[Pulta-Pah]

Hey GtG!

I'm extremely new to the whole 'building and upgrading game' and was asking around for some sound advice. Basically, I have always wanted Alienware; it's difficult to say exactly why, but I just have. Upon coming to University a few friends have said: 'Why not just build your own for much cheaper?'I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO BEGIN!!!

My girlfriend had recently thrown out her old Dell Inspiron 1525 (factory set-up) and so I thought this may be a brilliant place to start my little 'Project-Rebuild 2013'. What I'm looking for is more down the 'gaming route' but as aforementioned, I have no idea where to begin. I know a 'bit' about processors, RAM and sound cards but I am no 'techie' to any extent; this is where I need you guys.

My overall aim is to get as close to an Alienware M14x as possible, I know this model is not the greatest but it is a decent gaming laptop for lower end gamers like myself (I primarily use my Playstation).

Getting to the point: Where should I begin? What should I look to improve/upgrade/buy? Any relevant help would be greatly appreciated and if replies could be kept as 'user-friendly' as possible it would be a bonus!

Be sleek, stay geek!

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Pulta-Pah

You have told us the type of spec and usage that you are looking for but can you also tell us your maximum budget so we have something to work to, once we have this we can put a list of parts together while you study some tutorials that we will suggest.

[phillpower2]

Pulta-Pah

You have told us the type of spec and usage that you are looking for but can you also tell us your maximum budget so we have something to work to, once we have this we can put a list of parts together while you study some tutorials that we will suggest.

[Pulta-Pah]

Thanks for the welcome phillpower2,

My apologies, luckily I'm not really 'limited' to a specific budget, but I am looking to keep it relatively cheap (I am a student after all) without compromising too much on the performance.

The upgrade doesn't have to be the BEST nor the BIGGEST, but something I can have fun with, while producing a 'faster-than-normal' laptop in the meantime. I may also add that my Mum is an IT Director and can source cheap parts with relative ease and with a significant price drop. Basically, attempting to keep to costs down is pretty important.

I'm sorry but I hope this is helpful, and any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!

Be sleek, stay geek!

[Wolfeymole]

Wait a minute, are you talking about building a new laptop Pulta?

[Pulta-Pah]

Wait a minute, are you talking about building a new laptop Pulta?

Wolfeymole, no I'm not. I have a Dell Insprion that I'm looking to upgrade essentially.

Pulta-Pah.

[Wolfeymole]

Well you could upgrade the memory and hard drive but that's about all mate.

This machine was released in 2008 so it's getting pretty long in the tooth.

[Pulta-Pah]

Oh really? That's a shame! Oh well, worth a try! Do you have any recommendations*?

*I'm a complete newbie!

[Wolfeymole]

The memory limit is 4GB so if you installed a 32bit OS it would only see 3 or 3.5GB of mem.

Hard drives are cheap enough these days so that's up to you.

If it were me Pulta I'd get a new machine, perhaps something like this which is just an example.

http://www.tesco.com...&skuId=468-2990

[phillpower2]

Apologies Pulta-Pah, Wolfey has just pointed out that it was a notebook that you wished to upgrade

When I saw that your Mum could source parts I overlooked the obvious

FWIW a Dell price list for you http://www.dell.com/...ng-system-deals

[Pulta-Pah]

Hey GTG!

Luckily my Mum was having a clear out of a garage and came across her old Compaq Presario SR1000UK: Is this worth tinkering with?

I'm still looking for an upgrade-project as I want a laptop or desktop PC that I have actively enhanced/improved. Basically, I want it to look great (which I know I may be able to buy another shell for), be very 'quick', great sound and great vision - I love gaming PCs and love Alienware but they're just too [bleep] expensive so I'm trying to do my own little thing; if this makes sense...

If you could help it would be awesome!

Regards.

Be sleek, stay geek!

[Wolfeymole]

I guess my Tesco offering is down the pipe then Pulta.

Over to Phil.

[phillpower2]

Good afternoon folks

Unfortunately Pulta-Pah the Compaq Presario SR1000UK is not worth upgrading as the technology of the hardware is somewhat dated, you could use the computer to familiarize yourself with the hardware that it contains by first dismantling, cleaning and then reassembling the computer to check that it works.

If you would like a list of parts putting together for you to look over please tell us your maximum budget.