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I need to upgrade an un-upgradeable laptop
Magic Pink
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
I have a shut-in friend who finally managed to get a laptop. It's REALLY good except it only has an on-board 32meg graphics chip. The idea of trying to return the thing and find another one sends her into panic fits so is there any way at all I can get this thing upgraded? It's a Dell Inspririon 17R.
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It looks like some models in the 17R series actually used to come with discrete GPU's (525M maybe?) but none of the current ones do.
The Intel HD Graphics 4400 in the current 17R's should actually be capable of light gaming, stuff like Starcraft 2, DotA2, on low settings. And of course lots of older games on Steam and GOG will be fine. Most anything else current you will struggle to get 30fps on low/medium graphics settings though.
If your friend is not a big gamer I don't see how the lack of a good GPU is a problem.
I have never heard of anything like this. A Google search turns up a thread on Notebookreview forums where some guy is supposedly trying to build an external enclosure for graphics cards with a USB 3.0/3.1 interface as a senior project. There is nothing even close to a finished product and a lot of people on there were seriously questioning whether such a thing could possibly even work.
There are also external PCi slot expansion systems like this, but their only purpose is to convert a single existing PCi slot (which you do not have in that laptop) into several more PCi slots, and the extra slots would be totally incapable of handling the throughput from a modern graphics card anyway.
Bottom line, there is no device you can stick a GPU in and connect it to your laptop and have the benefits of having a discrete GPU. If such a thing existed the people selling it would be making a killing.
If she wants to throw a shit fit, just tell her it's either that or she just completely wasted her money.
She found out her ex is a pedophile and she was molested by her father for years. She hasn't been out of the house in 8 years. Cut her some fucking slack, ok? Little things that we have no problem doing, she does.
Thanks, this may have been what I had heard of. I'll look into it.
the laptop needs to have something that is essentially a pcie on a port, so either expresscard or thunderbolt. I'm not sure a similar device exists for usb 3.0, but I'll do some looking into it.
http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/4570-[guide]-2012-13-rmbp-gtx660-sonnet-echo-express-se-@-10gbps.html#post63754 would be something that you may of seen, but that runs off thunderbolt.
Ok did some more digging, and I can't find anyone that makes any sort of usb3.0 -> pcie or usb3.0-> expresscard adapters. Sorry, doesn't look like it will be possible to add an external gpu to that laptop.
Crud. Ok, thanks a lot for all the help, everyone.
I didn't even know something like the setup in the link was possible, I'm impressed. Although considering what you'd have to spend for the enclosure/adapter, a PSU, and the GPU, you are at least halfway to the cost of just buying another computer.
Well, I guess not the cost of buying a Mac...
So organize it for her? If she hasn't left the house in years she probably bought it online, right? All the big e-tailers have rather simple and straightforward return policies.
I was going to say this, too. She can use the box that the laptop came in and she can use Dell's website and/or phone support to set up a return/exchange. Then if she doesn't want to leave the house, you or another friend can pick up the computer and drop it off at a UPS store or Post Office.
There's also a way to get UPS and/or FedEx to pick up the package at her house; but I've never used the service so I don't know details.
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If she's a heavy gamer, she needs to educate herself on discrete graphics cards so that she doesn't run into this situation again. Granted, sites like to hide the graphics info sometimes. So at the very least, just have her do a Google search for "[model number] review" and she should likely get a couple of hits; which will spell out whether the given system has a discrete card and how good it is.
As an aside, this is the crap that pisses me off about laptop manufacturers. The desktop side of the house has had things standardized for decades. I don't see why laptop (motherboard) manufacturers can't agree on a standard that allows users to upgrade graphics.
This thread can be closed now.
I said that I "looked into them" and decided it was too expensive. Thanks for reiterating my exact message though. We've gone over this before, save the snark for someone else. I don't appreciate it.
Having a GPU attached directly to the mobo cuts down on the amount of space that would otherwise be taken up by a socket. There are a few laptop manufacturers that have experimented with upgradable GPUs in laptops (Sager and Alienware off the top of my head), but for the most part it's more hassle than it's worth from a manufacturing standpoint.
In an attempt to salvage this terrible thread why don't you give us a list of some of the genres that she is into? We can then attempt to recommend games that will run on her hardware.
If it was irrelevant information, why even bring it up? Facts aren't snark, Esh.
At this point, it's none of your fucking business.