Where do you focus your laptop budget?

When you buy a new laptop, where do you put your money on upgrades beyond the base system?

 

It depends on the pricing of the parts from the vendor vs the pricing of the parts that can be bought and put in later. But generally, I focus most on the CPU, RAM, HDD/SSD, GPU, and Warranty. So pretty much the parts that have the largest impact on performance. Plus, I like warranty, because then I don't have to fix it myself.

 

I focus on what can't be upgraded easily, i.e. the gpu. You can always add a better hard drive and ram and upgrading a processor isn't too hard, but with the way some laptops are made it can be impossible to upgrade the gpu. I also love gaming though so I am biased. Ultimately though it really depends on your usage, after all you may want an extended battery if you travel a lot.

 

Display & GPU. As long as it's not BGA, I can upgrade the processor later, or add a better wireless card if it comes with one that I don't end up liking. RAM and HDD are usually decently specked these days and those are REALLY easy to upgrade, soo..

 

GPU.

The rest is cheap enough to upgrade.

 

balanced. CPU and GPU.

 

Well arguably it depends what the machine is being used for...

For general uses: CPU, GPU and screen(res and actual screen quality).

For my tablet PC: Digitizer and screen.

 

For a tablet, screen
For a small computer, battery life
larger computer, GPU, CPU, screen quality.

 

CPU, RAM, HDD. (as can be seen in my sig.)


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CPU , GPU , Screen , ODD , and RAM...

 

Like several others have said...I try to get a balanced system, but where I have to cut back it's on things that are easy to upgrade, like memory and hard drives. I never count on a better GPU being available later, as they are expensive and often the cooling is model specific. I have not upgraded a CPU yet, but it is easy enough to do. But memory and HDD can be swapped in under 10 minutes.

And with many vendors, memory and drives are overpriced. On a lot of Dell systems you can easily buy a better hard drive for their price to upgrade. Same with RAM. I'd rather use Newegg and save some bucks.

 

Display, CPU

 

Agreed. When it something that's typically locked in, like GPU (and screen, i.e. size, ratio, resolution) you need to get it right from the start.

Indeed it does. Therefore, it might be a good idea to include that as an addition with your vote.

 

You should add "materials" or "how well assembled" or something like that.. Cuz there is no other reason why to buy a Mac and I guess Macs are pretty popular here in USA.

 

That's not an upgrade - unless if there's some hidden option on Apple's (or some other manufacturer's) website that lets you pay more for tougher aluminum that I don't know about