Anyone Have Any PC/Laptop Upgrading Experience?

[KyCatFan]

I've been out of the computer game for a while. I used to keep up with all of that stuff. I am trying to hold off on getting a new PC/Laptop and just upgrade the current laptop I own. The only upgrades I can really do are the RAM and M.2 SSD. I currently have 12GB of RAM and only a 256GB M.2.

Current Processor - 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1155G7 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Current RAM - 12GB DDR 4 (?) 3200Mhz
Current M.2 - NVMe SK hynix BC711 HFM256GD3JX013N

According to my research, that processor supports up to 64GB of RAM. So I had this in mind.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08C4X9VR5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

This seems to be a compatible M.2.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CJRTVLJ2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A35WBLVWI03KEF&th=1

Since the laptop only has one storage device (the M.2), I guess this would work to clone the current drive and swap it out.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNFH1PX/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A41S1C1L96T2O&psc=1

Any issues with what I'm trying to do? I appreciate any help I can get.

 

[RunninRichie]

I build gaming desktops. What laptop do you have?


Your processor has DDR4 support. So the ram should be fine. Just make sure you slot it dual channel. It also has PCIE gen 4 support. So the SSD should work as well. I recommend using clonezilla to clone the SSD with that adapter you linked. Of course, you could also reinstall windows 10/11 if there's nothing you care to lose. Just relog into your accounts and what not. But if you care about losing files you can clone the drive.

 

[KyCatFan]

I build gaming desktops. What laptop do you have?


Your processor has DDR4 support. So the ram should be fine. Just make sure you slot it dual channel. It also has PCIE gen 4 support. So the SSD should work as well.

It's nothing special. Says the model is HP 15-dy4xxx. It runs decent most of the time, but when I run some 3d printer slicing programs, it can bog down a bit.

 

[HymanKaplan]

Ditto. You should be fine.

(And second on the clonezilla)

 

[RunninRichie]

It's nothing special. Says the model is HP 15-dy4xxx. It runs decent most of the time, but when I run some 3d printer slicing programs, it can bog down a bit.

Yeah. Sounds like you just need some better ram. Not sure if the included SSD is faster than the one you linked. But I assume with only 250gs and a 400 dollar price point it's pretty slow. It doesn't even list the SSD brand on the amazon page. So I assume it's some cheap chinese SSD. If you're using 3d programs I'd recommend maxing the ram out. Since it can support 64G i'd get 64. Those programs are ram hogs and need as much memory as they can get. Just make sure you get a 2x32 kit and slot it dual channel.

 

[KyCatFan]

It actually runs pretty well most of the time. Just struggles a bit on the slicing. Sometimes it runs solid using Cura or Orcaslicer and other times it's painfully slow. Right now I got the laptop running as basically a PC with it shut and running an exterior monitor with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I have a 256GB micro sd card in it as well to help with storage. A 2TB SSD will be an awesome upgrade. I'll take a look at the 2x32GB RAM sticks as well.

If I can swing it, I'd like to try and build one of those $600 ish gaming PC's. Not really for heavy gaming. I use consoles for that. Just want it to be able to be well rounded for lots of uses. I know video cards are stupidly expensive these days. That is probably where you have to sacrifice a bit for that price. I've never built a PC before so any suggestions on a solid budget build would be great. I've only done some upgrades in the past.

 

[HymanKaplan]

A high end gaming PC is probably the only "type" that you can build and save money on. Building PC's is NOT difficult, but for general use, it's damn near impossible (in my experience) to save any money, as opposed to purchasing online/looking for sales.

 

[RunninRichie]

A high end gaming PC is probably the only "type" that you can build and save money on. Building PC's is NOT difficult, but for general use, it's damn near impossible (in my experience) to save any money, as opposed to purchasing online/looking for sales.

Yeah. Only build a PC if you want a serious workstation or a gaming platform. For general office use a prebuilt will do just fine.

 

[BC_Wader]

I remember Dad and I building our gaming computers so we could run the original Far Cry game and also Painkiller. I miss those gaming days. I haven't had a desktop in ages it seems.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I build gaming desktops that are really just high-powered spank stations.

FIFY.

 

[KyCatFan]

Well I was able to swap out the RAM and M.2 drive. Was a bit nervous about pulling the laptop apart. Wasn't bad when I was just swapping the parts out.

Unfortunately I had a few issues. First I couldn't get the laptop to recognize the M.2 in the external drive. Tried a Samsung SSD and same issue. Tried the Samsung hooked to my phone and was able to format it and be recognized when I hooked it back up to the laptop.

Tried the same thing with the external M.2 hooked to my phone and it worked as well to get it recognized by the laptop. Then after swapping everything, it was only showing what the space I had on the old drive.

Ended up having an issue with unallocated space that had a recovery partition between it and the Windows partition. Had to do a lot of research to figure out that I had to open the command prompt and delete that recovery part and then I was able to expand it to use the unallocated space.

Everything is working now but I can't get it to create a recovery drive in case something happens. I guess that partition I deleted caused that.

 

[KyCatFan]

Ended up doing a $1k build. Turned out pretty good. Ignore the cable running across the top. Don't have the PC where I want it yet and was just testing it there.

I know the fans and lights are a bit excessive but what the heck. You can't have to much good airflow. The only issue is the RAM and CPU cooler lights are not synced up. Plus a couple of the intake/exhaust fans need to be turned to match up with the others. The specs are similar to a prebuilt I saw at Best Buy. Did this one for like $500 less than that one.

 

[entropy13]

@KyCatFan, looks like you kinda half-assed it by not building a mineral oil cooled system:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/mineral-oil-pc/

😆

J/K, of course. Yours looks cool.

@RunninRichie, what in your opinion is a good value for a fairly high-end gaming laptop?

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I'll probably look on building a new rig in the coming years.. Ahem sorry, spank station.

 

[KyCatFan]

@KyCatFan, looks like you kinda half-assed it by not building a mineral oil cooled system:

https://www.pugetsystems.com/mineral-oil-pc/

😆

J/K, of course. Yours looks cool.

@RunninRichie, what in your opinion is a good value for a fairly high-end gaming laptop?

I thought about a water cooling system, but I don't know anything about them. I'm sure there's extra maintenance involved with them compared to just fans and I'm lazy. I doubt I'll be doing any overclocking. Plus was trying to keep cost down. Still need to download some games to test it out. Waiting for my 1440p monitor to show up.

 

[LineSkiCat14]

I thought about a water cooling system, but I don't know anything about them. I'm sure there's extra maintenance involved with them compared to just fans and I'm lazy. I doubt I'll be doing any overclocking. Plus was trying to to keep cost down. Still need to download some games to test it out. Waiting for my 1440p monitor to show up.

I always felt Water Cooling was more about vanity and "coolness" than actually providing value. Unless you're really doing some overclocking and compute, I don't think it's necessary. Plus when you've worked in datacenters for almost 15 years, you realize how water (condensation) and computing, just don't go well together. I'd be too nervous to mess around with water cooling in a machine I just spent $2,000 on.

 

[RunninRichie]

I always felt Water Cooling was more about vanity and "coolness" than actually providing value. Unless you're really doing some overclocking and compute, I don't think it's necessary. Plus when you've worked in datacenters for almost 15 years, you realize how water (condensation) and computing, just don't go well together. I'd be too nervous to mess around with water cooling in a machine I just spent $2,000 on.

Water cooling is just something you do because you have cash to blow. You have to worry about leaks and things too. Air cooling is fine for most builds. CPU cooling depends on the CPU. You may want an AIO on some chips. But custom loop is a rich man’s toy. You can find tons of videos where people’s custom loops just leaked, for no reason.

 

[IdaCat]

My last build was about a year and a half ago. Gigabyte Z790 MB with wifi, Intel Core I5 13600K 13th gen Raptor, AIO CPU cooler, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, a couple of SSDs, 1000W Gold PS, Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case. Installed an inexpensive SATA HD for bulk storage needs.

Went with a Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card which will probably handle any game I would want to play at higher settings. I usually go Nvidia, but the price/performance on this Radeon was unbeatable. At the time, higher end video cards were scarce and expensive.

Chose the I5 because it's powerful enough to do anything I need over the lifespan of the system and generates less heat than an I7/I9 which would be overkill.

The AIO cooler is fully integrated and requires no maintenance. They CAN fail (leak), but the risk seems very low for that. Excellent cooling and I think it's a little quieter than CPU fan coolers. This system is dead quiet with basic use. The fans spin up and it generates heat during high-end gaming, but it's reasonable and normal.

Mine has all the eye candy lighting, but I find it distracting and only use them for system notifications.

I spent a little over $2K total for the HW. Had zero issues and it's been completely stable so I'm happy. Oh, I'm using Winblows 11 Pro 64bit O/S.

I do a deep dive into current tech to be informed before each build.

To help organize and price out your build, PCPartsPicker is very handy.

 

[KyCatFan]

My last build was about a year and a half ago. Gigabyte Z790 MB with wifi, Intel Core I5 13600K 13th gen Raptor, AIO CPU cooler, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, a couple of SSDs, 1000W Gold PS, Corsair iCUE 4000X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case. Installed an inexpensive SATA HD for bulk storage needs.

Went with a Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card which will probably handle any game I would want to play at higher settings. I usually go Nvidia, but the price/performance on this Radeon was unbeatable. At the time, higher end video cards were scarce and expensive.

Chose the I5 because it's powerful enough to do anything I need over the lifespan of the system and generates less heat than an I7/I9 which would be overkill.

The AIO cooler is fully integrated and requires no maintenance. They CAN fail (leak), but the risk seems very low for that. Excellent cooling and I think it's a little quieter than CPU fan coolers. This system is dead quiet with basic use. The fans spin up and it generates heat during high-end gaming, but it's reasonable and normal.

Mine has all the eye candy lighting, but I find it distracting and only use them for system notifications.

I spent a little over $2K total for the HW. Had zero issues and it's been completely stable so I'm happy. Oh, I'm using Winblows 11 Pro 64bit O/S.

I do a deep dive into current tech to be informed before each build.

To help organize and price out your build, PCPartsPicker is very handy.

I went with something similar. I got a Ryzen 5 7600X CPU with an RX 6800 16GB GPU and 32GB of DDR 5 (6000 MHz). Threw in a 2TB M.2 in it with room for 2 more of them. PSU is only an 850w Thermaltake 80+ Bronze semi-modular. I still haven't gotten around to finishing my Windows setup. I have to purchase the Home edition. Have you or anyone else bought one of those CD keys for Windows? Are they legit? Can get them for a fraction of the cost of what it costs through Microsoft.

 

[IdaCat]

I went with something similar. I got a Ryzen 5 7600X CPU with an RX 6800 16GB GPU and 32GB of DDR 5 (6000 MHz). Threw in a 2TB M.2 in it with room for 2 more of them. PSU is only an 850w Thermaltake 80+ Bronze semi-modular. I still haven't gotten around to finishing my Windows setup. I have to purchase the Home edition. Have you or anyone else bought one of those CD keys for Windows? Are they legit? Can get them for a fraction of the cost of what it costs through Microsoft.

I thought about the CD key option, but decided I didn't want to use my credit card on those sites. Also, Microsucks can kiss my ass, but I haven't rationalized honorably going around their scam yet.