How to Make my Laptop Faster (Until I get my new PC)

[TechyInAZ]

Hey all! I have a nearly 3 year old Gigabyte Q2532N laptop with a intel core i5 2410M 2.3Ghz, 4GB DDR3 1333mhz ram, GT 540M GPU, Corsair GT 120GB SSD. Windows 8.1 Pro.

Anyways, I'm asking if there is a way to make this computer faster, I'm using the High Performance Power Plan and that keeps things pretty quick, but webpages lag a little and some other things.

BTW...This isn't 100% necessary to make it faster, since Ill be getting a new PC in the next 2 months.

Can you overclock the Turbo Boost? Since other versions of my i5 2410M like the i5 2430M have a turbo above 3Ghz.

 

[burdenbound]

I would recommend an SSD and some more RAM. I highly doubt the i5 in there is holding back your internet browsing. If you are not wanting to spend money on those parts I think your best bet will be to just hold out until you make your new system. Clocking your CPU higher will not show improvements if the processor isn't what is holding you back.

 

[jaguarskx]

Adding a SSD and another stick of RAM can help make your laptop feel more responsive.

However, if by "faster" you mean "more powerful", then that would mean replacing the CPU with something more powerful. Assuming the laptop can recognize the CPU.

 

[TechyInAZ]

Thx for yalls input, I already have a SSD (if you didn't see my specs at the top) but I only have 4GB of RAM which is probably slowing me down the most.

Here is what I do and what happens:
Ever since I've made an account for tomshardware (1 week ago) I usually like responding to as many questions as I can, so I ususally have up to 20 tabs on just toms hardware threads. However, it really slows my computer down, my i5 is at 100% load normally when I do that.

Perhaps the most irritating thing that happens also is this:
When I make a build for people through pcpartpicker, after picking the cpu and mobo I go the the Memory page. However, when I do so it usually jams my internet explorer up so I have to either wait for 30 to 1 min to unfreeze or do a forced shut down on IE. (even forced shut down I can't even do since my pc is so slow it takes 10 sec just to get task manager to load.)

 

[burdenbound]

Thx for yalls input, I already have a SSD (if you didn't see my specs at the top) but I only have 4GB of RAM which is probably slowing me down the most.

Here is what I do and what happens:
Ever since I've made an account for tomshardware (1 week ago) I usually like responding to as many questions as I can, so I ususally have up to 20 tabs on just toms hardware threads. However, it really slows my computer down, my i5 is at 100% load normally when I do that.

Perhaps the most irritating thing that happens also is this:
When I make a build for people through pcpartpicker, after picking the cpu and mobo I go the the Memory page. However, when I do so it usually jams my internet explorer up so I have to either wait for 30 to 1 min to unfreeze or do a forced shut down on IE. (even forced shut down I can't even do since my pc is so slow it takes 10 sec just to get task manager to load.)

An extra 4GB of RAM will surely help if you have that many tabs open. I am surprised that your CPU is at 100% though. Have you checked to see what programs are using that much processing power? Also I would download CPUZ in conjunction with windows task manager to see if your processor core clock speed is not being throttled. Sometimes there will be software on laptops to help them conserve power by reducing the clock speed of the CPU, if it does this when your computer actually needs the speed you will notice 100% CPU usage spikes and slow down.

I would make sure your in high performance mode on top of that.

 

[Recycled]

According to: http/www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3793#sp

You might be able to upgrade the processor to a 2nd gen i7 (Sandy Bridge.) I know they shipped i7 processors, but I don't see much on upgrading it.

You can (easily) upgrade the RAM to 8GB. There are 2 DIMM sockets.

The video is not upgradable.