Personal projects are way different than trying to increase performance for F$%@'s sake. Like I said, if you put a value on the time you spent working on the laptop versus just buying a new one, it's a fool's errand to increase performance versus buying parts that are superior to the stuff you are using. Because you are doing it for the hunt, that's a different beast and it's perfectly acceptable. Just don't sell your first born for that super rare bga2 CPU.