[SOLVED] Upgrade from Turion x2 TL-60

pnvr8e

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I have a Gateway W350A with these specs:
-Turion X2 TL-60
-T-1628 motherboard
-3gb ram
-ATI Raden 1270

I bought it used and cheap but now want to upgrade. I'll be making the ram 4gb in a week or two. The machine is slow but for web browsing, Facebook, and globally editing pics when I'm not at home on my pc, it will suffice. I won't be using it for gaming so there is no need for an egpu. I'd like to make it faster and remove the choppiness from 720p videos in YouTube and 1080p downloaded movies. The same goes for dodge and burn and other 'brushed' editing. The video card is fixed, ram will be maximized, so I'm left with the processor.

4gb of 667 is the max the motherboard can go, it won't support 800. The faster processors I've seen for S1 use 800 or DDR3.

Please recommend a better processor that is for S1 and uses ddr2 667? A 4 core processor or any other way to make this machine faster would be appreciated as well.
 
Solution
Replacing the HDD with a ssd would be the very best performance upgrade you can do.
Yes, the 2gb is restrictive for windows 10 and 4gb should help a lot.
I have upgraded a similar laptop to 4gb and a ssd and it became eminently useful.
I used the samsung ssd migration app to copy the os and apps to a 860 evo.
You may need a usb to saga cable to do the copy.

You may find that the processor is not as significant as you think.

kanewolf

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I have a Gateway W350A with these specs:
-Turion X2 TL-60
-T-1628 motherboard
-3gb ram
-ATI Raden 1270

I bought it used and cheap but now want to upgrade. I'll be making the ram 4gb in a week or two. The machine is slow but for web browsing, Facebook, and globally editing pics when I'm not at home on my pc, it will suffice. I won't be using it for gaming so there is no need for an egpu. I'd like to make it faster and remove the choppiness from 720p videos in YouTube and 1080p downloaded movies. The same goes for dodge and burn and other 'brushed' editing. The video card is fixed, ram will be maximized, so I'm left with the processor.

4gb of 667 is the max the motherboard can go, it won't support 800. The faster processors I've seen for S1 use 800 or DDR3.

Please recommend a better processor that is for S1 and uses ddr2 667? A 4 core processor or any other way to make this machine faster would be appreciated as well.
There aren't really many "upgrades" for that CPU -- https://www.cpu-world.com/Related_CPUs/Socket S1 _S1g1__K8.html
400Mhz if you can find a TL-68.
 
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pnvr8e

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Just to satisfy my own curiosity. OP, where in the world are you located and what was budget on this machine and for upgrade path?

I would make the assumption that this machine is running XP?

It was dirt cheap, had no cracks on the shell, hinges were undamaged.

I've learned my lesson: next time, check deeper than the machine booting, the screen, entering windows, and keys on the keyboard.

The machine was on 7 when I got it. Its now on 10 sans the bloatware.
 
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kanewolf

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punkncat

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It was dirt cheap, had no cracks on the shell, hinges were undamaged.

I've learned my lesson: next time, check deeper than the machine booting, the screen, entering windows, and keys on the keyboard.

The machine was on 7 when I got it. Its now on 10 sans the bloatware.


The machine is well past it's prime, for sure. Not sure that the hardware is going to overcome the issues it is having even with the higher end of that generation. Something like this would be a good donor for an Ubuntu/Mint install but still don't think you will see some vast improvement with video playback.
 

pnvr8e

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The machine is well past it's prime, for sure. Not sure that the hardware is going to overcome the issues it is having even with the higher end of that generation. Something like this would be a good donor for an Ubuntu/Mint install but still don't think you will see some vast improvement with video playback.

I'm waiting to get 4gb on it, check the video the decide its fate. Oh well, for $70, 420 on YouTube is liveable. I'll most likely keep it or use it for editing when I'm not ay home.
 

pnvr8e

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Jan 24, 2021
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The issue with choppy video isn't the CPU it's the GPU...the only thing you can do is go in the BIOS and make sure the memory available to the GPU is maxed out.

Odd. Bios has choices of Auto, 128, and 256. If I choose auto, the remaining ram is around 2600+. There must be other processes or parts that use ram but does auto use more than 256?
 
Replacing the HDD with a ssd would be the very best performance upgrade you can do.
Yes, the 2gb is restrictive for windows 10 and 4gb should help a lot.
I have upgraded a similar laptop to 4gb and a ssd and it became eminently useful.
I used the samsung ssd migration app to copy the os and apps to a 860 evo.
You may need a usb to saga cable to do the copy.

You may find that the processor is not as significant as you think.
 
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Solution
Yeah, the TL-60 was top of the line for it's tdp, so no cpu upgrade path. Maxing out ram and using an ssd will get all you can out of it, but it's still going to be limited.

If you can remote desktop into your desktop when away from home, this system will be really good for that. RDP doesn't really take that much even on video intensive things.
 
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