My wife 10 yrs old laptop, motherboard burn, but she is too sentimental to throw it away. So i decide to upgrade the laptop.


CPU>>>>Intel i3-330M>>>>>i7-640M
GPU>>>>Intel GMA HD>>>>>ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145
RAM>>>>2GB DDR3>>>>>>>6GB DDR3
HDD>>>>320GB 5400RPM>>>>480 SSD
WLAN>>>>Wifi N network>>>>>Intel AX200


Well, Thats basically everything I changed. But it did not go so well due to bios not compatible for the i7-640M CPU and the motherboard cant read the 4GB DDR3 single stick RAM.

However, the problem solved after bringing L550 BIOS into the system.

As of the heat generation (i3-330M to i7-640M is a big upgrade), I installed Crysis and play @ 480p setting for about an hour. Its playable @ 40~fps and the highest temperature hits 78celcius (GPU) and 75celcius (CPU).

Overall, this laptop has turn into something pretty powerful and it can run demanding apps smoothly. At least my wife dont need to headache and look for a computer to do her office works.


As of the cost,

Motherboard (built in GPU) RM125
RAM (4GB DDR3) RM35
WLAN Intel AX RM100
CPU i7-640M RM160
SSD (Apacer 480GB SSD) RM210

Total RM630.00
(total not include thermal paste n tools)


EDIT: I wan to make it 8GB ram, but I order 4x2, arrived 4x1 2x2.

This post has been edited by skeith: Aug 1 2021, 11:39 AM

how do you find a motherboard that fits? can share the process?

This post has been edited by stryfox: Aug 1 2021, 12:04 PM

Well, In my case, I jus choose same model with higest specs.

for example, the L510 has been in the market for very long since CoreDuo series until the intel I series.

So I just choose the higest spec and it should fit into the original case nicely.

a used i5 5xxx laptop and cost only RM500

u dont understand the sentimental value of an object.

EDIT: btw, where can i find so cheap? wanna get 1 for my office.

This post has been edited by skeith: Aug 1 2021, 12:23 PM

Same here.

My L440 originally came with a Celeron.

Now fully loaded with i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, 2TB HDD and 4G modem, T450 trackpad, and FHD IPS panel. All in around RM 1K with parts ordered from Shopee and second hand (4G mode, 2TB HDD & i7 CPU).

Later will look for a backlit keyboard and 9C battery. I guess another RM 500?

Used to be able to get at lowyut from those bangla hiding at the back selling secondhand stuff.

Never been there since pandemics

Nicely done. thinking to upgrade my BenQ S41 processor to T9300. Now using P8600 (original is T7100). Although is running using DDR2, but quite ok with 4gbx2.

Nevertheless still can run NFS Underground and Red Alert pretty decent already haha.

L440 latest model has pretty decent specs. glad you can go for that.


thats the thing. im from kedah. haha

wow BenQ, been so freaking long never heard of that brand. The S41 model come with Nvidia 8600M right? it was a pretty powerful GPU back in that day. RA2 and NFS should be not a problem to run.

but your motherboard can run 8GB DDR2 ram? that is something.

The L440 is considered old already. Latest I have seen is the L380 if not mistaken. Anyhow, I don't need any laptops for now. Already have many older ThinkPads in my collection and I do rotate them from time to time. All data were synced to all laptops using OneDrive.

Where to find 4GB DDR2? No one seems to sell these anymore.

Yeah. Few years back wrote an email to Kingston China and purchased 2 unit 4gb DDR2-800 RAM. Works beautifully on BenQ S41.

For Thinkpad, I had 1 T460 with NVME SSD (running at speed PCIe-2x) with 2x16gb DDR3L. More than enough for my research work (u know chrome eat a lot of RAM lulz).

If the CPU is stronger than GPU, there will be bottlenecking?

Thinking of upgrading my acer 4750z with pentium b940 to i5 or i7. But the motherboard only comes with nvidia gt540m, then there will be a bottleneck if i pair it with i5 or i7 proc.

So i just buy core i3 to have a balanced combo between cpu and gpu. Or should i go with the top tier cpu availble for it?

The bottleneck only exist if you running demanding graphic apps.

But multitasking your daily works? No.