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Resolved Question

Laptop Upgrade Recommendations?

Mar 3, 2016 2:32PM PST

Hello, I'm wanting to upgrade components of my laptop to improve gaming performance. Any recommendations? Going external on components (ie. graphics card) and decreasing battery life is fine, as I'd just use it plugged in anyways. Also, I'm looking for bang-for-my-buck. Thanks.

Here are my specs:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.10586 Build 10586
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP Pavilion 17 Notebook PC
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU J9M13UA#ABL
Processor AMD A10-5745M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics, 2100 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. F.34, 2014-12-04
SMBIOS Version 2.8
Embedded Controller Version 90.53
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Mobile
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale Canada
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.10586.0"

Time Zone Central Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 12.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 11.2 GB
Available Physical Memory 6.20 GB
Total Virtual Memory 15.7 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.67 GB
Page File Space 4.50 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware No
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

Discussion is locked

jayjigit has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Re: upgrade laptop
Mar 3, 2016 2:43PM PST

One of the properties of a laptop that they have a very limited updatability. You can add RAM, and you can replace the hard disk by an SSD (if you don't have one already) or a larger HDD and that's about it.

You can't change a non-gaming laptop in a gaming laptop.

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thanks for response
Mar 3, 2016 2:46PM PST

learnin' the hard way :/

Thanks

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Answer
The AMD A10 is somewhat game capable.
Mar 3, 2016 3:17PM PST

It can game but you will find yourself setting it to low to medium settings. While no gain would be had by changing the HDD to some SDD (500GB models here run about 150 bucks) my son had a lesser AMD A8 for years and played the names you heard of many times. League Of Legends, etc.