Curse

TrilMadris · Feb 10, 2011, 01:34 AM // 01:34

I have a Toshiba model PSAFGU-020002 laptop that I am upgrading hardware on and need some advice. I'm not good at this stuff so please bear with me. I want to put a SSD and new graphics card (what is in it now is ATI Radeon X1200). What suggestions do you have on this? I am playing around with the thought of replacing the processor also (this currently has ATI Turlon 64). I was planning on getting a new pc, but that plan was shot to crap, so I am stuck with wiping this on clean and upgrading. Please, please, please and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Elder III · Feb 10, 2011, 04:28 AM // 04:28

sorry but you can't upgrade your laptop video card (integrated). Frankly, for the cost of the upgrades you are suggesting you could build a much better desktop.

Quaker · Feb 10, 2011, 03:21 PM // 15:21

Laptops are not as upgradeable as desktops. You can swap the hard drive for an SSD, but unless your laptop has an extra drive bay (not likely), you can't have both the SSD and the HDD.
The graphics in a laptop are often integrated into the chipset and can't be changed. Some have dedicated graphics "chips", but they are either mounted directly to the mainboard, or they are on a small proprietary daughter board. Sometimes, these models have a choice of graphics chips when they are purchased, but the choice is limited and you'd only be able to get those original choices - plus, they are relatively expensive and costly to replace.
A similar situation happens with the CPU. The cooling system for the laptop would only be designed to handle a narrow range of processors. The CPU choices would be limited and costly to replace.

Bottom line - You could "replace" the HDD with an SSD. You could add some RAM. That's about it.

Btw, there has been some attempts made to make a "standard" graphics "card" interface for laptops, but there isn't a real standard yet. Cooling is one of the problems.

P.S. - if you want to get an idea of what would be involved in replace your laptop's CPU or GPU, try disassembling it to have a look at them. WARNING - don't attempt if having a working laptop is important to you.

tijo · Feb 10, 2011, 04:49 PM // 16:49

I suggest you check this out: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hard...e-posting.html. Some of the info is a bit old but the general sense you'll get reading this is still valid.

Judging by the CPU and GPU, the laptop is a few years old, finding what components you could upgrade it with will be hard since it's outdated hardware and it could get a lot more expensive than you'd expect.

Elder III · Feb 10, 2011, 05:13 PM // 17:13

@ OP - #1 - Listen to Quaker, he's old and disgruntled and lives a hop skip and jump away from the North pole, but he knows what he's talking about.

#2 - On a personal note, I had a laptop back in 2006, which had a fried graphics chip and I wanted to see how much it would cost me to replace it and possibly upgrade the processor as well. Due to everything that Quaker mentioned, it was a pita to even find the correct parts without going to the manufacturer themselves. I eventually found the parts I needed... the performance gain would have been marginal (once again see what Quaker said about limited choices) and the cost was going to be over $540.00 + shipping..... and the same thing would have cost over $800.00 if I had gone through the manufacturer! In your case I believe you would have to replace the entire motherboard, which likely would cost quite abit more.

So to reiterate what I said last night - for the same amount of money you could build an entire desktop with much better performance. In fact you could build one for about $300.00 (not counting monitor, keyboard, mouse) that would destroy your laptop performance wise.

Quaker · Feb 11, 2011, 03:48 PM // 15:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elder III

@ OP - #1 - Listen to Quaker, he's old and disgruntled and lives a hop skip and jump away from the North pole, but he knows what he's talking about.

Lol! Or should I say Ho Ho Ho!

(I'm not quite sure I'd call Nova Scotia a hop, skip and jump away from the NP, but it's close enough - especially if I look outside today.

)