upgrading the hardware in my laptop to meet the requirements to play computer games without any problems

symbiance

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Aug 4, 2014
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4,510
I have a HP Pavilion G7-1158NR laptop that i have put a 1tb hard drive in. It is a great computer with a few flaws that I would like to fix.

a couple flaws are: (in short)
1) internet speeds aren't up to par (which i believe is because of the network card)
2) 1 ADATA 2gb Memory card (I would like to upgrade it to the max 8gb, but a good brand)
3) make it video game optimized for steam games.

1)
I noticed that my laptop even though it is a wireless N card (and does this both on ethernet) it just can't go as fast as my speeds for my internet. at first i thought it was my internet was at fault. but then i found out it is just my laptop. I pay comcast for 105m internet (which comcast overprovisions so it is like 110 to 115). my laptop will only get 30m give or take, regaurdless of if i am on wifi or ethernet..

2) i got a 2gb memory card in my computer, what is a good brand that is better than ADATA that i can use. im thinking of upgrading to 2 4gb cards.

3) my laptop lags a good bit when i try to play games like Team fortress on its lowest setting. I tried a few different games, like Alan wake and it was virtually impossible to move a couple feet.
I wanted to know if it is possible for me to upgrade to a gaming specified video card with my laptop. i do need something that has HDMI..

 
1) Have you tried connecting with an Ethernet cable to see if speeds dramatically increase at all?
2) Looking at your laptop specs, HP does not specify how many RAM sticks it can have. I would by a 1x4GB stick of RAM for the laptop to replace the old 1x2GB. Make sure it is SD RAM.
3) Your graphics card is built into the processor so that would require a new processor, which would have to fit into the same motherboard socket. Also, if your processor is soldered to the motherboard it cannot be replaced.

Personally I think the RAM is causing your gaming slowdown mostly. Windows uses about 1.5GB of RAM at idle so a game would go last your 2GB limit. When that happens memory is paged, or it relies on the hard drive to store the temporary data instead of the RAM, and the hard drive can be very slow compared to RAM.
 

symbiance

Reputable
Aug 4, 2014
5
0
4,510
Yes It does not make a difference if I am running it through wifi or ethernet, same issues. i do believe it is because of hte network card.

after looking at my computer it has 2 RAM slots, a website i was on said it could get up to 8 gigs of ram (2x4gb)

that sucks about my laptop having the graphics card built in. i got a 6 year old Emachine that i don't know if its worth upgrading the parts in it to be slightly modern and optimized for gaming.