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How to pimp-out an outdated laptop (ideas)

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by TheOneCactus, Mar 19, 2017.

  1. TheOneCactus

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    So assuming you have a school/old laptop that you want to speed up (for booting, playing games etc.) but dont know how to/ dont have a spair €350 lying around. Well here are some ideas:
    1.Easy: many laptops currently use HDD (hard disk drives) that are physical disks that your laptop reads to get information about the programs, files etc. However, you can easily upgrade your HDD to a SSD (solid state drive) which is digital, not physical compared to the HDD. If you replace your HDD with a SSD, you can expect load times to at least half or even decrease up to 1/5 of their original load speed. However, SSD cost more than HDDs for the same ammount of storage e.g. 1tb for HDD is about €45 wheras a 1tb SSD is about €150-200 so invest only if you want a faster load but less storage.
    2. V.Easy: Upgrade RAM. Upgrading RAM means better and faster program use as well as more programs being able to run without slowing your computer down. Just remember to check which DDR you have (DDR, DDR2 ,DDR3 or DDR4) and how much you have (1, 2, 4, 8gb) then buy preferably more RAM than you have now. if you have say 12gb of RAM then buying more doesnt really make sense as 12gb is quite alot for a laptop but make sure the RAM your buying is for laptops, not PCs (laptop RAM is smaller than pc RAM sticks)
    3.Hard-ish: Install heat sinks in your laptop. Now this really depends how much room you have in your laptop space-wise. I fitted with my old HP pavillion with very small heat sinks and gave it a noticbly cooler touch and sped the cpu up by 0.5 ghz, which is quite a bit, upgrade wise. essentially, heat sinks are metal blocks with spikes coming out of them (in laymans terms) that dissipate heat coming from your CPU and keep it from over heating. Heat sinks are generally used in PCs and high wattage electric systems tto keep them cool. Brands like Asus and Nvidia make the best quality heat sinks that are the best at keeping heat off as theyre made of graphite or alluminium but cheap heat sinks can be bought that are made of copper and work just as well. alternativly, if installing foreign peices of metal into your laptop doesnt take your fancy, you can cleane out your fan or buy a new one with higher wattage that will work better.
    4.V.Hard: Swapping out your CPU. agruably the best upgrade, Upgrading your CPU can immensly boost your performance. Some laptops however have soldered in CPUs which you MUST NOT unsolder. this can cause irreversable damage. If you are lucky enough to have a CPU that can easily come out, buying a new one is very easy. Just remeber to buy something that has better specs than your current CPU, otherwise theres no sense in upgrading. I also recomend INTEL skylake CPU as they have in-built graphic cards.
    please comment if I left something out!
     
  2. sonic1337111

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    It would fall under an impossible mark because everything that is inside can't be taken out of a laptop because the companies make two versions of their parts: One for desktop PC's and one for laptops. but you can't replace the laptop ones so it's best to just save up rather then attempting to upgrade it and potentially killing it
     
  3. tickabox

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    Some good ideas which someone brave enough and/or with the right knowledge can try. If I tried the last 2 I'd have to buy a new laptop. Although with your last point you should make sure you buy a CPU that will fit your motherboard as they are not universal one size fits all, but oh how easy life would be if they were.

    Better off just buying a new laptop or invest in a PC which can be fiddled about with.
     
    #3 tickabox, Mar 19, 2017
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  4. Makalaster

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    Everything in a laptop is in the motherboard other than the RAM (Random Access Memory) which doesn't really improve the visuals only how much stuff you can at once before your pc decides to crash. You need a dedicated video card.

    You could just upgrade your heat sink like you said and OC your cpu, but you have to make sure you have enough airflow in a laptop to support that. Usually thin laptops are not made for gaming and have poor air flow for the sake of portability.

    Like the poster above, it would more financially wise to build your own gaming PC or buy a laptop built for gaming albeit more expensive than a desktop.
     
    #4 Makalaster, Mar 19, 2017
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  5. dvxqnc

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    If you bought a bunch of computer parts, and replaced every part of the old laptop with a new one, would it be the same computer?