Upgrading my laptop

[Canofbier]

Some background - I bought my current laptop just a bit over three years ago. At the time, it had pretty decent specs:

CPU: Intel i7-2630QM, 2.00GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 460M, 1.5GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3

Nowadays, the old thing is starting to show its age. I am looking to upgrade the GPU for sure. I took the laptop apart earlier today to confirm that the GPU is replaceable, so no worries there. I also saw that my power source goes up to 150W, and even the fanciest mobile video cards don't look to go above 100W, so I'm not worried about that either.

My question is: what is the best mobile GPU I could get that wouldn't be gimped by my older CPU? If it would make more sense to upgrade the both of them, I would consider that, too.

Actually, I'm curious: if I upgrade both the CPU and GPU, will my laptop game as well as a new computer with those same two components? I'm pretty ignorant to how hardware is utilized, but I don't hear much about anything other than CPU and GPU when it comes to running intensive games.

[Canofbier]

Got a prompt and helpful response from the company:

1) You should be able to safely upgrade to either the GTX 560M or GTX 570M.
Your laptop was designed to use 75W (max) video cards, because that was the
standard of the time. The GTX 580M and "newer" video cards are 100W, which
means they will generate more heat and consume/require more power to
function correctly. Installing one of these video cards would stress the
electronics on the motherboard, which can cause it to burn up.

2) The i7 CPU (regardless of generation) is just about over kill for just
about any program/game on the market. Trying to upgrade the CPU would be a
complete waste of money.

3) I would recommend checking out http://www.resellerratings.com/. Or, just
reading the seller reviews if you use eBay.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

NVIDIA itself advertises the 570M as being "up to" 20% faster. That doesn't sound like a big enough increase to merit replacement. What do you think?

I guess the next question I have is how many of the components from my laptop I could successfully transplant to a desktop. I'm thinking that I could use both of my hard drives and maybe the CPU as well.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Canofbier

Got a prompt and helpful response from the company:



NVIDIA itself advertises the 570M as being "up to" 20% faster. That doesn't sound like a big enough increase to merit replacement. What do you think?

I guess the next question I have is how many of the components from my laptop I could successfully transplant to a desktop. I'm thinking that I could use both of my hard drives and maybe the CPU as well.

Doesn't sound worth it to me... but you may want to check this thread out.
http://forum.techinferno.com/msi/419...ease-help.html

[Canofbier]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Doesn't sound worth it to me... but you may want to check this thread out.
http://forum.techinferno.com/msi/419...ease-help.html

Dude - the first few pages of this thread have more useful info than my combined efforts over several hours. Thanks a ton for sharing!

[Canofbier]

Got another response (well outside of working hours, mind you), and damn if these guys aren't helpful:

My email:

It doesn't sound like an upgrade to the 570M would be worth the cost, since even NVIDIA itself advertises only "up to 20%" improvement over the 400M series. I'm seeing that it may be possible to fudge things a little bit with cards beyond the 570M, but I'm not sure that it's worth the cost, difficulty or instability.

I practically treat my laptop as a desktop as things stand, so perhaps I'd be better off building a new desktop. If I were to do so, I'd like to recycle what I can from my laptop. I have two questions related to that:

1) If I were to transfer my hard drives (one SSD with the OS and one HDD with movies/games), what difficulties might I encounter with respect to existing software?
2) Is the i7 - 2630QM something I could reliably transfer to a desktop?

Their response:

Yes, you can install video cards beyond the 570M into your laptop, it’s just not recommended. I think the “up to 20%” increase is being very generous.

There are some cases where nVidia takes a certain model of its current generation, and re-releases it under a different name to allow it to fit into its next generation line-up. For example, the 570M is the same as the 670M and the 580M is the same as the 675M. Most of the time you are paying for the same card that has a newer firmware, which slightly boosts performance by over-clocking the card a tiny bit.

1) If you are talking about the OS, such as Windows, then you cannot simply move the SSDs/HDDs from one computer to another computer unless the hardware is the same. When Windows starts up, it tries to match drivers with the appropriate hardware and if they do not match up you will get the BSOD (Blue Scree of Death). Also, you could run into activation issues depending on whether or not you are using an OEM or Retail version of Windows.

2) I have not tried searching, but I am willing to bet that you will not be able to source a desktop motherboard that uses a mobile CPU. Also, you will find it difficult to find a motherboard that supports a 2nd Gen CPU in general. When new CPUs are released the first thing retailers do is get rid of the old stuff even if means taking a loss on it. Intel’s 5th Gen CPUs are expected to be released at the end of this year, just to give you an idea of how old the CPU in your laptop is.

If “upgradeability” is your deciding factor when buying a computer then going with a desktop is going to be your best bet, saying you don’t need the convenience and portability of a laptop.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

If you guys are at all looking to buy a gaming laptop, definitely check out the guys at powernotebooks.com. Their support has been outstanding in the past, and they're giving me recommendations right now that almost certainly won't net them a profit from me directly.

[Just Passin' By]

This thread has inspired me. Among the computers I use, I've got a Dell Inspiron 1501 that I've now decided to upgrade. It was formerly a business computer, but has sat around gathering dust for a couple of years, since it wasn't needed for that purpose anymore. I think I'll tinker with it a bit instead of just letting it lie there. Thanks guys.

[durtyrute]

Please help!!!!

I'm looking at buying this laptophttp://www.powernotebooks.com/config...p?special=1791 It says that it doesn't come with a disk for the operating system, they just install it for you. Will this cause problems down the line. The same goes with Office, they give you a product key, but no disk. Will this still work if I need to reinstall at some point?

Thank you in advance

[Fish]

Originally Posted by durtyrute

Please help!!!!

I'm looking at buying this laptophttp://www.powernotebooks.com/config...p?special=1791 It says that it doesn't come with a disk for the operating system, they just install it for you. Will this cause problems down the line. The same goes with Office, they give you a product key, but no disk. Will this still work if I need to reinstall at some point?

Thank you in advance

Lenovo features a recovery partition with internet install capabilities. You should be able to reinstall over the internet as long as you don't bork your partitions or something. Office can be installed via the internet as well if you do have a legit key.

It's not the best solution, but it works in most cases. They do it to save money. There is still a chance that you have a HD hardware failure, in which you'd be SOL.

[durtyrute]

Originally Posted by Fish

Lenovo features a recovery partition with internet install capabilities. You should be able to reinstall over the internet as long as you don't bork your partitions or something. Office can be installed via the internet as well if you do have a legit key.

It's not the best solution, but it works in most cases. They do it to save money. There is still a chance that you have a HD hardware failure, in which you'd be SOL.

Thanks Fish, you and Hometeam helped with my build and I really appreciate your advice. I'm getting this for my wife who is going back to school, so she'll need Office and the ability to look at Facebook, listen to music, work on Office and search for shit at the same time. Is the one I have listed powerful enough to handle that? I had it upgraded at first with a 1TB SSD and 16gb of ram, but I thought that might be overkill for her needs. Thoughts?

[Fish]

Originally Posted by durtyrute

Thanks Fish, you and Hometeam helped with my build and I really appreciate your advice. I'm getting this for my wife who is going back to school, so she'll need Office and the ability to look at Facebook, listen to music, work on Office and search for shit at the same time. Is the one I have listed powerful enough to handle that? I had it upgraded at first with a 1TB SSD and 16gb of ram, but I thought that might be overkill for her needs. Thoughts?

Per your explanation of her needs, this will more than suffice even without the upgrades you listed. That would be overkill. It's a fine computer, and I've setup many Lenovos for family and friends, and they've all been quality.

At most, I would consider upgrading to 8GB of RAM. That would be the only upgrade I'd consider. An SSD would be nice. But I doubt the cost would be justified if this is just a simple school computer.

[durtyrute]

Sounds good, thanks a lot Fish.

[jd1020]

Well, my shit ass HP finally croaked. Power cord popped out and the computer shutdown. When I turned it on it went straight to system restore and the internal restore is corrupted and errors. So now it's time to get a new one for school/programming.

Right now I'm thinking about the Lenovo T440p with the i7-4700mq, a 1080p screen, and the upgraded dual band AC wireless. The rest of it is pretty much stock (4gb ram, integrated gpu, 500gb hdd) since I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible and I can upgrade those later, I'll probably upgrade to a 512gb MX100 as soon as I buy a laptop. Total is around $1200 + the ssd.

But, does anyone have any other recommendations for a good laptop? I'd like a quad core processor at least, pretty much my only requirement. I don't really care about gaming on it too much since I have a top of the line custom built desktop for that. I might load Civ5 or something on it but the intel 4600 integrated graphics will handle that.

[DaveNull]

Joanna Stern reviewed twenty some odd notebooks recently.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DaveNull

Joanna Stern reviewed twenty some odd notebooks recently.

Nice quite as powerful as I'm looking to get.

I've started looking around at more "multimedia/gaming laptops" and have come up with the Lenovo Y50, Asus N550JK, and the Gigabyte P34G/35G v2.

Not sure about the missing dvd drives on the Y50 and P34G, though.

[DaveNull]

I haven't had a DVD drive on a personal laptop since 2010 and now don't have one on my home desktop. You can always go get an external if you need one.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DaveNull

I haven't had a DVD drive on a personal laptop since 2010 and now don't have one on my home desktop. You can always go get an external if you need one.

Ya. Just not sure I want to go that route. Throwing in a DVD or a something to watch inbetween classes is just too convenient and and external drive would just be a pain in the ass.