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    To upgrade again or not to upgrade

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by dchen2k, Jun 6, 2011.

  1. dchen2k

    dchen2k Notebook Consultant

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    I recently upgraded a CQ56-115DX from V140 to a AMD P340. The AMD P340 only cost me about $26 so it was a very good deal to get about 50%-60% more processing power. The only time I see it 100% utilized is when playing Netflix HD videos.

    However, seeing several successful cases in upgrading to more powerful processors such as Turion II or even Phenom II processors made me feel very tempting to do another upgrade.

    An AMD P540(25w) costs $55 but offers only about 10-12% improvement from P340. So I do not think it's a very good deal.

    An AMD N660(35w) costs $77 but offers a very significant 36% improvement. It's also the second fastest in the family. However, I'm very concerned about the additional heat. Another concern is the ATI 4250 is a weak GPU so high-end gaming is unlikely though I think it may run faster with a faster CPU?

    I think I'm getting a bit greedy because the CQ56 is free. If you were me, would you proceed to upgrade to the N660 or P540?
     
    dchen2k, Jun 6, 2011
    #1
  2. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

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    In all honesty I don't think it is worth upgrading again. My N620 Phenom II averages 50-60, and low-mid 70s is the max temperatures and that is with a crummy little heatsink in my brother's M5030 Inspiron. HP have traditional have worse cooling than Dell, so you may not be so lucky. More "GHz" will only benefit you when you do rendering or compiling, normal usage 200-400 MHz you will not really feel a difference. You could look at the Phenom II P650 which offers 2.6 GHz with only 25 watt. I got my N620 for 66 dollars used on Ebay.
     
    Tsunade_Hime, Jun 7, 2011
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  3. Mr_Mysterious

    Mr_Mysterious Like...duuuuuude

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    To upgrade or not to upgrade....that is the question!

    Mr. Mysterious
     
    Mr_Mysterious, Jun 7, 2011
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  4. dchen2k

    dchen2k Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks. I totally agree with you that the upgrade is probably not necessary.
    The only reason I'm even considering the upgrade is those processors are available at relatively cheap prices and I feel the laptop is so "imperfect" due to 64-bit FPU and not able to run the 1333MHz ram at full speed.
    However, I look at Geekbench and found I could only get +7% CPU and +12% FPU performance after making it "perfect" with a P540.

    My geekbench report:
    Hewlett-Packard Presario CQ56 Notebook PC : Geekbench Result Browser

    I think I'll leave it as is unless I see a really cheap P650 in the future.
    It's always nice to have some headroom for growth...

    Thanks again for the words of wisdom.
     
    dchen2k, Jun 7, 2011
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