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    Upgrading your laptop

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by steve p, Jun 18, 2008.

  1. steve p

    steve p Notebook Evangelist

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    steve p, Jun 18, 2008
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  2. eleron911

    eleron911 HighSpeedFreak

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    And the CPU and GPU are still terrible :p

    Anybody can change an HDD and RAM, I wouldn`t call that updating an aging lappy, but a desperate cheap attempt to not get something good now.
     
    eleron911, Jun 18, 2008
    #2
  3. steve p

    steve p Notebook Evangelist

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    That's exactly the point ANYbody can change the HDD and RAM. And yes the CPU and GPU are not going to break any records but for many (most) people it may be all they need. Just keep this in mind: not every one is a power user and most lappys by far sold today don't have dedicated GPU because most people don't need them or (and) may prefer (need) the longer battery life.
    In any event this was posted for informational purposes only and your opinion is well taken.
     
    steve p, Jun 18, 2008
    #3
  4. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    It is what it is. And informative for those who do not know. It is true that for many everyday and productivity applications the RAM and HDD are what are bottlenecking the performance on older systems. The reduced cost of RAM and HDD advancements and low cost really does make this the low cost solution to get by for a little longer.

    But well if you can afford $1000 (even $600) you could crush this upgrade like a bug.
     
    powerpack, Jun 18, 2008
    #4
  5. PhoenixFx

    PhoenixFx Notebook Virtuoso

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    WOW, look at all the dust that guy had under the keyboard! :eek:

    I did a similar upgrade to one of my friend's Toshiba A60 (P4 3GHz, 256MB, 40GB) notebook last week. Installed a 1GB module bumping the total memory to 1.25GB (256MB was fixed to the motherboard), then added a 160GB 5400RPM disk. Total cost was around $140. Did a clean Windows installation, and he was amazed by the performance difference :D

    He was actually going to get a new one, but since he told me that its only used for web browsing, multimedia and word at home (like a desktop replacement) and already had a 3GHz processor I really didn’t see a reason for a replacement. He was complaining about performance and frequent crashes. When he finally showed the PC, it didn't take long to understand why; Windows installation was beyond repair, too many applications (system tray was like a Christmas tree :p ) and several failed attempts of installing different virus guards etc..


    The funniest thing, is that now his 3 year old laptop loads the desktop in XP before mine does with Vista… :eek:
     
    PhoenixFx, Jun 19, 2008
    #5