I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to laptops. I'm quite competent at PC building and have built a good number of systems, but never even touched a laptop. I've got a few questions regarding the ability to upgrade them.
Is it possible to upgrade the CPU?
RAM is obviously upgradable as are hard drives .. how about graphics cards?
Graphics cards often aren't upgradeable in laptops..they can be welded in. But the cpu's are pretty much as straight forward as a desktop as long as you're willing to void any warranty you may have.
modern laptops can offer Bluetooth and Wireless upgrades quite simply to
CPU's are usually possible, just pull the thing to bits and chuck a new CPU in. Can be a lot of hassle though. Wheter it'll work or not is another question, the BIOS on the laptop may not support the new CPU and you may have cooling issues.
GPU's though, no, they'll either be directly on the motherboard or on a daughterboard with a proprietary connector.
There is a new standard for mobile graphics that should let you upgrade them. Not many laptops have this though.
Search the forums for "barebones laptop", someone spent a lot of time researching it all (can't remember who it was). Even if you won't don't go that route, it ould give you an idea of what is possible.
It is wholly possible to make your own laptop just like a PC, I think there was an article in CustomPC.
The main problem is getting a suitable chassis with the correct motherboard, if you search the internet you'll find them (I think Acer might have a few?), like the other posters said above; Graphics are meant to be upgradeable but unless you're an OEM like Dell, Asus, Etc - you will have a really hard time getting hold of one.
With mid range Core2Duo laptops available from £500-600 (Toshiba Satellite) it makes more sense to buy one of these than try to upgrade an old one. Incidentally I've upgraded the CPU on an old Sony VAIO and it really wasnt worth the hassle as it was only a step up in CPU speed which didnt make that much of an impact.
Thanks for the help. I was of the impression that CPU's were soldered into a laptop, not sure why.
So if I bang a E6600 in a laptop the worst that can happen is a few cooling issues and an unrecognisable processor in bios. Sounds like its worth a go
I don't think a desktop processor would work in a laptop. They are usually T, L or U series chips as opposed to E series. T is the normal, L is low voltage and U is ultra low voltage.
Yeah an e6600 is the wrong socket for MOST laptops
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3783
you have to love that.
Some of the higher end laptops come with a MXM slot, or Mobile PCI Express Module. These mean upgrading the graphics card is easy
Originally Posted by Saracen
I'd also like to add that on a few of the laptops I've taken apart that the heatsink/cpu doesn't use a normal thermal paste but uses a thermal epoxy/glue instead
I've encountered it in HP, Sony and acer laptops, it's yellow, has the consistancy of old chewing gum and is totally evil to remove it all for fresh paste to be applied for reseating the heat sink.
I've got an Inspiron 9300 that I'd love to slap a T7400 into but neither BIOS or socket will have any of it.
i'd amend that to easierSome of the higher end laptops come with a MXM slot, or Mobile PCI Express Module. These mean upgrading the graphics card is easyas MXM graphics cards tend to be thin on the ground dont they?
Yeah, but its availability doesn't effect how hard it is to fiti'd amend that to easier
cuts out cardboard shaped mobile 8800 and writes "OMGWTFCHOCOLATEMUFFIN8800FTWGTXMOBILE" on it
look ma', i've got an 8800
omfg... you said that Steve - so I had a little goodle and found at Rock's website .. they've got what they call "xtreme ctx pro/thinnest 17" gaming notebook on steroids" which sports a core2duo, 2GB ram and NVIDIA 8700M GT 512MB ! obviously... it comes with a hefty price tag
I found a review of the 7900 gtx version and they said it was really good... how can we suggest Hexus to review the 8700M version?
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