How upgradable are laptops?

barginboyrob

hi, i was thinking of buying a laptop but am just wondering whether laptops can be upgraded with Ram or new graphics cards without affecting the warranty

thanks

nickmack

Laptops can always be upgraded with more RAM.

The Graphics Card is often not possible, so it's recommended you get the best you can afford for your useage.

ManAtHome

RAM is about the only internally upgradeable bit (you can upgrade the hard drive, but you need to format/load the new one in an external enclosure). No impact on warranty for RAM upgrades although may be a few tricky questions if you try fitting the extra with a hammer and mole-grips...

barginboyrob

So you can't buy laptop graphics cards seperately from anywhere?

thanks

Kilty_2

Nope.

RAM, HDD and CPU can all be upgraded by the user. CPU could have some warranty implications though .

nickmack

As I said before, get the best graphics card you can afford in a laptop for that reason.

Laptops generally speaking are not designed for games and for this reason and others such as heat saving, graphics cards tend to be low spec.

There are now some laptops which are billed as games laptops, but they are quite pricey.

nearlyrich

Often laptops use shared memory for graphics applications which means they can't be upgraded.

It's possible to get large hard drives on laptops and it's preferable to get as much as you need at the start.

Kilty_2

CPU in my Dell can be removed without stripping the machine right down, there's a hatch on the base for it

Not really economical though.

johnmcn

High end laptops have replaceable graphics cards but they are expensive.