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    Upgrading for new game

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by valkyrierose, Nov 17, 2008.

  1. valkyrierose

    valkyrierose Newbie

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    About a year ago, I bought a dell vostro 1500 which came with the following config:

    T5470
    8400M GS
    2GB DDR2
    80GB 5400rpm HDD
    vista home basic

    Now I bought the new MMO but the FPS goes low when many players playing around on the screen. Hence, I wanna upgrade the lappy so I can play is smoothly.

    Here is my question. Which hardware should I get first for game?

    DDR2s' price is getting lower and lower, I'll soon get a 2GB, so RAM is not the biggest problem.

    I know that vostro 1500 can upgrade its graphic to 8600M GT, but I dunno how big the improvement would be and does it worth upgrading.

    the T5470 is in socket P with FSB 800. So the Penryn core with 1024FSB doesn't fit in my "motherboard"? and I can only get the 800FSB ones? saw the CPU thread but just for confirmation.

    7200rpm HDD, I don't think it affect much on the FPS. pbly just the loading time IMO...?

    vista sck and I will roll back to XP 64 soon but does it affect the performance much?

    I know its lots of questions but hope some1 can help me with that.

    PS. strange problem OCing the 8400M GS. the card doesn't OC AT ALL even with driver 169.04 or lower installed. :confused:
     
    valkyrierose, Nov 17, 2008
    #1
  2. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    Notebook graphics cards are usually not cheap, the same with notebook processors. RAM has gone down in price considerably however.
    I guess the question is, is it really worth it to spend hundreds and hundreds (if not thousands for a new system) of dollars just to be able to play a $50 game?
    If it is, well, I personally don't think it's worth the hassle to upgrade the components yourself, you might be better off just buying a new system and selling the vostro to get some of your money back. Still I'd seriously think about it, if it's really worth putting forth all that money just to be able to play a game.
     
    talin, Nov 17, 2008
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  3. Xirurg

    Xirurg ORLY???

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    You can't upgrade your GPU.better sell your notebook and get another ;)
     
    Xirurg, Nov 17, 2008
    #3
  4. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    Some you can, and you can find the graphics card on ebay that will work. I really don't recommend it though for anyone but the adventurous. :D
     
    talin, Nov 17, 2008
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  5. cjcerny

    cjcerny Notebook Consultant

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    The 8400GS is your main bottleneck. It typically isn't possible to upgrade the video card in a laptop, although a few makes/models do allow that. I doubt if the Vostro 1500 is one of those models.
     
    cjcerny, Nov 17, 2008
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  6. talin

    talin Notebook Prophet

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    That's very true, but if the 8600GT (or other card) was available as an option for it, then it's most likely one could find it on ebay. Still not recommended though.
     
    talin, Nov 17, 2008
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  7. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    He actually can upgrade to the 8600GT, but he needs to buy a dell certified card for it to work

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Nov 17, 2008
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