the game to be less than enjoyable. I have the version with the I5-430M processor ( listed on the website I purchased it from as the I5-450M but that is an issue I have taken up with the seller) 4GB Ram, and a 5870 GPU installed. Really I would like advice on what upgrades are worth making, as the laptop is not suitable for selling to somebody else, I would rather keep using it until it kicks the bucket, but I would like to see it able to run programs on higher settings and more smoothly.

I have purchased 8GB ram which I am awaiting delivery of, and am wondering whether to upgrade the HDD to an SSD, and upgrading the CPU, GPU and the screen, Just looking for advice on what can get me playing these games with faster loading times (as when loading into GW2 sometimes it doesn't draw my character for at least 2 minutes!!!) any tips would be appreciated, I'm not looking to modify the laptop much just replace parts, but if i need a 180w power supply to run better components I will also look into that, I know most people would say sell this and put the money towards a new laptop, but with the amount thats broken on it in need of repair, I don't think anyone would pay a fair price!

Money isn't a huge object with this, but like I say I'm not somebody who knows how to mod a heatsink etc, so components that will run without too much tweaking would suit best for this project

sorry for the essay.

 

While the cpu is 'capable enough' for light/medium workloads with a PM 'score' of 2087,

See:
PassMark - Intel Core i5 M 430 @ 2.27GHz - Price performance comparison


It is still a 3+ year old platform you're running and I would not suggest upgrading anything on it considering the issues you have.

An upgrade to 8GB+ RAM, an SSD (min 240/256GB or larger) and Windows 8 x64 Pro are all highly recommended - but when the cost for all those are taken into consideration - you are more than halfway to a new system which would not only take advantage of the upgraded hardware much better (and the current O/S taking advantage of especially the SSD better than any previous version of Windows...) but you will still be stuck with a 3 or 4 generation old platform and at most have 1/4 to 1/3 the processing power needed to run not only the graphics cards to their maximum, but also have the processing power the latest games need too...


This article clearly shows how the cpu can bottleneck the gpu's performance, for example:

See:
AnandTech | AMD's A10-5750M Review, Part 2: The MSI GX60 Gaming Notebook



As you state money is not an issue: buy a new platform and know that you're not sinking money into an old and already failing platform.


(Failing physically - and also failing in running the workloads/games you want it to).


I'm sure this is not the answer you wanted. Just would like you to spend your money more effectively, if performance is truly your goal.



Good luck.

 

probably the best answer I could get, I already purchased the ram so that's £50 spent, also I have an SSD my brother is not using so that's free for me, as for windows 8 I don't know if I'm comfortable with the platform, I love 7 and use it on my desktop and laptop, whereas 8 looks like a tablet :S

so I can upgrade the SSD and ram, and I could also put some new thermal paste on the cpu and gpu to see if its a heat issue, other than that I think I will just stick with it and get a new laptop when this one bricks it.

 

Best decision to make: use what you have.


Hope the performance increase is enough!

 

also with this just wondering, with Intel® HM55 whats the highest mobile cpu that can be installed without mods? (sorry I posted this in the other users question thread, thought I'd ask you here as I started this thread )

 

Not the person to ask for cpu upgrades. Sorry.

Maybe someone else could jump in here and answer that for you.


Just a note on the HM55 chipset though: I don't like it.

The Arrandale processors it supports are still powerful enough today (3.5 yrs after launching...) for light/medium workloads.

Yet the latencies this platform introduces with the new power states make for some very unbalanced SSD performance. There have been many workarounds to minimize the effects it has on the SSD - (and I've tried most of them at one time or another on my U30Jc and various SSD's...) - but in the end; a clean install of Windows 8 x64 with 8GB PC3 12800 RAM and a SanDisk Extreme 240GB SSD partitioned with ~70GB 'unallocated' capacity (i.e. OP'ing) is the best overall compromises I have found for this system (when performance, heat output, battery life and O/S 'snappiness' are all taken into consideration).

And after all that it still feels 'laggy' to me vs. an SNB or IB based platform...


My point? While you can potentially swap the cpu for a much higher performing model - the platform has limitations built-in that you can't overcome no matter what.


Good luck.

 

You can upgrade to i7 940xm and also you can overclock it!

 

@Danto,

tiller hit it head on; it's time for a new rig. any money you invest in improving the current one would be better spent on a new one. However, all is not lost. You can still use your old machine as a backup or for other purposes. After the gateway in my signature become unable to game for long periods of time, i've repurposed it as a home theatre pc.

Just out of curiosity since you say it was running games for you perfectly fine....Have you given it a thorough teardown and cleaning? Maybe a possible repaste on the cpu and gpu?

 

yes I have cleaned it out today, also replaced the ram and CPU ( all for £70 which didn't break the bank too much) I am just concerned about the heat coming out as both GPU and CPU are around 80 degrees in load and 70 in idle, but this takes a while to burn in heatpaste used!