Worth keeping/upgrading?

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

helpimcrap

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I've been asked to sort a laptop out for someone.
The CPU is Intel I3-2310m @ 2.1ghz, 3gb and a WD5000 500gb 5400 HDD running W7.

She only wants it for work and shopping - usual internet, office stuff, maybe meetings etc.

I've recommended an SSD drive and potentially a ram upgrade. Fresh install of W7, although unsupported now so would W10 be advised?

Trying to do it so she doesn't have to buy a new one, just spend a little on some faster upgrades.


Advice please?
 
SSD will make the biggest difference, I upgraded an old i5 and the drive made a lot more difference than doubling the RAM.

It might be worth checking you can get all the W10 drivers before taking the plunge if you can get them, in my opinion the upgrade is worth it.
 
Too many risks that upgrades don't work. The end result will still be a trash laptop because of the CPU. Trying to save money by spending on this laptop is actually losing money in the long run.

If you're insisting on keeping it. I would spend nothing. Install a familiar-looking Linux distro. Learn alternatives to MS Office (google docs, open office).
 
It's a money sink. Ask her what she would be willing to spend on a new laptop and go from there. £400 or around that area is sufficient and would do her a few years to come.
 
Upgrading ram, ssd and going windows 7/8/10 64 bit would help a little, then when you're tinkering you think... maybe I could do a new battery etc....

Personally I'd just put the money towards a new laptop, the above parts are likely getting close to the cost of a low end laptop which would be considerably better overall imo.
 
Couple of sub-£20 upgrades (used SSD and RAM) are worth the punt. IMO second gen Core series is where the cutoff is.

I did look at a slow laptop for someone last week and it was struggling on 8GB with Windows 10. Very surprising TBH but there we go, times move on. 8 used to be fine and 4 was iffy.
 
Cheers for the advice. I can get a new SSD for £30 and DDR3 4gb for about £15.
That's 6gb then which is double.
After these upgrades is where I would draw the line.
But bang for buck you reckon they'd be ok? Would be about £50 instead of £400+ outlay. Second hand laptops would be I3s for less than that.
 
helpimcrap said:
Cheers for the advice. I can get a new SSD for £30 and DDR3 4gb for about £15.
That's 6gb then which is double.
After these upgrades is where I would draw the line.
But bang for buck you reckon they'd be ok? Would be about £50 instead of £400+ outlay. Second hand laptops would be I3s for less than that.
Click to expand...
Before you spend money you need to check the laptop has support for that amount of ram and that you can get x64 drivers, you'll need x64 for that amount of ram (should be able to use the same windows code - look for it first, magical jelly bean if you need to get it from pc before reinstall).

Honestly, not sure how much this will actually help with stuff like video conferencing though and you've got to remember the cpu likely got hit pretty bad by spectre patches etc. A clean install might help a little too, especially if you keep it to the bare essentials, but the odds are you're likely flogging a dead horse.

Basically, if you can afford it, it's probably worth a shot for £50, but I'd probably be looking at a new pc longer term.
 
Sounds like a good plan overall imho (nice small cost upgrade to give things a bit of a boost), but as noted further above check if you can get proper drivers for win 10 before upgrading the OS. You could always just sling on win 10 unlicensed first, see if you can get things working and wipe it if need be, rather than commiting to it and hoping for the best.
 
t31os said:
Sounds like a good plan overall imho (nice small cost upgrade to give things a bit of a boost), but as noted further above check if you can get proper drivers for win 10 before upgrading the OS. You could always just sling on win 10 unlicensed first, see if you can get things working and wipe it if need be, rather than commiting to it and hoping for the best.
Click to expand...
I was thinking this but had forgot about the unlicensed options. I have 2 copies already on USB for mine. Doh.
Cheers for prompting. She has licensed W7 but obviously unsupported. I do the usual spybot and firewall etc. Given me some things to try.
 
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