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Post by dragontartare on Nov 24, 2019 5:37:49 GMT
I hope it's ok to post this here. I am looking for some opinions as to whether I should upgrade the storage on my laptop or instead start saving money to get a new computer in a couple of years. I have an MSI GS70 2QE that I bought in 2015 with the following: Core i7-4720HQ CPU @ 2.60 Hz 16 GB RAM GeForce GTX 970M 512 GB SSD (though I think it's a 256 GB x 2 configuration) 1TB HDD The SSD houses the OS as well as all programs, while the HDD is for file storage. I have about 50GB free on the SSD, but only because I keep uninstalling games to keep some free space on there. I keep my favorite games installed so I can go back to them whenever I want, but there are quite a few games that I would love to go back and play (or even finish for the first time!) that I have uninstalled to make room for other things. I am considering replacing the HDD with a 2TB SSD so I can run games from it in addition to storing files. Crucial thinks that these will fit my computer, and I am considering this one specifically. However, given how old the computer is, I'm wondering if it's even worth it. I do want to keep this computer as long as I can, I don't mind lowering graphics settings on newer games, and it's otherwise running very well. However, internet searches suggest that the lifespan of a gaming laptop is only around 6 years before the graphics card can degrade. I'd hate to spend $200+ now on an SSD only to have the laptop crap out on me in a year or so. This is the only gaming laptop I have ever owned, so I don't really have anything to compare to. Previous budget and mid-range computers have lasted me 5-6 years on average before becoming unbearably slow. If I decide to do the upgrade, there is a local guy with excellent reviews who said he can do it, but he charges 35 USD pickup and delivery fee (he doesn't have a storefront, so he requires this) plus 70 USD per hour, and he thinks it would take up to an hour to do, including data transfer to the new drive. So, $105 for pickup, delivery, and the upgrade itself. I don't know if that's a fair price or not, but after watching a similar upgrade on YouTube for a similar model, I'm inclined to save that money and do the replacement myself. But maybe I'm missing something and it's a harder job than it looks. So...is the upgrade worth doing myself? Worth paying someone to do? Worth doing at all? Or should I just suck it up, uninstall and reinstall games as I play them, and just give up on keeping so many permanently installed?
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saandrig
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Post by saandrig on Nov 24, 2019 8:35:47 GMT
It all depends on multiple factors. First off, I gotta say - some games can be played from the HDD just as well as from the SSD. Loading times can often be about the same, depending on the game. So if you are comfortable with that, no need to upgrade. Otherwise go for that SSD upgrade. As who should make the upgrade, I honestly can't tell since I don't know your tech skills
A laptop can last longer than 6 years, depending how much it's being used and for what. If there is no sign of fatigue and you are happy with it's performance, keep going. It can always shut down and call it quits at any moment, but if you take care of it and watch it's performance (in games, regular use and with diagnostic tools) you should be aware of the warning signs.
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Post by dragontartare on Nov 24, 2019 22:18:38 GMT
It all depends on multiple factors. First off, I gotta say - some games can be played from the HDD just as well as from the SSD. Loading times can often be about the same, depending on the game. So if you are comfortable with that, no need to upgrade. Otherwise go for that SSD upgrade. As who should make the upgrade, I honestly can't tell since I don't know your tech skills
A laptop can last longer than 6 years, depending how much it's being used and for what. If there is no sign of fatigue and you are happy with it's performance, keep going. It can always shut down and call it quits at any moment, but if you take care of it and watch it's performance (in games, regular use and with diagnostic tools) you should be aware of the warning signs.
Thanks for the input! That's a good point about running some games from the HDD. I could move some of my older and less resource-intense games there to make space on the SSD. As far as my tech skills, I did RAM upgrades on two older laptops years ago, and that's about the extent of it. Those were pretty easy to do. I have opened up this laptop once to give the inside a good cleaning with compressed air. The running temperature dropped noticeably after that, so I should probably do it again anyway, and take a look at where the HDD is installed while I'm in there. Though, if anyone else reading this has done this before and has thoughts, I'm still open to them!
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Post by bmwcrazy on Jan 6, 2020 1:39:10 GMT
You should probably read this first before you decide. It seems like RAM, HDD, and SSD are all fairly easy to replace. It's all up to you whether or not you want to do it yourself.
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Post by DragonKingReborn on Jan 6, 2020 1:53:37 GMT
You should probably read this first before you decide. It seems like RAM, HDD, and SSD are all fairly easy to replace. It's all up to you whether or not you want to do it yourself. Can confirm. In laptops since the early 2010s at latest, HDD and SSD are interchangeable, using the same connection. For both the storage - whichever you have - and the RAM, you should need only a small headed screwdriver (usually phillips head or "cross head").
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Post by dragontartare on Jan 6, 2020 2:48:13 GMT
You should probably read this first before you decide. It seems like RAM, HDD, and SSD are all fairly easy to replace. It's all up to you whether or not you want to do it yourself. Thanks for the link! I did watch a video on YouTube, but it's helpful to have the written guide with pictures as well
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Sanunes
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Post by Sanunes on Jan 6, 2020 6:28:32 GMT
Another option if you care to try is looking into an external drive. Copy your games you are done with over to that and then copy them back when you want to play them again. That is what I do with my desktop PC. The trick is to start the download of the game again pause the download and then copy the files back to the laptop after closing the launcher, but with Steam its even easier for you just use the backup utility built into it.
That way if you go out and buy a new laptop down the road you can use the external drive with it.
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Post by Energizer Bunny 211 on Jan 11, 2020 0:51:20 GMT
I have a 2012 model HP ELiteBook 8570W that I bought for College because my dad's 2008 model ASUS that he loaned me was causing me major grief. My Elitebook was over 3000.00 brand new, but I got a cash-only (no tax) deal because we were good friends and longtime customers, so he gave it to me for 1200.00. It came with a garbage 500 GB Hitachi drive, which I soon changed out for a 1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD. It also came with 8 Gb of RAM which I upgraded myself to 16. Personally though, anything more than RAM or SSD swap-outs, I would not do myself only because the 'inner workings' are quite small and I have terrible fine-motor skills. I prefer working on full-size PCs where the parts are bigger. Sadly, it doesn't get much use these days because I have no space for it on my desk (my desk barely fits my 27 inch monitor and BOSE desktop speakers. No room for a 15.6 inch laptop as well.)
I love the HP 'business class' products (ie laptops or Dream Colour monitors), they're rock solid. And some of the older model Inkjet Printers are worth gold these days.....you could drop one from 10 storeys and it would probably still work just fine.
But if a "gaming laptop' is more your thing and along the lines of what you're looking for, I have heard that MSI makes amazing gaming laptops (though I personally wouldn't touch their desktop GPUS or motherboards, but that's just a perosnal preference). If I was a laptop gamer, I would choose MSI, ACER or Gigabyte.
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Post by dragontartare on Jan 11, 2020 1:39:36 GMT
Another option if you care to try is looking into an external drive. Copy your games you are done with over to that and then copy them back when you want to play them again. That is what I do with my desktop PC. The trick is to start the download of the game again pause the download and then copy the files back to the laptop after closing the launcher, but with Steam its even easier for you just use the backup utility built into it. That way if you go out and buy a new laptop down the road you can use the external drive with it. I actually didn't know it was possible to just copy programs around like that. Is that what the trick of starting the download is for? To force Steam or Origin or whatever to create some necessary files for the game? I already have an external drive, so this is definitely a solution worth looking into. I have a 2012 model HP ELiteBook 8570W that I bought for College because my dad's 2008 model ASUS that he loaned me was causing me major grief. My Elitebook was over 3000.00 brand new, but I got a cash-only (no tax) deal because we were good friends and longtime customers, so he gave it to me for 1200.00. It came with a garbage 500 GB Hitachi drive, which I soon changed out for a 1TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD. It also came with 8 Gb of RAM which I upgraded myself to 16. Personally though, anything more than RAM or SSD swap-outs, I would not do myself only because the 'inner workings' are quite small and I have terrible fine-motor skills. I prefer working on full-size PCs where the parts are bigger. Sadly, it doesn't get much use these days because I have no space for it on my desk (my desk barely fits my 27 inch monitor and BOSE desktop speakers. No room for a 15.6 inch laptop as well.) I love the HP 'business class' products (ie laptops or Dream Colour monitors), they're rock solid. And some of the older model Inkjet Printers are worth gold these days.....you could drop one from 10 storeys and it would probably still work just fine. But if a "gaming laptop' is more your thing and along the lines of what you're looking for, I have heard that MSI makes amazing gaming laptops (though I personally wouldn't touch their desktop GPUS or motherboards, but that's just a perosnal preference). If I was a laptop gamer, I would choose MSI, ACER or Gigabyte. Thanks, but I already have an MSI laptop. I'm not in the market for a new computer at this time
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Sanunes
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Post by Sanunes on Jan 11, 2020 3:18:49 GMT
Another option if you care to try is looking into an external drive. Copy your games you are done with over to that and then copy them back when you want to play them again. That is what I do with my desktop PC. The trick is to start the download of the game again pause the download and then copy the files back to the laptop after closing the launcher, but with Steam its even easier for you just use the backup utility built into it. That way if you go out and buy a new laptop down the road you can use the external drive with it. I actually didn't know it was possible to just copy programs around like that. Is that what the trick of starting the download is for? To force Steam or Origin or whatever to create some necessary files for the game? I already have an external drive, so this is definitely a solution worth looking into. Yeah, it creates all the pathways and flags for the game to make Windows and the installer think it is being downloaded and installed again when it initializes the download at the very beginning. So you are just tricking all the software into thinking you have downloaded the files when you have just copied them from another source. I would suggest using an older, smaller game to see how it works such as Mass Effect 1 or older if you have to download it again.
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Post by KrrKs on Jan 11, 2020 15:01:13 GMT
I actually didn't know it was possible to just copy programs around like that. Is that what the trick of starting the download is for? To force Steam or Origin or whatever to create some necessary files for the game? I already have an external drive, so this is definitely a solution worth looking into. Yeah, it creates all the pathways and flags for the game to make Windows and the installer think it is being downloaded and installed again when it initializes the download at the very beginning. So you are just tricking all the software into thinking you have downloaded the files when you have just copied them from another source. I would suggest using an older, smaller game to see how it works such as Mass Effect 1 or older if you have to download it again. Note from personal experience on that w.r.t Steam: At least for certain games, the built in backup-tool only saves about as much data as the initial installation without patches and additional media had. Meaning when trying to reinstall, steam will try to redownload most of the game anyway. IMO the better option is to manually copy (and zip) the game files and -IMPORTANT- the corresponding appmanifest. Then proceed as Sanunes said. Without the appmanifest file, Steam will not recognize the version of the game, and redownload everything regardless of what is already there.
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