HP dv7 upgrades

I just bought the HP dv7-3165dx-expresso black, because i had to pay bills so i could no longer afford the asus g73jh-a1, but i really do like this laptop but all it said on the best buy website was the memory 4 gb, is expandible to 8 gb. I know a lot of laptops are not upgradeable so i was wondering if i can put ddr3 memory in cuz it's ddr2 right now.. also it has the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200. Can I upgrade the graphics card? Here are the specs. please help me

ProcessorAMD Turion™ II
Processor Speed2.5GHz
Battery Type8-cell lithium-ion
Display TypeHigh-definition plus widescreen LED with BrightView technology (1600 x 900)
Screen Size (Measured Diagonally)17.3"
Cache Memory2MB on die Level 2
System Memory (RAM)4GB
System Memory (RAM) Expandable To8GB
Type of Memory (RAM)DDR2 DIMM
Hard Drive TypeSATA (7200 rpm)
Computer Hard Drive Size500GB
Optical DriveDouble-layer DVD±RW/Blu-ray Disc/CD-RW
Optical Drive SpeedsDrive speeds not specified
Direct-Disc LabelingYes
Digital Media Reader or SlotsYes, digital media card reader
GraphicsATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200
Video Memory128MB (dedicated); up to 2046MB total

 

Yes for RAM, no for video card (which is actually a video chip when you are talking about 99.999% of laptops) Only other worthwhile upgrade would be dropping an an SSD which actually works great on these. Just get yourself a HDD Bracket and wireing kit and you can swap the HDD thats in there now over as a secondary storage drive, drop in the SSD to run the OS off of and you just got yourself a decent upgrade.

 

oh ok thanks... Is it at all possible to hook up another graphics card somehow to boost my graphics that would be like hooking up and external hard drive or something?

 

Although you can upgrade the RAM, you cannot switch from ddr2 too ddr3. There are some external GPU's available (one from Asus, AMD has one) HP hasn't adopted it and they arent that great either. I wouldnt bother with trying to get one, the AMD version requires a dedicated PCI express port which the HP does not have. Only Fujitsu/Acer uses it in some of their notebooks.

 

Alrighty. Are you sure I can't upgrade to ddr3 though? One of the guys I talked to at best buy said it should be fine if i put ddr3 memory in it instead of ddr2.

 

no u can't... the memory slots are incompatible...

 

damn, eh oh well. Thanks though.

 

The "real" upgrades that can be done with the DV7t's being C2D or AMD, were pretty much HDD, Ram (ddr2 only), possibly the Wlan card, and the processor.

HDD and Ram are easy, also the wlan card...getting to the processor its another story. It requires pretty much taking the whole thing apart. I did this...and it took me almos 1 1/2 hrs.

Hope that apart from the other posts, this might be helpful.

 

eh 1 1/2 hours isn't bad... the geek squad guy at best buy said I wouldn't be able to play any games on it which I was pretty bummed but another guy that i talked to said i might be able to play modern warfare 2 and gave me a site to go to, canyourunit.com so i went to it and basically any game I threw at it that I might wanna play I passed the minimum and recommeded requirements. For example I passed the minimum and recommended requirements for CRYSIS, but Modern Warfare 2 only had the minimum on the site and I passed that but I heard the graphics on Crysis are way intense so I'm pretty sure I passed the recommended requirements for Modern Warfare 2 and I'm pretty pumped now.

 

Those websites aren't reliable... u might be able to play it but its going to be very low... ur better off selling this notebook and getting a new one..... and remember ... nver buy a laptop with an integrated card if u want to play games... and ask here on what notebook u can buy?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

 

Like sean473 says you shouldn't have bought a Dv7 w/ integrated graphic card. There is cheap DV7 w/ HD4650.

 

how is that not a reliable site though? it breaks down what your pc has and can handle and compares it to the specs for the game? This laptop was the best one for the under 900 that best buy had. Any of the ones with the HD4650 are over a grand...I was going to get the sager np9850 but then my budget went down and then i was going to get the ASUS G73JH-A1 which was like 1600 from xoticpc and my budget unfortunitely went down again so i needed something less than a grand and went to best buy and this was like the best one they had for a good price with a 17" screen.

 

If you couldn't reach a HD4650/GT230 version cost then you didn't made any mistake, it is just what it is.

 

yeah i mean the only games i wanna play really cuz im not way into gaming is battlefield 1942 with my gf's dad, battlefield 2 which plays great on it so far and i bought modern warfare 2 way cheap off ebay and the guy at best buy was only worried about the shader but mine says its 4.0 and it needs 3.0, and im gonna buy crysis on ebay and doom 3, so if it doesn't end up playing crysis i'll just resell it lol

 

u could have got a Asus G51VX which was 15.4 incher but it would have played most games on high... also G71 or G72 could easily be got at around 1K... if u can , return this and get another laptop.

 

I've got a question, and I'm new to this forum, and I have no clue I'm looking at...

But I have a dv7-1135nr, and I know this isn't about updates, but my fan is getting fairly loud, and was wondering if anyone knew any advice on how to go about fixing up my laptop on my own??? With the way things are, I'm trying to be as cheap as possible, but still make sure I don't let my laptop go to ruin.

 

Clean the air vents and the fan.

 

Haven't updated in a while just wanted everyone to know i can play the games i wanted to just fine....MOD MW2 and even crisis!