Few questions

[slasher]

Yeah unfortunately an i3 isn't going to fit in the same socket as a Pentium 4 mate

[123]

1 minute ago, slasher said:

Yeah unfortunately an i3 isn't going to fit in the same socket as a Pentium 4 mate

Well this is what I meant when I said I had no idea what I was doing

 So I’m guessing pentiums are the only ones that will fit in the socket?

cheers 

[slasher]

To be honest I wouldn't bother, any Cpu you can upgrade it to you'd probably not notice any benefit and if you got windows 10 on it then it'd run like lol

[123]

2 minutes ago, slasher said:

To be honest I wouldn't bother, any Cpu you can upgrade it to you'd probably not notice any benefit and if you got windows 10 on it then it'd run like lol

Yes, I’ve been watching a bit of YouTube on people running Windows 10 on pentium 4’s and there desktops and web browsing are running smoothly but when it comes to playing mfme I think that might change . Thanks for all the help anyways really appreciate it

[slasher]

1 minute ago, 123 said:

Yes, I’ve been watching a bit of YouTube on people running Windows 10 on pentium 4’s and there desktops and web browsing are running smoothly but when it comes to playing mfme I think that might change . Thanks for all the help anyways really appreciate it

Yes mate, especially if you run Scorpion 5 stuff on it. It'll take about 8 hours for the reels to stop spinning lol!

Happy to help, if you find any cheaper PCs and want me or someone else to check them, feel free to link, or PM.

[123]

Hi, I’ve been testing MFME on an old laptop I got given years ago which I recently updated to win 10. It works, but not great there’s quite a lot of lag on most of the reels on the layouts. I am wanting to upgrade the laptop so that I can get MFME running smoothly so that I could possibly do something so that this could go in the cabinet instead of the old pc with P4. It would also save buying a pc and it would get this laptop used. these are the current specs.

I’ve researched the cpu socket and it seems to me that this should run a i5 or something like that, so that I can get it running more smoothly. Now I’m not even sure if it’s the cpu that needs upgrading but it would appreciate it if someone could let me know what would be the best to cpu to get and or anything else.

Thanks

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by 123

[slasher]

How much RAM does the laptop have? May show in the memory tab.

May also be advisable to wack a SSD in as well if it's running on a standard hard drive. You may not need to upgrade anything else with the difference SSDs make and you can get them from 20 quid upwards depending what size you want.

[serene02]

Yeah and SSD is probably one of the best upgrades for an older system, you will see a massive difference for sure.

J

[serene02]

I just got a 480gb one for my MAME box.

J

[123]

10 hours ago, slasher said:

How much RAM does the laptop have? May show in the memory tab.

May also be advisable to wack a SSD in as well if it's running on a standard hard drive. You may not need to upgrade anything else with the difference SSDs make and you can get them from 20 quid upwards depending what size you want.

It has 4gb of ram. Last night I was messing around with it and I changed a few setting that I got off google like boosting it’s performance and after I did that I could already see a massive change in MFME. I’ll definitely look into  these SSDs and see if I can get one.

Thanks a lot @slasher@A:E

[123]

Hello, I’ve removed something from the laptop

now tbh I’m not even sure what it is I don’t know if this is the ssd or it’s the hard drive whatever it is, looking at it it seems ok 500gb. But obviously I don’t know what I’m doing so if it needs upgrading I will do that or if it’s not even the ssd I’ll get one

Thanks

[serene02]

That’s the hard drive fella.  It’s a standard mechanical one, very slow compared to even an entry level SSD.

Though an SSD will be a huge upgrade for general desktop use it won’t help MFME perform any better unfortunately.

The i7 720 quad core could potentially be fitted to this laptop, it would require an almost complete laptop tear down to perform the upgrade, doubling up on memory would also be a good move.

It’s a lot of messing about to be fair, probably cost around 40-50 for those extra parts but then you’d need someone to fit them for you.  Probably bit of a task depending on your experience.

J

[serene02]

MFME now uses GPU acceleration, not sure whether these early Core i3 have an embedded GPU, might be worth checking your laptop to see what the actual graphics specs are.

I think the i3 might be fine for basics mfme layouts but without a decent gpu it will certainly struggle with the higher resolution DX layouts.

J

[123]

1 hour ago, A:E said:

That’s the hard drive fella.  It’s a standard mechanical one, very slow compared to even an entry level SSD.

Though an SSD will be a huge upgrade for general desktop use it won’t help MFME perform any better unfortunately.

The i7 720 quad core could potentially be fitted to this laptop, it would require an almost complete laptop tear down to perform the upgrade, doubling up on memory would also be a good move.

It’s a lot of messing about to be fair, probably cost around 40-50 for those extra parts but then you’d need someone to fit them for you.  Probably bit of a task depending on your experience.

J

Hiya thanks for the help, I need it I actually took the whole base off the laptop earlier and had a look at the cpu with all of the cooling things that connect to the fan, just to see how it comes apart if I was to ever replace it . With that i7 quad core if I was to replace the i3 with it does it just go straight into the socket of the i3 without any add ons or anything as I suppose I can’t really lose to having ago replacing it.

Cheers 

[serene02]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264217614645

It all depends whether or not there are version of the i3 that are soldered in.

You might want to check yours. Remove the cooler etc and see if it can be removed.  The CPU above 'should' be compatible but don't take my word for it.  I'd hate for you to purchase one only to find it's a no go.   

Also, it looks like you can have a max capacity of 8GB of DDR3 ram.  Again depending on the config of your current memory slots.

Maybe worth looking for your exact model and seeing info on any upgradability.

I will say though for the price you are spending to upgrade old tech you could just buy some more up to date components that are somewhat future proof as well, the cost isn't that much higher but the machine will perform far better than any upgrade to your older machine.

I quickly priced up a 10th Gen intel with onboard GPU, motherboard and 8gb DDR4 memory and a power supply for less than £200.  That would be all new and all up to date kit.   You have a good upgrade path from a newer system.

I'm sure you would be able to build it up, it's quite a simple process.  People will be able to help you if you run into any problems.

J

[123]

3 hours ago, A:E said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264217614645

It all depends whether or not there are version of the i3 that are soldered in.

You might want to check yours. Remove the cooler etc and see if it can be removed.  The CPU above 'should' be compatible but don't take my word for it.  I'd hate for you to purchase one only to find it's a no go.   

Also, it looks like you can have a max capacity of 8GB of DDR3 ram.  Again depending on the config of your current memory slots.

Maybe worth looking for your exact model and seeing info on any upgradability.

I will say though for the price you are spending to upgrade old tech you could just buy some more up to date components that are somewhat future proof as well, the cost isn't that much higher but the machine will perform far better than any upgrade to your older machine.

I quickly priced up a 10th Gen intel with onboard GPU, motherboard and 8gb DDR4 memory and a power supply for less than £200.  That would be all new and all up to date kit.   You have a good upgrade path from a newer system.

I'm sure you would be able to build it up, it's quite a simple process.  People will be able to help you if you run into any problems.

J

Hiya @A:E I’m gonna have a go in upgrading the cpu, I’ll upgrade that then I’ll see about the rest after I’ve finished. Thanks for all your help!

[serene02]

No worries.  The trouble will be the GPU, I'm not sure what you have onboard your laptop.  I'm not sure if that gen i3 or i7 have embedded GPU.  What is the model of your laptop?

J

[slasher]

If you are replacing the CPU get some thermal paste as well. Those pads in some laptops are crap.

As A:E says, it would help if we knew exactly what model your laptop is.

Edited February 15, 2021 by slasher

[123]

Hiya folks, the model is Sony Vaio PCG-61211M. And about that thermal paste I’ll definitely grab some off Amazon or something
 

thanks 

[123]

Quick question this cpu I’m looking at buying https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-i7-740QM-Quad-Core-Processor-740QM-SLBQG/203250826553?hash=item2f52b17d39:g:ozkAAOSwfwlgBEjl is 45 W, and the cpu in the machine at the minute is 35 W probably nothing but just wondered if this made any difference.

Thanks

Edited February 15, 2021 by 123

[serene02]

The motherboard does support this CPU but it all depends on whether the heatsink can keep this CPU cool.  Because it run at a higher wattage it might create too much heat.

I’ll take a look at the model and see if there were available upgrades to these, there could have been an i7 version of this laptop released but I’ll see if I can find some info for you

J

[serene02]

So, the chip is compatible but cooling may be an issue.

However further investigation shows that these CPUs run at the same speed in single core mode.  MFME doesn’t take advantage of multi-core CPU’s so it seems ultimately pointless to carry out this upgrade.

I’d suggest upgrading ram to 8gb and installing an SSD.  The extra ram should boost GPU video memory and give the system a memory boost also so it should improve the overall snappiness of the system.

J

[slasher]

It may also be worth resetting the laptop to factory defaults and turning off all the not needed windows 10 stuff. I did have a script to do this but it needs updating. I did this on @pilsburydoughman's old laptop and it made it run scorpion 5 games slightly better (although they still weren't exactly playable but it was a fair bit lower spec than yours)

[123]

Hello thanks again for all the help @A:E @slasher I’ll have a look at buying more ram for the laptop and seeing about an ssd. I’ve been doing more testing today to try and get max performance out of it, basically I’ve just made as little as possible background apps running and boosted cpu performance to 100%, which obviously generates a lot more heat but it all seems ok. This has made MFME run even smoother and it keeps getting better and better so hopefully adding more ram will give it that finishing touch.

Thanks a lot

[Zippy]

Good job I have an "if anything happens" plan with Pc World with the one I have which is more expensive and can handle a lot plus has a very good graphics and processing speed except for just one fruit machine being JPMs Big 50 as use to have two (yes I am greedy), the last laptop I had couldn't be repaired because it was burnt out and couldn't handle MFME so was give a voucher for the original price of £330, happy fucking days.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Big J