Revitalizing a Laptop: What should I get

[newtekie1]

Does the fan even spin up at idle? There's a good chance that it's intentionally letting the temps get up that high for the sake of battery life. It takes energy to run that fan, after all.

I was just going to say this. And we also need to take into account that this is a true quad-core i7, not the normal i7 that comes in most laptops which is really an i3 with an i7 badge stuck on it. Idle temps are never something I'm concerned about, because every manufacturer handles their idle fan curve differently. All that matters is that it isn't overheating under load.

 

[brandonwh64]

I have a 3 year old second gen I7 mobile card with a mobile AMD HD6850 and it pepped up great with an upgrade to 8GB DDR3 and a 256GB SSD. It has been the best laptop I have had yet! I still play some games on it when I am away from home.

 

[PLSG08]

Don't buy a RAM kit, just drop in extra RAM. Just be sure to check RAM compatibility if there is a list for your model. Some laptops are picky about RAM type/make/model.

I actually went to the store and asked if they had another 4gb ram. They showed me one for around $20. I was about to buy it but then the sale clerk said that my laptop might not boot if I use it since its 1333. I told him I'll come back.

as for the SSD, I guess I'll do that last. If I go to the SSD Route I'd like to get a 512gb but they're pretty expensive atm.

For the fan, it spins at idle, but it's not audible. As I'm typing I have around 61 c with just firefox and itunes open. I usually play Assetto Corsa and Witcher 3. Temps hit around 90 at most.

 

[PLSG08]

I was just going to say this. And we also need to take into account that this is a true quad-core i7, not the normal i7 that comes in most laptops which is really an i3 with an i7 badge stuck on it.

Are these the i7 - XXXXu models? I was actually looking for a new laptop to see if I could get a new one with the same bargain as I got mine, but so far I haven't found one (this is under $1000 in the Philippine Market) Guess I'll just wait it out a little longer.

 

[newtekie1]

Are these the i7 - XXXXu models? I was actually looking for a new laptop to see if I could get a new one with the same bargain as I got mine, but so far I haven't found one (this is under $1000 in the Philippine Market) Guess I'll just wait it out a little longer.

They can be the U or M. The only ones that are really Quad-Cores have the letter Q in the model somewhere.

The i7-4600M is a dual-core, the i7-4700MQ is a quad-core. If it doesn't have a Q in the model, then it is an i3 with an i7 badge stuck on it.

 

[Frick]

With a quad core you'd have to pony up €1000 here, but then you'd have a worse construction. So yah probabaly not worth it unless you really need the gpu power.

 

[RejZoR]

I actually went to the store and asked if they had another 4gb ram. They showed me one for around $20. I was about to buy it but then the sale clerk said that my laptop might not boot if I use it since its 1333. I told him I'll come back.

as for the SSD, I guess I'll do that last. If I go to the SSD Route I'd like to get a 512gb but they're pretty expensive atm.

For the fan, it spins at idle, but it's not audible. As I'm typing I have around 61 c with just firefox and itunes open. I usually play Assetto Corsa and Witcher 3. Temps hit around 90 at most.

Speed is usually not an issue as it gets downclocked to speeds of the other RAM stick.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

500GB SSD + 16GB of RAM.

 

[Bill_Bright]

He told me he put in new paste but my guess is that its just cheap china brand paste.

I agree with RejZoR. Replacing the TIM (thermal interface material) would only give you a tiny bit of head room - nothing significant enough to relieve concerns of heat. If you "need" that tiny bit of improvement, you have a bigger problem than what is caused by the current TIM.

And contrary to what you may have heard, TIM does not need replacing just because it is old and dried out. TIM will easily last 10, 15 years or longer as long as the cured bond between the mating surfaces is not broken. Even if totally dry, the solid materials that remain are still occupying the microscopic pits and valleys preventing insulating air from getting inside - exactly what TIM is supposed to be doing. The liquid portion of TIM is really there just to make applying a thin, even layer easier. Once properly spread, dying out is no problem.

A properly applied, thin layer of plain ol' basic silicone "grease" is really all most users "need". Again, if you need more than the extra 5 or 10° the better TIMs may give you, you have other problems, like insufficient case cooling.

 

[jboydgolfer]

right now on newegg.com you can buy a Sandisk SSD 960Gb for 199$ just saying

 

[Bill_Bright]

Wow! FTR, that is a limited time, limit of 3 per customer deal so move fast if you want it.

It is deals like that that just keep convincing me I don't need hard drives anymore. Yeah, hard drives are still cheaper but when you spread the cost of the SSD over the life of the computer (especially if can factor in the lower power consumption and cooling costs) the cost of going all SSDs is well worth it.

 

[Vap0rX]

I have a 3 year old second gen I7 mobile card with a mobile AMD HD6850 and it pepped up great with an upgrade to 8GB DDR3 and a 256GB SSD. It has been the best laptop I have had yet! I still play some games on it when I am away from home.

I have Lenovo Y470. Sandybridge i7 with 8Gb RAM and AMD HD 7670. So far MX100 ssd works wonder but for some reason it runs really really really hot. Hovering easily around 70's.
Also experiencing stuttering when doing any disk intensive task like playing YouTube video and copying files within the ssd.

 

[trog100]

for what its worth i have just tweaked up an old Lenovo X61 tablet machine.. 2006 technology..

2 gigs of DDR 2 memory 7200 100 gig hardrive 1.6 gig core 2 duo running windows vista.. as slow as sh-t.. over two minutes to boot.. it was also a fairly fresh vista install..

i gave it two more gigs of memory a 1 T transend ssd and installed windows 10.. it hard to believe its the same machine.. its now quite spritely..

trog

 

[PLSG08]

Sorry to dig this out of the grave. I think its better this way than making a new thread

It's been a while but I wasn't able to buy ram back then because priorities but now I'm able to. I was asking around again and now They're selling low voltage ram. They're pretty cheap and the specs are identical to normal ram. Just curious if it's usable in my system. The sales clerk we're all like "oh you might blow your system" and what not and kept pushing me to buy the more expensive ram (which is twice/thrice the price)

sorry if I dug this out again. Would like to hear some inputs. Thanks!

 

[xvi]

From what I've heard, DDR3L needs to not explode if run at "high" voltages. As far as I know, it'll take advantage of it if it can, otherwise it'll run at normal voltages.

 

[ASOT]

Like Bill sayd go with 8Gb of ram.