Laptop

Furnace1987 · 25 Aug 2006 at 16:38

hey guys,

i'm going to uni (i guess finally.. having year off)

and so i'm getting a laptop, uncertain whether to go all out and get sli gfx. i have however been reading that you can change and update them, i'm just not 100% sure that what i read was right, i can't say i've heard of it before.

so please let me know your thoughts, if it's possible, if you know people who have and if so where can you buy the graphics chips.

cheers!

Fur :confused:

squiffy · 25 Aug 2006 at 16:45

No such thing as an upgradable laptop in the graphics department (as in no set standard and not as easy as a desktop)

Why do you need a gaming laptop for uni? Just buy the cheapest one that'll do office apps. It's just going to get knocked about anyway/nicked.

Furnace1987 · 25 Aug 2006 at 18:43

the one i'm looking at is better than my main rig!!!! :eek:

so.. that might be a reason

. thanks for informing me!

I might go for the Sli in it now..

.

if it is stolen, its all under insurance

Cheers again!

Fur

squiffy · 25 Aug 2006 at 18:46

A gaming laptop won't be as fast as a gaming rig, desktop hard drives are faster. So the bottleneck will be the HD...doesn't matter if the CPU/GFX are stonking, lots of RAM will help but when HD is accessed it will grind it a halt (I know, I have desktops and laptops)

TheVoice · 25 Aug 2006 at 20:36

A large, bulky SLI notebook seems pointless - it's never going to be as good as a desktop, in that it won't be as cheap or easy to upgrade, won't be as comfortable to use, and you're still going to need extras to get the best out of it (like a mouse and speakers).

It'll also be less useful as an actual notebook - it'll be bigger, heavier, and have poor battery life compared to a more "normal" notebook.

Doesn't seem worth it to me. Would rather have a decent gaming PC, and a decent (or even cheap) non-gaming notebook.

Freakish_05 · 25 Aug 2006 at 21:04

squiffy said:
A gaming laptop won't be as fast as a gaming rig, desktop hard drives are faster. So the bottleneck will be the HD...doesn't matter if the CPU/GFX are stonking, lots of RAM will help but when HD is accessed it will grind it a halt (I know, I have desktops and laptops)

The man speaks truth.

XP2600, 1GB DDR outperformed AMD64 3000+, 1GB DDR
cause...
hdd in xp rig 10000rpm
hdd in AMD64 rig 5400rpm

If you want to game on a lappy make sure you get 2gb of ram and dedicated graphics memory. At least then your only problem should be loading maps

Furnace1987 · 26 Aug 2006 at 00:10

i have a 1gb ram atm. and the hard drive is a 7200 sata

not going for the sli, i'll be happy with the 7900 gs. it'll do! not the best you can get for it, could get the GTX in but it'll be fine!

cheers for clearing it up!

Fur

stuppy · 26 Aug 2006 at 01:28

LOL

Pointless thread really? Didn't look like you ever read anything anyone put.

Furnace1987 · 26 Aug 2006 at 10:33

Freakish_05 said:
The man speaks truth.

XP2600, 1GB DDR outperformed AMD64 3000+, 1GB DDR
cause...
hdd in xp rig 10000rpm
hdd in AMD64 rig 5400rpm

.... i think i did read it, the rig this guy quoted stated that the laptop drive is 5400, that's the issue anymore, harddrive have moved and you can now get 7200. so the gap isn't has much.

yes its no raptor drive, but surely it's got to be worth something, i mean if you can get sli in a laptop with the same graphics you get in a desktop. for example, the next model up laptop you can get Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GTX SLI Enabled, surely this is something to look at. still being able to overclock it, temperatures might be an issue, but it would take on the xp rig stated before.

the top has AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache with 2gb of ram yes only 400mhz (would limit i accept that) and the dual gfx as stated above. and a raid set up of raid 0 with two 100 gb 7200 drives. as it stands is better than most desktop gaming rigs.

the only real limitation is of course upgrading certain things... which nicely brings me on to my original question. is it possilbe to add another graphics chip to a laptop that has a free pci-16 slot?

i've googled and apparentely it is. i just wanted to ask you guys to see if you had heard anything.

the site i read it from is this .. well as per usal you cant find the site again when you need it

. but it was there. they were discussing the ability to change or add graphics. i'm sure one person must have heard of it. any thoughtss?

fur

Beansprout · 26 Aug 2006 at 10:38

You won't enjoy carrying a big beast of a laptop around, and you won't like it getting knocked and bashed....so think again before buying this uberl33t machine

squiffy · 26 Aug 2006 at 10:51

Furnace1987 said:
.... i think i did read it, the rig this guy quoted stated that the laptop drive is 5400, that's the issue anymore, harddrive have moved and you can now get 7200. so the gap isn't has much.

yes its no raptor drive, but surely it's got to be worth something, i mean if you can get sli in a laptop with the same graphics you get in a desktop. for example, the next model up laptop you can get Dual 512MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GTX SLI Enabled, surely this is something to look at. still being able to overclock it, temperatures might be an issue, but it would take on the xp rig stated before.

the top has AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache with 2gb of ram yes only 400mhz (would limit i accept that) and the dual gfx as stated above. and a raid set up of raid 0 with two 100 gb 7200 drives. as it stands is better than most desktop gaming rigs.

the only real limitation is of course upgrading certain things... which nicely brings me on to my original question. is it possilbe to add another graphics chip to a laptop that has a free pci-16 slot?

i've googled and apparentely it is. i just wanted to ask you guys to see if you had heard anything.

the site i read it from is this .. well as per usal you cant find the site again when you need it . but it was there. they were discussing the ability to change or add graphics. i'm sure one person must have heard of it. any thoughtss?

fur

Laptop upgradable GFX is on MXM / MXM II cards, in theory they're available and can be replaced. However in practice it's not so. You could need a higher capacity battery, update the laptop BIOS with a editted BIOS (see M70? Dell) a higher capacity power supply, and also constraints on the cooling ability of your laptop.

So don't expect to buy a laptop hoping it's upgradeable in the graphics department. They're not. HD/memory is basically about it for most people.

Just buy a £400 "office" laptop, and a MATX + 17" TFT for games and mass storage. Both will cost less a single gaming laptop which'll get nicked.