How to Upgrade Laptop

Hello all. I recently bought myself an Alienware laptop but wasn't able to select the best processor/graphics card or anything for that matter. I want it to run better since I can't play most of my games (Guild Wars, WoW, Shogun 2, Battlefield 3, etc.) that need some heavy duty builds to run on Max settings. Specially the most anticipated Game ever for me: Guild Wars 2. I gotta have my Laptop ready for it!
So my question is, what should I buy to upgrade my laptop to run all the games I want with all settings set to Max? Should I just purchase a Radeon Graphics Card? If so, which one would be good enough? Purchase more RAM? If so, how do I go about doing that? Upgrade processor? If so, which one? Anything else?
Any info on where to buy anything you all suggest I should purchase with the best pricing and reliable seller would be much appreciated as well. And please remember that I am not familiar with Computer Jargon so please keep it in laymen's terms and detailed
Here are my specs (let me know if you all need anything else and how I can get that info please)
Alienware M14X
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz 2.00GHz
Installed memory (RAM): 4.00 GB
64-bit Operating System
Graphics Card:
(Not sure. Says this under Display adapters)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M
Intel(R) HD Graphics Family

Thanks a lot I'm no computer expert, but I'm hoping you all will help me get my laptop to its full potential
Happy gaming!

that laptop should definitely be able to at least run guild wars on full settings, and id of thought wow as-well. Are you running it off mains power? if so make sure its using your GeForce card and not the inbuilt card.(will make a big difference). we dont know much about the required specs for guildwars and theirfore what your looking for to max it, but id be very surprised if your current build couldn't at the bare minimum run it at average-good settings.

Oh, yeah sorry I forgot to mention the details about Guild Wars. It runs on Max pretty much perfectly, but there are some instances where the frame rates will go down, but this happens very rarely. I would just want those graphical instances to cease completely. On WoW, I can't run everything on Max without it not running smoothly. When I do, there's a very noticeable graphical lag. (not internet speed problems for sure.)
I know it would be able to run it in decent settings, but I would much prefer to be able to have it Maxed out since a huge part of gaming for me are the details in the visuals. Well, just by looking at Guild Wars 2, you're able to tell you're going to need a good build for it to run smoothly on Max settings so we can make educated guesses that it will probably need about the same that, say, Battlefield 3 does to run on Max.
How can I make sure it's running on GeForce and not the built-in card? I wasn't even aware this could happen
Thanks for your input

when you boot, go into the bios (F2 when the alien head screen comes up), go to advanced-->graphics---> and makes sure hybrid is selected(it can go into discrete mode if you power up without the adapter in). If your looking to upgrade then id go for the graphics card first(looking for a powerful all in one card, very hard to add sli if the laptop doesn't come with it allready), then the processor from the details you've given me, but upgrading on a laptop is always a bit more complex than a desktop. Hopefully guild wars 2 will be well optimized but only time will tell.

That option doesn't appear for me :/
Which Graphics Card would you recommend? And which Processor? I wouldn't know which AMD Card would be enough to meet my needs and what processor. Yeah, we can only hope it will be optimized enough to let most of us run on max. Thanks a lot for your help

You can't upgrade a laptop with more then more memory and a other hard drive if you are lucky.

Lagging on a laptop that should be able to run games without breaking a sweat may be a sign of over-heating. Make sure your air vents aren't covered, try to raise the laptop off of the desk a bit to increase airflow underneath it (you can get these spider-like stands that laptops can sit on, or get a cooling pad), and clear out dust regularly (blow it out or use a compressed air can, don't use a vacuum cleaner).

How you would upgrade the CPU or GPU in your laptop would be - sell old laptop... buy new laptop with better CPU and GPU. Trying to upgrade a laptop is prohibitively expensive. You don't just drop a video "card" or CPU into a laptop.

It does sound as though you are having problems with the the nVidia Optimus graphics. Optimus is supposed to switch between the on-chip Intel graphics and the separate nVidia chip (GT555m) automatically. I don't know enough about it to say what's involved. There may be profiles or settings necessary for each game, or maybe tweaks to make sure it switches properly. (Or it could be crap or busted.)

RTFM! (Read The F'n Manual)

I'm with Quaker on it.
Your machine seems to be able to run GW on max details with no problems, probably even using multilaunch to run two windows at the same time. It seems more of a driver-related problem, or maybe over-heating, or Optimus. I doubt it's a hardware issue, unless you got an already damaged machine or threw it against a wall.

@Yol Hmm, ok I'll buy myself a cooling pad today and see if that helps. I've been using a pad that blocks the airflow underneath, but I thought, since it has holes on the sides and back, that was enough to cool it. I'll buy a can of compressed air also and clean it out. I really hope that's the only problem with it and I don't have to buy a whole new laptop. I hope this computer is good enough to run my games on max like you claim without having to upgrade and it's just some tweaking I need to do.

@Quaker Ok, I'll try to learn what to do to switch profiles and settings to optimize my laptop for each game and see if that's enough. Just have to find out HOW to learn all this

@drkn should I take it to someone that would be able to check if there's something wrong with it or call customer service for alienware?

Thanks everyone.

The problem i had with mine Alienware (2 years old mx17) was that when it was booted without power it would only run off the Intel Chipset, and would stay like that until you changed the settings in BIOS(even if you booted it with the power in afterwards). Overheating could be a problem(mine chucks out nearly unbearable levels of heat at times), but that can be sorted with a cooling pad(which is a good idea anyway). About upgrading the laptop, i know that cpu is pretty much a no-no, but aAienware was able to swap my old 260M for a better card(damn thing was majorly bottle-necking my machine) when i rang them but that was a while ago.

@sycorax Alienware customer service is usually pretty decent if you stick with it, its outsourced but they can usually solve any problems that come up.

@Sinny I've been contacting Alienware support and they told me they were going to optimize my laptop for me through remote access and I will ask them if this might be a problem for me too. I do notice a huge difference when it's plugged in than being unplugged. They're going to do everything for me, but what sucks is that I have to completely delete everything on my computer and reset it to factory settings :[ I'm backing up everything I can right now, but I know I'm probably going to miss saving something.
You suggested for me to buy a cooling pad and I bought one yesterday. My lap is no longer being burned thanks to that :] and it's not making noises like if it's about to explode anymore. The laptop stays cool now so hopefully that helps with performance too.
I'll also try suggesting if it might be the card that needs to be swapped and hopefully I can get hooked up with a better one =D
Thanks for all the good advice, Sinny. I really do appreciate it.

When your laptop is not plugged in, the system will use a power saving profile, so that it doesn't consume the battery ultra fast, when its plugged the profile is disabled,

Bottom line the laptop will not preform as good on the battery as it does with the AC line, you can tweak the profile, from the control panel>power options ( i believe thats what its called ) but beware if you push the settings up for when its only on the battery, it will die FAST, my Dell XPS will eat the battery with very little settings turned up, and you want to play a game on high settings, probably Wifi too, etc etc, it all adds up.

As for what Draca and Qauker said, you dont just upgrade a laptop like a PC, you can maybe add more ram ( the board will probably only take 4Gb max anyway ) and maybe a bigger HDD, for you to replace the rest of it, you would be cheaper buying a new system.

Ok I'm no expert but here's my thoughts on your current situation:

Your laptop has a decent CPU but it's GPU is now average at best as far as laptop gaming goes. Yes GW1 will and should run smoothly at max settings as your setup will run any 5 year old game well.

As far as upgrading goes it really depends on your Alienware Chassis, it's motherboard and the actual ability to enable superior power demands and cooling. By and large a present day - yours is still relevant -decent quad core in any laptop should be more than enough to handle any demands for gaming. The one thing that must be a priority when thinking of mobile gaming is graphics. GPU, GPU, and more GPU. Now, not being fully up to date with Alienware's latest, I can't honestly advise on what to upgrade to but you have an NVidia 555m, so I'm going to suggest you think about a 570m upgrade minimum (I have the 580m and it's a beast but i was willing to throw money at it- needlessly some may say). Keep the CPU but fit in some RAM, I don't think any present day game needs any more than 4 but still if you're going to think about relying on your mobile unit for a year or 2 then think about spending a bit more.

Ultimately, you are limited to what you can afford, and also what you can actually do. Your next step is to talk to Dell (unluckily its not Alienware outright anymore) and see what they can do for you as far as upgrading goes. If you're cash happy drop me a message i'll try to steer you to a decent spec.

Good luck!

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One thing a gaming laptop has the potential to get hit by, is heat - there are programmes out there to check the temps, but a great way to combat it is by investing in a decent cool pad. It not only improves performance but increases the lifespan of your internal components. I use the NC 2000 which is quiet and lowers temps by 10-15 degrees after testiing under intense conditions. It's worth it.

Are you sure the Video card is not a GTX 550, you have it listed as a GT 550M. Actualy having just checked the alienwares ship with the GT. Don't know why they would ship a Gaming Laptop with such a underpowered card. I've heard they are very overclockable so if heat is not the issue you might want to investigate that.

Your can use GPU Observer to monitor the GPU and make sure its not overheating. This is done via a Desktop gadget

Core Temp will also monitor your RAM and Processors as well. It also has a deskto gadget as well to monitor.