boosting my laptop? any help woud be great!

[delsaber]

Hi Guys

I have an acer 9810 laptop which i love but it has two drawbacks IMO which are the weight (which i expect because of the beast it is) and the RAM which is only 1gig!

I am running vista with the following specs

Product Description - Acer Aspire 9813WKMi - Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66 GHz - 20.1" TFT
Dimensions (WxDxH) - 47.5 cm x 35.2 cm x 6.2 cm
Weight - 7.8 kg
Localisation - United Kingdom
Platform Technology - Intel Centrino Duo
System Type - Notebook
Built-in Devices - Stereo speakers, subwoofer, wireless LAN aerial, Bluetooth aerial
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.66 GHz ( Dual-Core )
Cache Memory - 2 MB - L2 Cache
RAM - 1 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR II SDRAM - 667 MHz
Hard Drive - 120 GB - Serial ATA-150
Optical Storage - DVD±RW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM - integrated
Display - 20.1" TFT active matrix 1680 x 1050 ( WSXGA+ ) - 24-bit (16.7 million colours)
Graphics Controller - NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 - 256 MB



Now the question. When i bought my laptop 8-10 months ago it was for various uses including world of warcraft which ran very easily of course but having quit that a few months ago i recently bought call of duty 4 after playing it on a mates xbox.

Now i know this laptop isnt designed to run games like this really well but after playing online at min settings Id like to try and speed it up a bit if possible. Ive been told i cant upgrade my graphics card but im not sure if there are any system tweeks i can try or any cheap upgrades (can get another gig of ram for about 20 quid but would it help?). My computer knowledge isnt great so i know you guys will be able to know if anything is possible so i can enjoy the awsome cod4 a bit more.

thanks alot!

 

[cjl]

Bumping the RAM is probably your best bet for increasing system performance, though make sure that you have a free slot before buying another gig (if you have 2x512MB right now, you need to buy a 2x1GB package instead).

 

[theworminator]

Yeah, you can upgrade RAM. As for system tweaks...well, there's a lot of sites that offer tips for streamlining the performance of Windows XP and Vista, so you could check those out. Things like reducing background processes, etc. but not much will greatly affect the performance of a game. RAM's your best choice for now.

A site similar to this (though I don't vouch for any of their tweaks) can be found all over the net.

http/www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2238&page=1

 

[killernotebooks]

GO RAM and processor if you can.
The components for the last gen of notebooks is so bloody cheap. I (and other system builders) have enormous amounts of this stuff laying around that you can get for pennies on the dollar. Ebay is your friend.

 

[delsaber]

ok thanks guys. gonna get a mate of mine to check out if its got dual 512 sticks or a single gig stick. hoping its a single gig then i can get another one put in quite cheaply.

played online with a pal last night and even his well specced pc was having some lag issues now and then.

thanks for the help

 

[killernotebooks]

If you need components shoot me an email... I have TONS!

Lag is generally caused by internet connection far more often than the CPU. Try it wired vs. wireless once.

 

[delsaber]

ah i see. our internet is a bit funny sometimes. I often get periods when it will say "this page cannot be displayed" so i have to refresh a few times until it shows up! ill give it a go with an ethernet cable and see if that helps.

and about the components what bits can i change because i know with laptops there some bits can be changed and others cant but im bit of a noob with todays tech compared to 5/6 years ago when i thought i knew everything! haha!

anything that isnt too costly that would help performance would be great

 

[killernotebooks]

Well the CPU and memory are more than likely upgradeable. Gone are the days of the soldered in CPU. They are both very easy to do and well within even someone without a lot of experience.

 

[delsaber]

ah great. didnt realise that.

what would be a good upgrade for the processor that you would recommend? is killernotebooks your shop or somethign then?

 

[delsaber]

just seen your post about your new laptop and looked at the site. some nice stuff there. been thinking about possibly dowgrading the size of mine because its great as a multimedia system because of the huge screen but weights 21 pounds! and lacks a little bit performance wise.

where do you find prices for your notebooks or is it with a phone call? guessing they will be a fair bit due to the specs though so the upgradign current one may be easier

 

[delsaber]

scrap that, was just the odachi that didnt have price. if i had not have bought my one id would have bought one of those bad boys! gutted! ah well. let me know about the processor or memory upgrades