Upgrade MSI GX740

Hi there lads,

im kinda new into this stuff. i never upgraded my laptop. and i have no idea if its even possible.
since my warrenty is over. i want to upgrade my laptop. if its possible, which possibilities do i have??
i was planning on upgrading : CPU, RAM, and HDD/SSD (if its possible GPU)
since i have no idea how to do it, or which possibilities i have, asking for a little help.
would be appriciated with some kinda help

 

With no indication of what version of the GX740 you have (or at least the components in it) then how is anyone supposed to offer any useful information?

If you have the Arrandale platform (i7 720QM cpu...) then I would suggest to not upgrade - the current Ivy Bridge (IB) platforms and the upcoming (within 6 months) Haswell platforms will make the proposition of upgrading 3 or 4 year old tech a mighty expensive proposition vs. the performance (both cpu and gpu) to be had.

The following two links compare the processing power (cpu) of what I'm guessing is your current cpu to what you can buy today - if the gpu performance delta's are similar - you can see that a new system for ~$1K is more than a viable upgrade path and don't forget that you can sell your current system to partially offset the cost of the new system too.

See PM 'score' 3073:
PassMark - Intel Core i7 Q 720 @ 1.60GHz - Price performance comparison

See PM 'score' 7676:
PassMark - Intel Core i7-3630QM @ 2.40GHz - Price performance comparison


Yeah - 2.5 x more powerful - no component upgrade will give you that kind of performance increase (usually in the 20-30% range).


And an example of a $1K current 'gaming' notebook:

See:
shopRBC.com :: Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 Series Notebook



Hope this helps.


Good luck.

 

sorry about that,

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1
Language: Dutch (Regional Setting: Dutch)
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
System Model: MS-1727
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/22/09 17:13:05 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 430 @ 2.27GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 4014MB RAM
Page File: 2404MB used, 5622MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 11

 

Yeah, it would take some money to upgrade that system for not much benefit, especially CPU-wise. If that was your main goal, you're better off getting a new laptop.

However, a SSD can breath some new life in any relatively new system (for me, anything C2D or better) in that a lot of the "lag" people notice in their computers is disk I/O related.

4GB should be good enough, unless you have any special need for more.

 

You can put a 7970M in a GX740, 16GB of RAM (You would need a quadcore CPU to do that, though) and an i7-920/940XM CPU. For GPU upgrade, a 180W PSU is a must.

The platform name for first gen. Core i CPUs is named Calpella. Arrandale refers to dualcore family of CPUs (made in 32nm). Quadcores in Calpella platform belong to Clarksfield family (all made in 45nm).

 

Marecki_clf,

Thanks for the correction (Arrandale) and the additional info.

OP, your system's PM 'score' is 2064:

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


And the suggested upgrade to an i7 940XM scores 4611:

See:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/pt7_cpu_list.php

But keep in mind that even if it doubles your performance for ~$673 cost - it is still well below the current IB i7 3630QM with regards to performance (about 60% of it's performance according to PM 'scores').

See:
Intel i7 940XM 3 33GHz Quad QS Mobile CPU Processor for 55 Chipset Laptop Monkey 735898211312 | eBay


This platform is past it's prime - if you need more performance selling it and putting the money towards a new system is highly recommended.

Keep in mind too that adding an SSD will make the system a lot more responsive - but responsive/snappiness is not increasing the performance of the platform one iota.

Good luck.

 

thanks for the replies. i was kinda shockedwhen i saw that that price of cpu. kinda pricy, i didnt knew it was that high. so for now im planning to get more ram ( 8gb ) and a SSD.

 

any good suggestions?? is it possible for me to get 2x4GB ram 1333mhz?
and which SSD is good replacement?

 

You can certainly use 1333MHz RAM with the i7-720QM. ARK | Intel® Core

As for SSDs, I'd recommend anything from Crucial, Plextor, or Samsung. Personally, I have Intel drives, but I've had terrible experiences with their customer support (never honored a MIR for my 330). The drives themselves are pretty good, just keep that in mind.