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RAM upgrade vs Buying a new laptop
Craigus17
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I bought my laptop about 3 maybe 4 years ago and its starting to get a bit aged and I've noticed a huge decline in its performance.
When I bought it it was just under £1000 (about $750 in US money)
Its an HP Pavillion ZD8303EA and I don't know the specs off the top of my head but it has a 2.8ghz pentium 4 processor, and I *think* 1GB RAM
I dont play PC games very often (I normally play on my Wii and my 360), but I will probably be renewing my WoW membership soon to keep my busy through the summer.
If I'm going to get back into PC gaming I need to do something about my laptop's performance. Basically what I want to know is should I go for a RAM upgrade on my laptop, or should I just buy a new one???
Edit - Model ZD8303EA and 1GB RAM not 1MB lol typos :P
When I bought it it was just under £1000 (about $750 in US money)
Its an HP Pavillion ZD8303EA and I don't know the specs off the top of my head but it has a 2.8ghz pentium 4 processor, and I *think* 1GB RAM
I dont play PC games very often (I normally play on my Wii and my 360), but I will probably be renewing my WoW membership soon to keep my busy through the summer.
If I'm going to get back into PC gaming I need to do something about my laptop's performance. Basically what I want to know is should I go for a RAM upgrade on my laptop, or should I just buy a new one???
Edit - Model ZD8303EA and 1GB RAM not 1MB lol typos :P
Craigus17 on
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Also It might not be just your memory thats causing the slow down, you said you noticed a large drop in performance, have you installed anything new lately? such as anti-virus or you may have some sort of infection on the machine causeing the slow down. Also you can check how much memory you have by going to Control Panel > System then if the first window it will tell you how much memory you have, if you can't find the System icon click on "switch to classiv view" on the left side of the control panel window.
If you want to get back into gaming and you use a laptop your going to have to get something which a better proccessor and video, I haven't check the video on your current laptop, but most likely it's on board and that won't do.
You can get a pretty decent gaming laptop from Dell (which are pretty good now a days) for about 1500 cdn so thats like 750 in pounds. You would want something with at least a 8600M in it for video and 2gb of ram with a processor in at least the T5000 series line, the higher end T2000 line might be okay but you might as well go for the T5000 stuff, if you have any other questions about specifics on the parts give me a shout
I googled but i cant find an hp laptop with a model number anything like that. I think you meant 1GB of ram, but you can check this by right clicking on my computer and clicking properties (in XP at least) .. it will state your amount of ram down the bottom.
If you dont like its performance then some extra ram may help, however if you were happy with performance before it went downhill, it may be that simply a format/reinstall of your OS would do the trick.
Also .. £1000 is nearly $2000
An older laptop may be DDR1 ... which is much more expensive ... ddr2 though, as you pointed out, is cheap as hell.
DDR 2 memory like the post above mentioned is much cheaper as it is supply and demand, SDRAM is even more expensive then DDR 1 where a 512mb piece can run you around $90. So new memory is dirt cheap while old memory gouges your wallet
If you find a model of a laptop your interested post it here. Things to look for
Processor: You want to know the Cache and processor speed and the FSB (front side bus) if it's available
Video: They never really give much info on this so just post the amount of video memory it has a long with the model of the card e.g. 8600M (M = Mobile)
Harddrive: Size (preference really), and the speed of the drive i.e. 7200 RPM would be nice, most are 5400 RPM though
Note: I know here In canada you can also get some entry laptops that come with dual cores and at least 1gb of DDR2 ram with a 160 gb harddrive for 500cdn so about 250 pounds. I mean that may be a way to go, most likely it will be on board video but sometimes you can find one with like a 6100-m or a x3100
Not as many places sell PC2-4200 these days, most sell PC2-5300. It's backwards compatible, but will only run at PC2-4200 speeds.
If you have a Fry's nearby, you can pick up 2x1GB OCZ PC2-5300 for $15 after rebate or 1x1GB OCZ PC2-5300 for $7 after rebate, through May 15.
You have to be careful of this as some mobo's don't allow you do down clock memory, and won't post for you. I have found that like 70% of mobo's do, but with it being a laptop I think it may even be more picky, but the mobo may take a higher speed and use it at that speed. I mean that could work unless the mobo doesn't support that speed at all. But yeah down clocking memory is always iffy
EDIT: In fact I worked on one today, an asus p4b something. And he had DDR 333mhz and all we had on hand was DDR 400 and it wouldn't take it with or without the DDR 333 module plugged into the mobo
I think I should buy a new laptop. As far as Gaming goes I'm not likely to expand my games library and only ressurect the games on my shelf which are;
so you can see most of games are pretty old with only Mafia, FoT, WoW and Sims 2 requiring any half-decent hardware.
I'm somewhat out of the loop in terms of processors and graphics cards at the moment, what should I be looking out for?
As for graphics cards, with the games you listed you'll get away with an integrated intel but an 8400M GS would probably enable a few extra pretties. An 8600M GT would allow to play any game out there but that'll push the budget up a little.
Also satan thats a pretty nifty thing there, I didn't know about that. I'll be purchasing a rather high end laptop later this year so that will help thanks
The only thing I don't like about EPP is you usually have to go to the XPS line to get any kind of dedicated graphics, which jumps up to $1000 as a baseline - even though other Dell sections will put an 8400/8600m in an Inspiron.
There should be some good inventory-clearing deals coming up soon though, as the gaming line of XPS is being shut down and the new line of Inspirons is rolled out.
I'd also take a look at Lenovo. The nVidia Quadro NVS 135/140 is designed for CAD/CAM, but for games is equivalent to an 8400m GS. Lenovo deals pop up on SlickDeals and FatWallet nearly as often as Dell ones.
I've never experienced getting the shaft from EPP, especially how you describe. Your mileage may vary, I guess?
You wouldn't be posting if you thought a simple upgrade would do the trick. Buy a new goddamed laptop, and make it a GOOD one. Get the absolute shizzle.
Don't rationalize. Don't worry. Your current shit is weak, and an upgrade is worth your time.
Best of all, you won't spend as much as you did last time.
Here's what you do. You donate your old laptop, and you claim $1000 of value on your taxes, which will lower your tax burden by $220-250. You take that money expectation, and the money you expected to pay on RAM (100-200), and you're already near $500. You take a few weeks worth of extra pay and you buy a kick ass laptop.
You know why?
Because you only live once, and you know this, and you're smart. Quit making do with bullshit. Just buy something that kicks ass already.
Screw tech specs, they're all available on TomsHardware... Just buy the most kick ass rig you can and start kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.
Yeah - I kid. A LITTLE BIT. A laptop is a one time thing, forget upgrade paths. Buy all the machine you can, because you'll love every minute of ownership if you do.
Yeah whatever, I'm buying the new laptop and going to spend my summer curbstomping locusts, grenade sticking the covenent, sniping terrorists and grinding Gnomregan. Farewell daylight...
Balance my friend, Balance. I think people think they have to do just one thing. Sure you won't be the best but you will be happier.