Planning on upgrading my Laptop

Hello y'all,

I'm planning on upgrading my M980NU a little bit, and I needed some questions answered before I proceeded to buy the parts:

1.) I currently have a C2D P8700 clocking at 2.53 Ghz, is it worth it to switch to a quad core if my main focus is gaming? I've done a bit a research on my own about this, but just want to see what you guys say.

2.) I want to upgrade to the biggest RAM possible, but I think I remember that there's a chipset limitation for this laptop model holding it back to 6.8 GB of DDR3 RAM, yet at least 3 different websites I've been to have told me that it can go up to 8 GB (2x4 GB). Just want to confirm that detail with everyone here if I'm right or not.

Also on this point, is there any good deals flying around out there? The best I could find was around 300 dollars for 2x4 GB sticks on Ebay, and there's some G.Skill sticks on Newegg that look interesting. Not sure if G.Skill or Mushkin are good brands to buy from, or if I should stay with Kingston or Corsair. Any input on these matters would be greatly appreciated.

3.) Are there any 640 GB HDD spinning @ at least 7200 RPM or greater out there? Would like to have a big system drive and have my current 320 GB act as backup/memory storage space.

Thanks for the help in advance,

- Bovine Mage

 

1) Unless a game you want to play runs significantly better on quad core (GTA IV comes to mind, maybe Dragon Age: Origins), then not really.

3) Not yet. The largest 7200+ RPM 2.5" RPM drive (discounting Raptors, which don't really count) is 500 GB.

 

1.) Tell us what you're doing with your laptop. Are you playing any games that need a better CPU to run better?

2.) I say stick with 4, unless you're doing memory-intensive work, such as virtual pc. Ram is ram, no difference in brand.

 

Leave that CPU in there buddy. P8700 is simply an example of a good mobile CPU, it's totally enough for any game, maybe except for GTA IV, but why should you care for that dispicable, badly ported game?.

 

i would get a quad... in fact a QX9300 since ur laptop will easily overclock it to 3.0GHz...

2. I'm quite sure 8GB should work but u really wouldn't need that much unless u use RAM intensive apps... 4GB should be enough..

3. as for 640GB 7200rpm drives , well none are there... The best is 500GB Hitachi 7K500 7200rpm drive and it is fast...

 

Although a quad-core CPU wouldn't hurt, it's unlikely you'll get much use out of the additional cores. It's a good way to future-proof your notebook, but that's only if you were to purchase a new one today.

As for the HD, I'm pretty sure I just saw a thread recently where Western Digital had just introduced a 640 gb HD?

EDIT: Ah, here we go, and it's even larger than I thought

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=472129&highlight=western+digital+HD

 

To my knowledge Toshiba, Seagate, and Western Digital have released a 640GB 2.5inch HDD.

 

It's not 7200 RPM, it's 5400 RPM. The question was specifically for a 7200 RPM or faster 2.5" drive, and none of those exist above 500 GB yet (except for Raptors but... yeah).

 

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

1.) I think I'll stay with the dual core

2.) I'm probably going to wait until prices come down first for the RAM before filling out the full 8 GB.

3.) I just picked up a 500 GB 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar HD20500 IDK/7K for $90, going to upgrade pretty soon.

- Bovine Mage

 

i still think that getting a quad wll be a great option... if not QX9300 but Q9000... its only $200... it will be an improvement will help since more and more games need quads to play properly..