Upgrading my laptop

mohammadk97

I was thinking of updating my laptop, my specs are:
-Intel core i3
-ATI radeon HD 5470
-3GB ram
-32-bit

How much intel core i7 cost here? and for 1 GB ram? And what are the features and negative of 64-bit and do you recommend me to make it 64-bit? And does someone know when windows 8 will come out?

shant

hi mohammad, im not sure if you can upgrade that into an i7, can you check your chipset?
graphic cards are not upgradable in laptops (very few ones do, even if yours could you wouldn't find a replacement in lebanon)
the ram doesn't seem to be upgradable either unless you remove 1GB (because you probably have 2 ram sloths with 1x2GB and 1x1GB installed)
as for 32x and 64x, the easiest way to explain is that the 32x supports 4GB of ram maximum and the 64x supports a lot more (not sure the limit of 64x)
anyway you should note that 64x windows is slower than 32x, that again you shouldn't see performance decrease on the i series of processors, the core 2 series seemed to be slowing down on 64x unless they were 3.0Ghz+
good luck

AvoK95

As I recall, you Had a Toshiba C660 or C665. These models are not i7 ready , and also you can't buy a processor for a laptop(At least in Lebanon) You have to buy it from someone who has a dead laptop.
As for the ram, as Shant said, you need to remove 1GB and replace it with another 2Gb or replace both with 2x4GB.
You also need to install a 64-bit Windows (You will be forced to remove the factory genuine Windows)
Graphic cards are not upgradable if its a budget or low-end laptop (Which yours is)
Note that if you upgrade your laptop or remove the Windows you will void its warrenty.

I suggest that you don't upgrade anything. Your specs are enough to provide good performance on anything. Even Windows 8.
But if you're not happy with its performance then I suggest you to buy a higher end laptop because frankly , the series that you are using are not build for performance, the C series are all made for budget home/office computing.

Brashen

Main reason why you can't upgrade your processor is that the i3s and the i7s have different sockets. the i7s have LGA 1366 while the i3s have 115.

But I don't see why you'd want to change your processor as the i3s are very good. What is that your using the laptop for? If it's gaming you just need to upgrade your GPU and RAM modules. But you'd have to check whether your motherboard will handle the extra stuff you want to throw in. I'd go with what AvoK95 said and just get a higher end laptop or better yet a desktop and keep this one as a travel companion.

Windows 8 wont be out for awhile yet and plus will probably be less stressful on your hardware since it's being designed to work on tablets as well.

Goodluck.

yasamoka

The i3's and i7's on laptops usually have different sockets from the desktop versions. Only the highest-end laptops that come with desktop chipsets and sockets support those i3s and i7s (fitting an i3 to such a laptop is a moot point, but anyways).

Other than that, it's been pretty much wrapped up. Some laptops come with their chips soldered on to the board, while others are replaceable. In such cases, the problem becomes finding a chip that is:

1) compatible with your socket
2) compatible with your chipset
3) Fits within the power limits of the laptop (so that it does not stress the power circuitry)
4) can be purchased on its own
5) can be found in Lebanon (dead laptop)

This goes for CPUs mostly. Add-in laptop GPUs are usually placed on a separate board, just like a desktop graphics card, able to connect to the laptop via a specific interface (not sure if it uses PCI-E). 3,4,5 apply to add-in laptop GPUs.

mohammadk97

So I can't upgrade my CPU :( Oh well, I still can upgrade to 4Gb ram. Does someone know if windows 8 will come out this year or the next? And one more question, how come when I play modern warfare 3, with MAXIMUM graphic settings, it never slows, but when I play other games with equal graphics or less it gets slow?

AvoK95

mohammadk97 wroteSo I can't upgrade my CPU :( Oh well, I still can upgrade to 4Gb ram. Does someone know if windows 8 will come out this year or the next? And one more question, how come when I play modern warfare 3, with MAXIMUM graphic settings, it never slows, but when I play other games with equal graphics or less it gets slow?

Upgrading to 4GB is not worth it.
My personal laptop has 3GB aswell and I never upgraded it to 4GB.
Adding more ram will NOT increase performance it will just give you the ability to open more applications and 3GB is more than enough.
If you are going to upgrade to 4GB you need to remove the 1X1GB stick and install a 1x2GB, and this will void your warranty (If it hasn't expired)

You can game MW3 on Maximum because it's not a heavy game. It also depends on how other games are optimized to run at your laptop screen resolution.
The other games might be heavier then MW3 and might still show the same graphics. This is caused if it's not optimized.

Finally, Windows 8 will be released in 2013. It requires less specifications than Windows 7 so you don't need to upgrade the laptop for it.

Whatever upgrade you get on your laptop , you're not gonna have any advantage of it.

mohammadk97

Thanks, I'm not going to upgrade anything for now, I'm going to wait till I get to college so I can buy a new laptop.

shant

let me clear what avo said, game speed does not rely on optimization of your resolution of your screen

there are games with higher graphics than others that run blazing fast, and other games that have less graphics and run really slow, there's so many reasons for that, one of them would be the optimization, not on resolution, but on resources of your computer and how well the game is coded
another reason would be, how much physics is there in the game (regardless of how bad graphics looks)
also lighting etc..
anyway i hope you got my point