Viper I upgrading?

[General_PIG]

Hi I bought the Viper I at the start of this year with the following specs in the hopes of playing all the new games coming out this year. Unfortunately it was not enough!!

Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile T9600 (2.80GHz) 1066MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM) 4GB CORSAIR DDR3 1066MHz SODIMM
Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 230M PCI Express
2nd Graphics Card 250MB NVIDIA GeForce 9100M G
Memory - Hard Disk 320GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 2x SATA BLURAY ROM + 8x DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer & 16x CD-RW

Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

Not sure if its because I've not set up my SLi system properly because I don't know how to use it!
I was just wondering if this model had expansion capabilities for a 2nd graphics card, more RAM (two 4MB sticks), and whether my processor would be fast enough to handle it all. Finding games like Civ V and Starcraft 2 to be a bit laggy when pushed up to ultra high specs. And if so whether PCspecialist would be able to help me make them.

Any help/advice is appreciated,

General_PIG

"Live to play. Or play to live?"

 

[PCS]

Welcome to our forums

Your laptop uses Nvidia Hybrid power as opposed to SLi to give extra performance in gaming, but either way this laptop is not designed to run the latest games on their maximum settings. It will play the games fine on lower settings.

I think the maximum RAM supported by this chipset is 4GB, and the processor you have selected is already very powerful, so there's not much point spending hundreds of pounds to upgrade it. If you wish to upgrade, the best option is to replace the hard drive and install an SSD. There's an easy way to do this with a Kingson SSD which includes duplication software to copy all the data across to your SSD from your hard drive, and an enclosure for your old hard drive to turn it into an external drive, making the swap out seamless: http://www.kingston.com/ukroot/ssd/v_series.asp?id=2

 

[General_PIG]

hmm

thanks for the fast reply so if i wanted to be able to play on higher graphic settings would getting a faster reading hard drive improve frame rates in "high" settings? or is that mainly limited by the graphics card and RAM on board? (given that the processing speed is adequate)

I really would just like to be able to play games on medium/high settings without suffering stuttering frame rates when high demand effects are displayed. Currently i'm required to play on "low" in most games to avoid this and hence losing out on the graphics they have to offer.

 

[Sleinous]

Limited by the basic gpus. Never heard of this non sli thing. Seriously two gpu chips on one mainboard? ouch! Is one MXM or something? Pre-200, 300, 400 series gpus were classed like this 9100-9400 desktop use, 9100 being most basic. 9400 can attack low end games. 9500-9800 are all gaming gpus, higher is better. Same applies to that 230M its a low end chip.

 

[General_PIG]

Pre-200, 300, 400 series gpus were classed like this 9100-9400 desktop use, 9100 being most basic. 9400 can attack low end games. 9500-9800 are all gaming gpus, higher is better. Same applies to that 230M its a low end chip.

Well that was all that was available at the time i bought it in Dec 2009. I did do a background check on the 230M with NVIDIA which said it was a mid-high range chip. the whole rig cost me just over £1k in total. think i've been conned?

 

[Sleinous]

Haha, more mid than high. Yeah 1k will get u the Gtx460m now that is high, 2k will get u the 480m

 

[PCS]

Well that was all that was available at the time i bought it in Dec 2009. I did do a background check on the 230M with NVIDIA which said it was a mid-high range chip. the whole rig cost me just over £1k in total. think i've been conned?

No, you haven't been conned! The Viper chassis is designed as an all roud desktop replacement laptop. It's suitable for gaming, just not on the maximum settings. If you wish to play the latest games on maximum settings I would recommend a desktop PC as opposed to a laptop.