GFX card for laptop ?

[No.72]

A friend of mine has just bought a dell laptop. I am not aware of the full spec but I know it cost him £1000 and it has a core duo. He also said it has on board GFX so he wants a new GFX card. I know barely anything about laptops. So can I have any recommendations please. He said money does not matter
and also whare to buy from because I cant seem to find any
of course he wants it for games.

[MadduckUK]

right well. without knowing the full spec of the lappy in question its pretty impossible to say..

however its most likely going to be a case of:
1. if its got an Expresscard slot then this can be used.
2. look for one of these http://kotaku.com/gaming/laptops/asu...ock-227265.php
3. he's out of luck and getting that laptop without checking if it was possible or not first wasnt the smartest move

[No.72]

Well he said he had a look at the inside of it, and he said it has pci-express, surely you can buy these things.

or is he going to have to return his laptop, and get a better one, with a GFX card?

[kalniel]

PCI-E is typically more than just a slot, think more a method of communication - for example in my motherboard the SATA ports are actually connected through PCI-E.

Onboard graphics chips can connect through PCI-E channels, so even a dedicated laptop PCI-E chip might not have any kind of socket that allows you to change the chip.

[MadduckUK]

Well he said he had a look at the inside of it, and he said it has pci-express, surely you can buy these things.

so he's opened the laptop up and "seen" pci-express? and now he wants to send it back? i dont think dell will have that

[Lee H]

The problem lies with the shape and design of the cards as well as everyones laptop internal are slightly different so a PCI-E based card designed for 1 system might not fit another.

You might want to read the following Here which also highlights the issues found.

[GoNz0]

even if you have a laptop with a graphics card (removable) then it wont work with another type of card as the monitor connections differ per card. had the same at work last week, diffrent motherboard, same VGA slot but the connector height was all wrong, so you need a video card and monitor most of the time to pull it off.

really aint worth it, and gaming laptops are a rip off. plus the fact they dont game very well

[No.72]

Well he is using this laptop as his main pc so he wants to have fairly good GFX. I will tell him the bad news.
Sorry for my ignorance people, I know nothing about laptops.
What do you think dell will let him do, will he be able to swap the laptop for one with better GFX.

Thankyou for all your help.

[MadduckUK]

has he really gone inside it, or is he just quoting stuff from the specifications?

[No.72]

He actually said he took it apart, no joke. To me it looks like he should send it back and get a better one. Because it is just going to give him hassle imo. Dell should be cool, shouldn’t they?

[alsenior]

He actually said he took it apart, no joke. To me it looks like he should send it back and get a better one. Because it is just going to give him hassle imo. Dell should be cool, shouldn’t they?

dell let you remove upto the memory and mini-pci card onll if he has gone beyind that dell won't take it back and will invalidate the warranty

[chrisg22]

He seriously took apart a laptop?

Its a Dell and he didn't break a single peice of it... usually they are a bar stool to get open and repair. Well the old C640's are anyway.

I think Dell Returns would probably laugh at him if he took it apart and asked to send it back to be completely honest.

Keep us updated I wouldn't mind knowing what happens.

[No.72]

Well he said he took it apart, so.... lol why would he lie?

I think the best thing to do is to take it back and get a better one. I will post the full spec tonight, when I speak to him.

[MadduckUK]

dell let you remove upto the memory and mini-pci card onll if he has gone beyind that dell won't take it back and will invalidate the warranty

well they both come with there own little panels for access. if he's actually took it apart which i DOUBT A LOT then yes, please keep me informed too, purley for comedy value

[nichomach]

OK, if there really IS a slot available, he might be able to get a graphics card for it from Dell, or possibly from ServiceSource.

[GoNz0]

i really do doubt it to be honest.

what about the asus external video card thats coming out ?
cant he wait for that ?