Here's the spec's on my laptop I've had for two years running with no major troubles yet.
3dmark06 = *drum roll* 6630
Yes I play on a laptop. It's the Gateway P 6831-FX.
CPU = Intel C2D T5450 @1.67 GHz
GPU = NVIDIA 8800m GTS
RAM = 3GB DDR2 @667 MHz
HDD = 250GB @ 5400 rpm
It was my first computer of any kind that was capable of running some FPS so my expectations were somewhat low and very easily exceeded, and I've grown somewhat attached. After growing into the community, I've learned what to like and what not to like. When playing newer games, it is now quite obvious to me that my computer will encounter bottle-necking troubles often. It renders the surroundings regardless of how I want them to be rendered, and they can look as if you have 20X90 vision and is nothing more than a color, or they can really come out, be amazingly detailed or somewhere in between awesome and awesome and my frame rates will always take drastic hits at what have now become common places to me on maps.
I'm imagining I receive comments saying I'd be better off with something completely new, but the total cost of what I suggest below will be $500 at the very very most, and the resultant boost would be dramatic. 3dmark06 scores with upgrades I suggested appear they would increase my performance to somewhere around 10K.
I was planning on upgrading my CPU to the Intel C2E X9100 @ 3.06 GHz. Around 300 dollars to do so providing prices remain relatively constant. I had considered looking at the QX9300 @ 2.53 GHz but from the searching I've done, turns out to be a great deal more expensive. If I can find the latter processor for a price slightly more than the X9100 I would get it.
My GPU I'm going to leave in one place for now since it's a decent quality GPU for a notebook, game-play on CoD looks great and sometimes it just bottlenecks in several places on several maps where it can never keep up whether having minimalist settings, or intensive measures and I'm going to blame the CPU. The rate drops to approximately the same FPS (within 5-10 of each other). I don't believe this is simple to change / upgrade, not to mention costly. I do recall more recent Gateway FX laptop models using two different cards than the one I have. 9800m GTS and the 260m GTX.
I have a 64 bit version of Vista at home that I can install in order to make use of one more GB of RAM. I'm currently running Vista so it won't be terribly painful and inexpensive. I think this is the correct way to go about doing so and be able to use a full 4GB of RAM...I'm not the most tech savvy so it may be a bit more complicated than I'm hoping it is.
I considered buying another 250GB @ 5400 for RAID or just buying two HDD's @ 7200 rpm and set those up in RAID since I have two HDD bays I can utilize.
Any input / experience on upgrading laptop related stuff would be much appreciated. I've looked into those options a few times up until this point, found visual guides etc., but there's always the possibility I forgot to include something. The main issue for me is the CPU, I'll monitor prices for those a bit longer before I make any decisions I think.
Thanks,
Brian
3dmark06 = *drum roll* 6630
Yes I play on a laptop. It's the Gateway P 6831-FX.
CPU = Intel C2D T5450 @1.67 GHz
GPU = NVIDIA 8800m GTS
RAM = 3GB DDR2 @667 MHz
HDD = 250GB @ 5400 rpm
It was my first computer of any kind that was capable of running some FPS so my expectations were somewhat low and very easily exceeded, and I've grown somewhat attached. After growing into the community, I've learned what to like and what not to like. When playing newer games, it is now quite obvious to me that my computer will encounter bottle-necking troubles often. It renders the surroundings regardless of how I want them to be rendered, and they can look as if you have 20X90 vision and is nothing more than a color, or they can really come out, be amazingly detailed or somewhere in between awesome and awesome and my frame rates will always take drastic hits at what have now become common places to me on maps.
I'm imagining I receive comments saying I'd be better off with something completely new, but the total cost of what I suggest below will be $500 at the very very most, and the resultant boost would be dramatic. 3dmark06 scores with upgrades I suggested appear they would increase my performance to somewhere around 10K.
I was planning on upgrading my CPU to the Intel C2E X9100 @ 3.06 GHz. Around 300 dollars to do so providing prices remain relatively constant. I had considered looking at the QX9300 @ 2.53 GHz but from the searching I've done, turns out to be a great deal more expensive. If I can find the latter processor for a price slightly more than the X9100 I would get it.
My GPU I'm going to leave in one place for now since it's a decent quality GPU for a notebook, game-play on CoD looks great and sometimes it just bottlenecks in several places on several maps where it can never keep up whether having minimalist settings, or intensive measures and I'm going to blame the CPU. The rate drops to approximately the same FPS (within 5-10 of each other). I don't believe this is simple to change / upgrade, not to mention costly. I do recall more recent Gateway FX laptop models using two different cards than the one I have. 9800m GTS and the 260m GTX.
I have a 64 bit version of Vista at home that I can install in order to make use of one more GB of RAM. I'm currently running Vista so it won't be terribly painful and inexpensive. I think this is the correct way to go about doing so and be able to use a full 4GB of RAM...I'm not the most tech savvy so it may be a bit more complicated than I'm hoping it is.
I considered buying another 250GB @ 5400 for RAID or just buying two HDD's @ 7200 rpm and set those up in RAID since I have two HDD bays I can utilize.
Any input / experience on upgrading laptop related stuff would be much appreciated. I've looked into those options a few times up until this point, found visual guides etc., but there's always the possibility I forgot to include something. The main issue for me is the CPU, I'll monitor prices for those a bit longer before I make any decisions I think.
Thanks,
Brian
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