Tis the season to upgrade some parts...fa la la la la...

MichaelPM

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Dec 25, 2008
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Hello, :hello:

I bought my Sony Vaio VGN-FE28B laptop back in October of 2006 to cope better with Uni work and having to travel around between countries and houses. I need the laptop to run engineering related products such as AutoCAD, Solidworks, Microsoft Office, etc. and I do some light gaming/media player stuff in my spare time as well such as ripped DVD's (no point carrying around a bunch of movies and having the noise of the ROM spinning during play) and I tend to play half-life2/counterstrike source every so often.

I've upgraded from XP to Vista Ultimate not long ago and I feel it runs pretty well although it is eating my 1gb of ram and I find my HDD to be a bottleneck when it comes to transferring files or any kind of scanning.

Enough about me, lets get to the nitty gritty (Detailed CPUID dump can be posted if anyone is interested enough)

<<< System Summary >>>

> Mainboard : Sony Corporation VAIO

> Chipset : Intel i945PM

> Processor : Intel Core Duo T2300E @ 1666 MHz

> Physical Memory : 1024 MB (2 x 512 DDR2-SDRAM )

> Video Card : NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400

> Hard Disk : HTS541010G9SA00 (100 GB)

> DVD-Rom Drive : SONY DVD RW DW-G520A ATA Device

> Monitor Type : Nvidia Defaul - 15 inches

> Network Card : Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG

> Network Card : Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection

> Operating System : Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate Professional 6.00.6001 Service Pack 1

> DirectX : Version 10.00

> Windows Performance Index : 3.3


RAM!
Basically I'm looking at all aspects I could possibly upgrade.
So far I have found this Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 200-Pin SODIMM Dual Channel Kit seems to fit in perfectly as a memory upgrade. Optimized for vista? either way the only other choice on that site seems to push at being upgrades for apples.

HDD!
I also see the Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200RPM SATA-II 16MB Cache as a good way to upgrade from the current 100GB 5400rpm drive I have suffered with so far. I think 140GB would be enough for me if its the fastest I can possibly get but I might buy bigger if its the same speed and not much more expense. SSD certainly does not seem practical just yet and I have doubts if OCZ's sata-II dependant SSD's would be compatable meaning there is not much point in having one if I cant utilise its full potentional.

CPU!
I have now switched my attentions to the processor. I have built systems a few years ago so I'm fine with replacing processors but I have been lost in the new tech. Also I have done BIOS updates before but never for latest tech or a laptop with only a DVD drive available as an alternative boot device with no floppy drive. So any suggestions on just what this motherboard could possibly handle?

GPU!
Go 7400...yea its not great and I would upgrade if I thought it was 100% possible, anyone any thoughts on if its a stand alone or some kind of integrated deal? I have not gotten the courage or time to open up my lappy to check out the topography of my motherboard. This part is ofcourse is what has dictated my 3.3 windows performance index.


I've been happy with my lappy for many years, I just think its time it got faster and capable of running some things smoother so suggestions and pointing me towards websites (anyone got one that can tell what mainboards can handle what processors/gpu's?) or can tell me what's the best components I can upgrade to, I would be very much welcome. 99% of the time I have it plugged in and sitting on an Akasa laptop cooler so power consumption or heat is not a massive issue for me.



Looking forward to your replies. :bounce:
 

cheaptofix

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Dec 15, 2008
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nope autocad wont run on a laptop. you'll need a desktop with quad core realy to get this done fast. mobility is not good but still it'll do better and it's just a monitor, case and few cables so as long as you have a power socket where u go u can take it.

my recommendation besides a pc is any laptop that is toshiba or dell. anything else is crap yes even sony, people worship sony but sony is rabish
at making fast laptops. but they're realy good at pricing them so high
 

MichaelPM

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Dec 25, 2008
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Well first of all I have worked with both AutoCAD and Solidworks on my laptop and for bearing housings up to 3D assemblies of a rear swing arm for a solar car including a hub motor...sure the detail/surfaces can make it a slide show but its about designing instead of looking pretty or realistic. I will admit I cannot import a full assembly of an Airbus A380 but that is unlikely to happen working from home or abroad.

Thank you for the recommendations of Toshiba and Dell (XPS I assume?) but a new laptop is not an option I am willing to look at yet.
 

dwellman

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Dec 14, 2002
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The only real knock is the chipset may or may not be able to handle a Core 2. If it is limited to Core, then we are fairly of the mind that the CPU is not really worth upgrading as it is now three generations old (Core 2, i7).

What you have to think of is ROI. I disagree that you need multiple cores and gobs and gobs of RAM to run AutoCAD well. SolidWorks is a different thing entirely, but we've run the sucker on an old Athlon 2500+ With 2 GB DDR, but we did have a rather unimpressive nVIDIA Quadro 5xx. . . but it still ran.