How To Upgrade Your Gaming Laptop - The ULTIMATE Guide!

[@JarrodsTech]

💵 Save money on your next gaming laptop with our daily deals: gaminglaptop.deals - we just added support for India, Germany, UK, Canada and Australia!

[@itsArka]

Hey Thanks for adding support for India ! Cheers

[@JarrodsTech]

@@itsArka No problem!

[@kennyalpha22]

​@@JarrodsTechPlease review Lenovo legion 9i 14th gen.

[@SaadAhmed-kr5vd]

support for pakistan

[@anca1ag0n37]

Step 1: make sure to buy a laptop that isn’t soldered on like a macbook

[@JarrodsTech]

Basically

[@InnocentiusLacrimosa]

Just had a friend in trouble with a Macbook. Water damage on logic board, storage soldered in. A nightmare and expensive to troubleshoot.

[@mukkah]

Step 2: Research laptop model THERMALS

[@neothermic1]

I mean, the title does say 'gaming' laptop. ;)

[@repeatbot]

Me, having 16 GB soldered RAM... 💀

[@michaellim5130]

Just to share, I reapply thermal paste for you and cpu on 2022 Asus rog zephyrus 16 with ptm7950 and the changes was day and night. Liquid Metal on cpu was oxidised and thermal paste on gpu was dried out after 1.5 years of use. After replacing with ptm, I got more than 15 degree diff on gpu and similar cpu temp as Liquid Metal. Ptm for the win as it’s very good in thermal performance and easy to apply!

[@JarrodsTech]

Nice improvement there

[@mukkah]

My Katana GF76s cpu has always run hot, this video is inspiring me to try and re-apply the paste, see if it helps (i12700h cpu) Your comment is always helping to inspire, bro. Ty =) ~a random canadian subscriber dude

[@Souneed]

Did you ever consider Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet ? my lenovo legion 5 pro with ryzen 7 7745hx run a little too hot for my liking and is only 6 or 7 months old like 92 degrees ++ is relatively demanding games even though I limit the fps and all that stuff but still gets quite hot even on a cooling pad so I ve been considering opening it up and changing it to that or the ptm not sure yet still considering if its worth the hassle or it will just keep running as hot

[@Adityakumar-mt7lu]

can ya link it down as there are many counterfeit pads there saying honeywell

[@beardofkaos]

Wow!

[@funkyfresh2]

Thank you so much for this video. I have ASUS TUF A15 for my first ever gaming laptop. I used your recommendations and tips to boost my ram and add an extra ssd. It was flawless.

[@unionofslavstanrepublics2317]

Just *slightly* longer than your previous upgrade guides but I'm not complaining! 23:36 lol 😂

[@JarrodsTech]

"movies"

[@killuazoldyck5468]

He knows us *too* well

[@mukkah]

Great guide, like Mr Js format

[@Kitminigun]

1:35 i lost more screws than i could even imagine

[@mukkah]

I still have 2 screws in my driver kit from unknown source. They make me happy to keep, for some reason

[@krkrbbr]

This video is disgustingly comprehensive I learned many things I thought I already knew. Thank you for putting this much effort into it.

[@mr.normalguy69]

Really glad you made this video. It'll come in handy in the future.

[@KycenPetersen]

The 2020 Lenovo Legion 5 is an amazing beginner laptop imo. Not too complex but still very educational for new laptop owners in terms of upgrading.

[@max-8708]

Awesome video, you covered everything in depth 👏🏻

[@buzzpuppy]

25:47 - CNVio and CNVio2 WiFI cards have caught out the unwary for sure! Great to see it mentioned here

[@JarrodsTech]

That sucks, people need to know!

[@beardofkaos]

This video is very well done. Great work on the organization, walk through, material, effective communication, and trouble shooting. Solid work!! (Btw, I have been upgrading a 2019 OMEN 17-cb000. I recently upgraded the ram from 12GB to crucial 64GB. Even though all specs state that the mother board only allows 32GB, but this mother board reads all 64GB, and it runs so much quieter now. I am going to be upgrading the wireless card to the Intel Wifi 6 AX200 from the Realtek RTL8822BE. I plan on upgrading the thermal paste soon, and the SSD to gen 4. I only found you because I was considering upgrading the GPU if it's possible. I typically see that it's not possible, but I may jump on it. I'll keep you posted if I do.

[@davii_ms]

This is definitely the best guide on yt. Thank you so much! I am pondering upgrading the RAM in my legion 5 2021 because of the video you made explaining how the stock RAM is really slow compared to the average DDR4. I might also change the wifi card too but the one that came with my Legion 5 is a Gigabit one, idk if its worth the upgrade to an intel one. (These are the specs of the card I believe) Gigabit Ethernet, 1x RJ-45 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi® + Bluetooth 5.1, M.2 Card • Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ax 2x2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.1, M.2 card

[@Gaming_TechBench]

2:25 This is very painful

[@AvAcLives]

I just bought laptop legion 5 just 2 hours ago and this video. Omg the timing can't be more accurate.

[@woIfson]

i love this channel said back when u had 90k subs and ill say it again, you should be over a million subs long time ago, keep up the good work 🔥

[@ghost141taskfores]

Your website is the best thank you ❤❤❤

[@JarrodsTech]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@enriquetodakee622]

Love your IN FLAMES T-SHIRT 🔥

[@JarrodsTech]

🤘

[@onlylemons5144]

Can you make a guide for cleaning laptop fans?

[@kreatos10]

Wow. 43 minutes... I will definitely save this for later! thanks for quality videos and also the time stamps in this case !! Props for the right teardown method by the way!

[@Ck_dEviL]

Thanks for so much hardwork. Really appreciate the video. Got everything that's needed to disassemble a laptop. TY

[@JarrodsTech]

Glad it helped!

[@q8alenezi975]

Thanks man ❤❤

[@PragmaticTornado]

Been wrenching on PC's (and sometimes laptops) for almost 25 years now. Until very recently I just used a very basic set of screwdrivers, but saw myself forced to upgrade my tools once I got a laptop with TR6 screws (not to mention modern laptops have become extremely hard to get into). Ifixit Pro kit in hand, suddenly everything was more or less easy again. Have the right tools for the job would be my number one advice. Everything else is knowledge based and can be solved with a KZbin video, like this one.

[@PingpongPoof-c3r]

Most detailed and well rounded video

[@Basidus258]

Of course you make this video right after I upgrade my laptop, would have been very useful, especially for the precautions

[@aymencherif984]

thank you for this thorough guide

[@nitroxide17]

Jarrod you are a life saver!

[@JarrodsTech]

Happy to help!

[@robinmud1]

Wow that's gonna be really useful for people, good job!

[@JarrodsTech]

Hope so, thanks!

[@mukkah]

Bro it's making me wanna redo thermal paste for my hot AF lappy, so anecdotally, here's a guy being helped by Monsieur J ~a random canadian subscriber dude

[@FrostyLucas]

Legendary video aside, that t-shirt is kinda 🔥

[@Ocelot1937]

There is a channel called “The Gizmo Pro” that is using your graphs to talk about the Razer blade 18. I don’t know if he gave you proper credit so just giving you the heads up.

[@JarrodsTech]

Thanks for the heads up. Hadn't heard of that channel before. I don't really mind except they said "I tested it" and then showed our graphs...

[@joseyotoks5489]

Thank you for the detailed guide

[@TechGuyBeau]

As per usual, a rock solid video 👑

[@denvera1g1]

Used to be you chose between and SSD and HDD for your 2.5 inch bay because one offered speed, the other offered space. Now that HDDs in 7mm form factor top out at around 2TB, but SSDs can go up to 8, and even 16TB, the only time i would put an HDD in a laptop is if it is meant as a file server or something, because laptops are meant to be moved around, hard drives are not, and with a 2TB SSD costing around $100 for a mid range, there is no reason to go for a $70 HDD, the SSD will almost certainly last longer, and probably end up costing you less in power in the long run.

[@Stomc321]

This is the perfect time for a video like this I live in India and am getting a Lenovo legion slim 5 14" from the USA for 1050$ which I chose after watching your videos

[@casperellison5729]

Sometimes when you've done the upgrade and repasted properly and have been using your laptop for about an hour or a month, the motherboard will just die on you for no reason... it just happened to me, hehehe, so just accept it and either move on a) get it repaired and suck it up on the cost or b) buy a new one and sell defective unit at a price you will need to accept, either way, do back-ups. But yeah, depends on your country, you can't even get to clean the fans because of the warranty stickers. Some companies and service centers have made money off of laptop owners by doing this, which is a sad truth. But when they screw up your unit, all they'll do is automatically quote you for replacement. Finally, yeah, a lot of people have been thermal paste aficionados... defending their application patterns, brands and pads but to what point. Great video, Jarrod!

[@3obhanxxx195]

Great video bro 👌 very practical ❤❤❤

[@dmann1982]

I have an MSI Katana GF66 11UE. And one of my remaining storage upgrades which is available, albeit a small bit difficult to accomplish because there are some pillars within that need to be cut out (and I have shaky hands), is adding in a 2.5inch SATA drive. I know it can take it with no messing with the BIOS to make it work as well, and I have photos of the internals to know what I am looking at. I also recently bought a thing to slot the drive into that screws into the laptop...

[@DJSix-yh8ox]

Hi! Awesome video. The only thing i missed is that id would've loved of you spoke about the keyboard, how to change them and the real options you hace when they dont work or some keys don press right, as with the battery, you would've had more than one important point to discuss

[@zuhairreza]

In Flames shirt again! Three of my favorite songs are Lunar Strain, Only for the Weak, and Colony! 🤘😎

[@microwave911]

Love how you sneak in some humor here and there 😂

[@cruizera2194]

Excellent advice!

[@Timmyboy2]

Great video I learned a lot

[@romanon5]

Crazy amount of laptop information, Jarrod raises the standards significantly

[@Rufeorufeo]

Hell yeah Jarrod great video!

[@MrAkatosh]

THIS is a video I’ve been needing…

[@h3ge]

love the tshirt man

[@MrThosePeople]

+1 on all of lift the back of your laptop, _clean_ the _garbage_ out the heatsink, and appreciate the thermal interface suggestions. For whatever reason, my laptop does *substantially* better lifted off the desk, more like 10-20°C. I didn't buy a stand, I just rolled up paper towels (Univ student at the time). I also knew someone with pets, their laptop had all kinds of dust and fur _in between the fan and the heatsink_ (not enough to blow from the outside, fan had to come out), it pulled out like a felt pad. She was as shocked as I was, and temperatures were vastly improved after that. While she was in there, added an HDD and RAM and she didn't need to buy a laptop, just maybe $300 in parts? 10/10 would recommend even if you have no idea what you're doing. Find a teardown video! Also, some heatsinks will have numbers on them, *definitely do the thing where you don't tighten them all the way on first pass* , and if they have numbers, do them in that order.

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

Nicely done.

[@ahmettarikyanik]

You should have mentoined about liquid metal application too. For someone who is looking forward to get a legion pro, it is essential to know how to change liquid metal since legions have it.

[@jaredthx7469]

Awesomne video as always! But here's my take on the thermal issue Regarding your point about not having any changes to temps when repasting, I believe this could just be a sign that the heatsink cannot transfer anymore heat out, i.e the heatsink does not have enough mass and it reached the maximum possible about of heat it could wick away and the issue would lie in the fans being able to move enough cool air to cool the actual exhaust fin arrays. Then this also falls on the laptop feet being too small to give enough clearance for air to move at full efficiency into the system fans. The gap between the base and the surface its on is just too little! This is probably why in some of ROGs thinner machines with LM, temps are still super high, meaning the LM is doing its job of conducting as much heat from the chips as possible into the heatsink but there just is not enough mass in the actual heatsink to fully take advantage of the extra heat conductivity of LM

[@Mcw32]

Wish I watched this sooner. I added a 32 gb of ram and the other is 16. Didn't know about the size match gaming performance issue.

[@thomas1699]

About RAM: I have an Acer Predator (etc., etc.) with 2, 16GB Dual Rank so-dimms working Dual Channel. I have an Acer Aspire 5, with 20 GB of RAM. 1 4GB so-dimm soldered in and 1 16GB so-dimm in the only RAM slot. Both So-dimms are Single Rank. They function in "asynchronous" dual channel. (The 4 GB so-dimm and the first 4 GB of the 16 GB so-dimm work in Dual Channel.)

[@lakshaysharma6390]

Great Content 👍

[@jquarters1896]

I have an omen gaming laptop and I love it. The only thing is that I need to try and upgrade the gps, the ram and possibly get a cooling system so it doesn’t overheat when I play my games.

[@kevinnguyen163]

I really appreciate HP for always posting a removing & Replacing parts even before the model goes on sale.

[@tumslucks9781]

HPs are notoriously unreliable. Why would you buy that junk?

[@Gaming_TechBench]

14:02 I encountered the same problem, but I thought and thought and found a solution, which is to put the storage in another device and use it as a second storage, and the system will recognize it, and when you click on it, it tells you Administrator. Click Yes, and your files will appear.

[@pasunurusaivineeth3739]

Recently bought IdeaPad Pro 5 which has 16gb soldered ram. Wanted 32gb but could not compromise on other specs for it. Is it possible to unsolder down the line?

[@JarrodsTech]

Unfortunately no

[@repeatbot]

Me too. Like, seriously, it was i7 and 16gigs or i5 and 32gigs. I took the i7+16gigs combo. I think that's because mine has an inefficient heatsink. All I can hope for is that someone solders i7 instead of i5 to get the best of both worlds. Even if I would have to use IETS with it.

[@madara_9853]

32:30 you can minimize the risk of liquid metal by applying tg shield around the cpu/gpu it will prevent conductivity even if the liquid metal leaks a little

[@madara_9853]

the one im using is thermal grizzly tg shield and i think they are the only one making it

[@vaynardx2464]

Thank you for the WiFi recommendation. It is leaps and bounds better than my original one (which was a Realtek Wifi Card that is so crappy, I threw it away).

[@PokeMurp]

I have a Dell G3 gaming laptop and I've just been cutting holes in the back of my laptop to make drives fit WD Black w/ heatsink Seagate barracuda 5tb drive

[@voodoochild24262]

Ayy my 2003 gateway had a removable battery! Way ahead of the curve 😂

[@Gaming_TechBench]

1:45 sad memories 2 hhhhhhh this happened to me too

[@Punam09674]

Can you make a detailed video on ryzen 8000 series...you haven't unboxed any....I really want to see performance of ryzen 7 8840hs of lenevo loq

[@I-PixALbI4-I]

I updated Wi-Fi card FROM: Intel Centrino N-2230 TO: AX210HMW ( its AX-210 analog for Mini PCI-E slot )

[@JarrodsTech]

Nice one :)

[@theflyer79]

Won't be surprised if this gets about 50M views over time. This looks like a laptop update dictionary. Thanks Jarrod!

[@avaykarkidoli]

Great video man! I got the new LOQ recently and the battery is the only weak aspect of this system. If possible could you try a bigger 80Wh on it? I believe it has the extra space in it too like that legion 5.

[@reaper7910]

Jarrod, can you also show how you test your laptops, at least in terms of thermal and speeds, so those of us who purchase the laptops you reviewed can test them in the same way as well?

[@chrisxd2440]

i seen that you got a bigger battery but to be fair, i was doing a repair for a friend for some cash and there was an empty hdd slot with no sata cable, so i bought one and added in a drive

[@Zryptr]

We love you jarrod said in unison

[@justinhalen2126]

if 32GB of ram was standard, I would say it's actually a good thing to use soldered on memory. Since LPDDR is typically way faster, slightly more power efficient, and allows for the internal space to be used better. Especially for smaller laptops

[@leledumbo]

I wonder how you find out those hidden screws in the first place without breaking the laptop. Sometimes they're hidden under the rubber feet instead of a dedicated spot where it's meant to help cooling so we don't really expect that there are some there.

[@Gaming_TechBench]

1:21 me to 😥 sad memories. But I gained experience

[@seasn5553]

if youre on a budget then walmart also has a kit of tools. that i would argue is a bargain is for the amount of bits and tools

[@tharakesh2120]

Bro Can u make a video on Lenovo LOQ CPU :- i714700HX GPU :- RTX 4060 I am a big fan of your channel

[@roumiaou]

Thank you so much.

[@HandleIsNewAndBad]

Im deterred from starting any component swapping because i couldn't unplug the battery. Gave me anxiety.

[@denvera1g1]

17:55 a computer using the SSD as overflow RAM space can kill an SSD rather quickly, i had a pair of samsing 970 EVO in my file server that i used as a write cache on this machine that had a stupid firmware limit of 16GB of total system RAM, one drive died in about 6 months, so i switched over to Optane, sure it was only 118GB VS 1TB, but it is WAY faster at sustained writes, way lower latency(about 1/2 way between a high end NVME and the DDR4 RAM in that system) and the endurance is crazy, i think i've already written 200TB to them because after swapping to Optane the performance significantly increase so i ended up using that thing for more than just a backup for when my main server was busy.

[@ancientanonymous8269]

Thanks 🙏

[@subhranshuprusty]

Please do a upgrade video on Asus rog strix g16 with 64 whr battery to a 90 whr one and many more

[@arunnaik622]

Just wanted to let dell g series uses to know if you are planning to upgrade SSD it need mounting bracket and it's not provided by dell and you can't even buy that mounting bracket so you have to tape that ssd😢

[@jayzee9164]

I recommend to discharge the power on the device after removing the battery in order to release the stored electricity on the capacitors. All you need to do is press the power button after you disconnect the battery.

[@Adityakumar-mt7lu]

is there still any residue charges left after removing battery even on power button ? also is it really worth to have a anti static brush to clean of dust ?

[@Scilla-wk7js]

Hey jarrod since you're talking about laptop upgradeablity guide. Can I ask what current laptop are you using? And how often do you upgrade your laptop? Thanks

[@vasudevmenon2496]

Upgraded my 2015 alienware from 16GB 2133MTps to 32GB 2667MTps, swapped out old nvme and sata ssd with nvme, upgraded from killer 1535 to ax210 and ultimate thermal upgrade from thermal paste CM maker gel nano with TG carbonaut and added graphite thermal pads on gtx 980. Now CPU is slow. For battery always disable it from BIOS for Lenovo or asus. Always check the voltage and current rating for standard and express charger with hwinfo. Alienware battery always dies with standard charging which will charge at 65W till 100% and had to change to express charging seems to be correct with charging to 80% with 65W then 10W till 95W and finally 1W till 100%

[@simoeqr1113]

I have the same legion 5 with 4800h gtx 1660 ti, I did change the thermal paste twice since I bought it, because sometime the CPU temp reached 99c and when replacing the paste became like new 87c. I used arctic mx-6.

[@semut7226]

Any tips to unscrew damaged screw head?

[@Zuraditya]

You are the best laptop reviewer Jarrod, so in-depth as always. Btw, I want to ask your opinion on disabling turbo boost for gaming because I virtually cannot see the performance difference but with much lower CPU temp. For only day-to-day use (Gaming/Office/Videos) and no 3d Design or rendering works, are there any downsides on disabling turbo boost?

[@Games_and_Tech]

Amazing job!

[@JarrodsTech]

Thank you!

[@robinrufino8244]

27:18 my delta 15 came with intel ax210 that is rare i suppose

[@velociraptorblue866]

Can you review the new acer 18 helios with mini led 14th gen 4090 250hz?

[@devanshanil2468]

many laptops if they are not premium limit ssd size per slot , like ideapad models here in india has 1tb per slot u cant use a 2tb drive, the service centre guy also told the same he said i tried and it didnt work( locked in firmware)

[@thomas1699]

Good info, as always but REALLY long winded. Cheers!

[@foturis35_18]

Great T-shirt and music taste \m/

[@JarrodsTech]

🤘

[@txmer]

Hello, im trying to upgrade my legion slim 5 14 inch's storage what ssd do you recommend, and do i need heatsink?

[@willwunsche6940]

Those stickers are illegal I believe it's just it's too time consuming to report them/most people don't know how or where to report them myself included

[@minhvunguyenviet7821]

When I first bought my X1 Extreme gen4, I put a 2TB 970EVO SSD, and 64 GB RAM just because I can

[@kywildcats941]

Can you help me with upgrading my clunker of a laptop to Alienware 13 R2 memory please ??

[@diudiamoustache7765]

This isn't a guide. It's a tech tip.

[@shreyasdharashivkar8027]

I tried to pry out the soldered ram, I thought both of So-dimm ram slot on asus vivobook are upgradable. Now I have damaged the laptop it won't start. Why would they not provide both slots which are upgradeable? Smart move asoos

[@santiagocondeno4076]

Hi mate. Could you reccomend me an specific 32gb ram brand and model to upgrade my legion 5 pro gen 8 amd 2023? Im in australia . Thanks

[@RANDOMSHORTS7.]

Jarrod legion pro 5i vs rog strix g16 vs hp omen these three of them have same specs i7 14650hx rtx 4060 2k resolution which do u think will be a better buy