Would this be a reasonable upgrade?

15" Toshiba Core2Duo @ 2Ghz
156MB Radeon HD2400
2Gb DDR, DVD+R

to ...

17" Toshiba X200 Core2Duo @ 2.5Ghz
512MB GeForce 8700M GT
2Gb DDR, HDDVD_DVD+R

primarily for gamin' nothing very taxing, Heroe's of M&M 5, that kinda stuff


thanks

 

What's your budget? Or only looking at that 17" Toshiba?

Frame rates may be ~2-4 times better depending on the game.*

 

No, it's a bad upgrade. the 8700m has the known faulty G84 core. It will die.

And yes, budget?

 

no budget, it was just out of these two

 

If the X200 has a removable GPU (which I think it does) then I would get it.

But try to keep the GPU under 60C, undervolt the CPU and GPU, use a cooler. Use good thermal paste. If it fails be ready to bake the GPU or buy a new one.

 

I'd stay away from nvidia's 7 and 8 series, they are suicidal.

 

Truly spoken like a person who has one.. My 7150 committed suicide.

 

My 8600m gt is also on the 'highroad to hell' ^^ I'm getting black screen freezes, rainbow sparks, purple triangle lines, etc...

 

Wow, what are you doing to try and prolong its life? Or are you just waiting for it to die?

And OP, why are you looking at the X200/X205? That's a fairly old notebook by this time, and I would personally recommend that you look at something newer, particularly a notebook with a Core i5 processor, and some newer graphics. As mentioned above, the 8700M GT will be prone to failure within two years or so, so I personally would stay away from the GeForce 8M series.

 

Well the problems started this summer during cod4 multiplayer sessions with my room temperature around 30-35 Celcius.
I used ice on top of my laptop to keep my cpu away from the 94C and my gpu afrom the 92 C temperature limits. But now I already get black screen freezes around 70-80 celcius.
The reason why my gpu hasn't died yet is simple, the summer is over ^^ I also use a laptopcooler now (a logitech with 1 weak fan). If I don't use the cooler I get screenfreezes even with assassins creed 1, but when I use it, it only occurs with cod4 (like 1 or 2 screenfreezes instead of 5 during a 2 hour game session).

I'm not so worried since i'm blessed with a laptop which has an mxm slot. I'm going to upgrade this 8600m gt to an ati hd4650 when it dies.

Edit: I just tried the cod4 map which always gives me the black screen freeze: Wet Work. My temperatures were around 55-65 celcius so I think it doesn't have anything to do with the temperature, since other maps don't screen freeze on higher temperatures.
Not sure, but I think that the rainbow and purple sparks are the only sign for a dying gpu (which I haven't seen since this summer), and the black screen freez might just be some kind of windows vista/cod4 problem.

 

I have a 8600m gs on my hp,I properly use I properly overclock and play call of duty for 9 hours a week and still works like a charm men.

 

I also have no problems with my 8600mGT. overclocked playing gta4 for a couple hours at a time.

 

I'm jealous @ u guys, I guess your notebooks have better cooling? The 8600m gt only gets in trouble after overheating so. But then again, while notebooker-hp said he games 9 hours a week, I game 9 hours during 1 day in the weekend so...

 

You might want to look into undervolting your cpu and gpu in the process.
Doing so will probably result in a radical decrease of temperatures (as it did with most of us) and increase the lifespan of your system in general.

you could undervolt the gpu perhaps to 0.89V via BIOS flashing (like I did on my 9600m GT - although the 8600 is different in a sense that it's a generation older and may experience some issues, though for the most part, I think there is a good possibility it will work just fine), and the cpu through CrystalCPUID, CPUGenie, or RMClock?

 

Please let's get back to answering the op's question instead of wandering off.

 

guys, i am glad you posted.

But can someone tell me if going from one, to the other would show a significant increase? thats all i am looking for

thanks

 

that isn't going to be a great upgrade... You will notice the better speed but ur vetter off getting something else due to the 8700M GT card which is prone to fail like ppl have said... somemore from what i have heard , the X200 is an oven so literally , the CPU and GPU would run very hot and u would need to mod it like hell to make it run cool but by the time u do that , the 8700M GT will be dead... If u got a budget of $1000 , u can get the ASUS G51VX , which will be a super upgrade compared to this... if u got a budget of up to $2000 , u can get the ASUS G73 which has to be the best single GPU gaming laptop.. personally , i can't wait to get my hands on it!