Can you upgrade a laptops vid + CPU?
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Easily asked. Can you actually upgrade a laptop, or am I in the zone of "Buy a new one"?
If you can, what does it take? How does one go about it?
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Downside by opening your laptop is voiding all warranty you might have. But in general it requires someone knowing what they are doing to insert or swap much inside a laptop.
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I can find the person who might be able to do such,if needs be.
The question is, is it worth it?
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For a lap top? No.
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The only thing you can upgrade on a laptop is generally the memory. Everything else is "onboard," as in.. no removable pieces.
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Generally speaking unless your system is newer with a removable video chip you're not gonna upgrade much of anything. The CPU can be swapped out but due to the nature of designing laptops, most computers have a very limited range of the CPUs they can use (AMD 2+/AMD 2 cpus for example) so in the end it's not worth it, no. If you use it for gaming, pop for a tower and build it yourself. You can even hook up the laptop's hard drive and have it run as your primary drive (assuming its a SATA drive) after you got windows taken care of.
So, short answer? No.
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As far as I know only some expensive boutique laptops can be upgraded, some of the Alienware machines could be upgraded and were designed with that in mind (in the past at least..now..i have not checked), but keep in mind you will likely have to buy the parts from them if they still make such a laptop
Sager may also make such a laptop
Both companies make high end gaming laptops (and are quite expensive)
but regular laptops..as far as i know only Ram and hard drives can be swapped out, most laptops have the parts soldiered onto the mainboards with the exception of the previously mentioned bits
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some laptops also used to have dockingstations that took expansion cards. As mentioned above, in general it is not worth it, nowadays most laptops are build using tightly integrated components (hard- and software) to make it all fit in the tiny package. It can be hard to even find stuff that's meant to be swapped out after a while (e.g. swap dvd-drive for a burner, replace batteries etc)
Often after about 3 years a laptop can already be obsolete and need replacement for general applications, and we all know games are usually more demanding than that. -
The only thing you can upgrade on a laptop is generally the memory. Everything else is "onboard," as in.. no removable pieces.
Through all my years working with computers, I have never upgraded a CPU in a laptop. I've seen in some rare cases it is indeed a seperate piece, upgrading usually means talking to the vendor and getting the chip that THEY provide. If your laptop is out of warrantee, you are pretty much screwed because the vendor has likely moved on to other technology and the parts you need are "end of life" (Meaning they don't bother making them anymore). If they do still make them, they charge you far more than for something more current.
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NewEgg + $600 USD = Brand new PC Tower. Then goto a local pawnshop and drop $20-30 bucks on a decent 20" monitor, and run by Walmart for a new keyboard/mouse.
You'll spend about the same as trying to upgrade a laptop - get more machine for your money, and be able to upgrade indefinitely as time goes by without having to start from scratch again.
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NewEgg + $600 USD = Brand new PC Tower. Then goto a local pawnshop and drop $20-30 bucks on a decent 20" monitor, and run by Walmart for a new keyboard/mouse.
You'll spend about the same as trying to upgrade a laptop - get more machine for your money, and be able to upgrade indefinitely as time goes by without having to start from scratch again.
I threw together a pretty decent rig for a buddy to run Diablo 3 on max settings and it only cost him $410 dollars (after 20 mail in rebate). Newegg is hella cheap. ;)