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Laptop upgrading woes

Cornell002Cornell002 Registered User regular
edited February 2007 in Games and Technology
My mom bought me a Dell Inspiron B120 for college last year (she doesn't know anything about computers and thought that widescreen=excellent computer, haha). Now its 1.40 GHz, 504 RAM, and I want to buy Lord of the Rings Online, so I need to upgrade.

Is upgrading a laptop as easy as upgrading a desktop computer? Is it expensive (I'd like to spend less than $100, I don't need it top of the line by any means)? I don't know a ton about upgrading computers (I did crack open my old Tower and upgraded it once, but thats as far as my knowledge extends). Also, what should I be buying?

Sorry if this was posted in the wrong place also. I was torn between G&T and Help and Advice

Cornell002 on

Posts

  • cherv1cherv1 Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    What kind of processor? 1.4 ghz means nothing really. Also you can't upgrade a graphics card really. A couple of high end dells let you do that, if you send it in to them, but not really.

    cherv1 on
  • Cornell002Cornell002 Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Intel Celeron M

    Cornell002 on
  • ronayersronayers Never enough time to play. Waltham, MARegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    The only thing you're going to be able to upgrade easily and cheaply is the RAM. Laptops generally aren't upgradable and usually have poor video cards that also piggyback off of your RAM anyhow.

    I'd say your best bet is save your $100, and put it towards a cheap desktop alternative.

    ronayers on

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  • cherv1cherv1 Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Cornell002 wrote:
    Intel Celeron M

    I'd say your laptop is incapable of ever running games. I assume it has an integrated graphics card, probably and Intel Media Accelerator or something. You might be able to run games like Halo on very low settings at a low resolution but basically, your best bet is to buy a new laptop, or a desktop.

    cherv1 on
  • Cornell002Cornell002 Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    cherv1 wrote:
    Cornell002 wrote:
    Intel Celeron M

    I'd say your laptop is incapable of ever running games. I assume it has an integrated graphics card, probably and Intel Media Accelerator or something. You might be able to run games like Halo on very low settings at a low resolution but basically, your best bet is to buy a new laptop, or a desktop.

    not true, WoW ran perfectly on my laptop without me having to dumb down the settings at all. I know WoW isn't graphically impressive, but I have my 360 for games like that. I just want to be able to play MMO's with it

    Cornell002 on
  • cherv1cherv1 Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Cornell002 wrote:
    cherv1 wrote:
    Cornell002 wrote:
    Intel Celeron M

    I'd say your laptop is incapable of ever running games. I assume it has an integrated graphics card, probably and Intel Media Accelerator or something. You might be able to run games like Halo on very low settings at a low resolution but basically, your best bet is to buy a new laptop, or a desktop.

    not true, WoW ran perfectly on my laptop without me having to dumb down the settings at all. I know WoW isn't graphically impressive, but I have my 360 for games like that. I just want to be able to play MMO's with it

    Well then yeah, old non demanding games should work, but nothing new or graphical will really do much. The most you can easily upgrade is RAM.

    cherv1 on
  • UnderHero5UnderHero5 Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    If it runs WoW fine then what makes you think LOTR Online won't run fine?
    Just turn the graphics settings down in game. I'm sure the game won't be that demanding.

    Some more ram definitely wouldn't hurt though.

    UnderHero5 on
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  • PaladinPaladin Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Some computers will overheat if you add more ram.

    Paladin on
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