Andrew restores and upgrades an 8-year-old Asus X55A laptop, initially in poor condition with a non-functional keyboard and low performance. He cleans the laptop, replaces the keyboard, and upgrades the CPU to an Intel Core i7, increases RAM to 8GB, and adds an SSD for improved performance. Despite better gaming performance with these upgrades, he encounters issues with frame rate drops, which he resolves by adjusting power management settings. Finally, he installs a desktop GPU using an EXP GDC dock, enhancing gaming performance significantly, although the laptop still struggles with newer games like Far Cry 5. The upgraded laptop is now fast and stable for basic tasks and light gaming without the GPU.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The laptop model is Asus X55A, released in 2012.
2. The laptop's original CPU is Intel Celeron 1000M.
3. The original RAM is 2GB DDR3.
4. The original hard disk is 320GB with many bad sectors.
5. The laptop's original graphics are Intel HD 3000.
6. The laptop's keyboard was not functional and had missing keys.
7. The laptop was upgraded with a new keyboard, an Intel Core i7 2670QM CPU, an SSD, and 8GB of RAM.
8. A desktop GPU, MSI RX 580 Gaming X, was installed on the laptop using an exp GDC 8.5C dock.
9. The power supply used was a Colormaster with 460 watts real power.
10. The case used for the GPU was a Simo A4 micro PC case.
11. The laptop's cooling system was not designed for high-end CPUs, resulting in higher temperatures.
12. The laptop's gaming performance improved significantly with the new GPU.
13. The laptop was tested with GTA 5 and Far Cry 5, achieving frame rates of up to 60 and 61, respectively.
14. The laptop can now handle tasks such as video editing, graphics work, and watching high-resolution videos.