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Updating Laptops

B

Bojangles139

Senior member
so, is it possible? i had a dell 5000 a few years ago, and all icould upgrade was ram, HDD, and get new cdr's for the media bay. a friend says he can up grade his HP in a few years? is it possible to do it? if so, is it cost prohibative that stops people?

brandon
 
A few laptops have the CPU in a socket instead of being soldered to the motherboard, but that doesn't always mean a faster CPU will work: the new CPU may run too hot, or use a 533 or 800 fronstside bus when the motherboard or RAM only supports 400 MHz.

A few laptops have mini-AGP video cards, but that doesn't mean you will be able to upgrade either. Newer video cards may run too hot, use a different board layout that won't fit in the old case, or need an upgrade to the motherboard BIOS that will never be written for older laptop models.

So don't ever assume you'll be able to upgrade beyond whatever upgrades are available when the laptop is released (for example you buy a Dell i8233 with 1.8 GHz P4-M and know that they offer the exact same laoptop with 2.0 GHz). Even then, if you want to upgrade video make sure it is a card (not built into the mobo) and if you want to upgrade the CPU make sure it isn't soldered in place.
 
k, the same guy also told me of a laptop company that makes it so you can purchase a straight ATX format mobo and drop it into a laptop case they build. of couse you get wire's and converters to make it work he said, but i find it a lil bit of a stretch. it would certianly be thick laptop.

brandon
 
Originally posted by: Bojangles139
k, the same guy also told me of a laptop company that makes it so you can purchase a straight ATX format mobo and drop it into a laptop case they build. of couse you get wire's and converters to make it work he said, but i find it a lil bit of a stretch. it would certianly be thick laptop.

brandon
Click to expand...

whats the name of the company? That would definatly be cool, never heard of that before though.
 
he told me but i forgot, just kinda let him talk and i nodded my head and said "oh ya, cool". :-D i'll check with him again.

brandon
 
I ahve not heard of any company being able to do that. There was a company at Comdex which had what they called a laptop (looked like a desktop format though) which supposedly was upgradable. To me it looked like a slim desktop with an LCD monitor which folded up. I don't think that there are any laptops which are as upgradeable as what you would like.
 
Originally posted by: Dacalo
i heard sager laptops can be upgraded easily, so yes, some can be
Click to expand...


Just beacuase you "heard" doesn;t mean its true. Show us what you can upgrade on those laptops. It would be cool if you could add a new HDD, or Vid card.
 
I would only ever count on upgrading a laptop to components that were sold at the time you bought it.

Like if you got a dell Inspiron 8200 1.8/GF 440 with plans to pop in a 2.4GHz and radeon 9000 in it later when prices drop
 
Inspiron 5000 uses MMC2 type processor cartridge and could be upgraded to higher speed.
Also you can get DVD/CD-RW drice. What else you want to upgrade?
Look at dell's forums on their site - they have some info about this upgrade.
Inspiron Upgrade

I think it will be better to sell your old laptop and buy a new one and don't waist money on partial upgrades.
I have 3 year old P3-500 Inspiron 5000 and it works fine so far with original CPU.
 
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