i7 laptop extremely slow

[hvhua123]

Hey guys,
I was given a laptop in its box (brand new) last year (Toshiba Satellite L50-B) running an intel i7 and AMD Radeon R7 M260, considering the specs, it gets extremely slow at times. I've attached a picture of the task manager with Firefox Quantum (latest update) with two tabs opened as well as Microsoft word opened. Sometimes, when I shut down and then turn it on again to use, it takes several minutes to fully log on and get everything ready for use, could this be because it runs on a HDD, would it be resolved if I have switch to an SSD? Would it be worth it since I only use it for university work?

Task manager: https/imgur.com/a/JxEaM
Processors in device manager - https/imgur.com/a/IcqYS
System - https/imgur.com/a/DfmpK

 

[GreyCatz]

If you have the cash I'd recommend you get a decent 256GB SSD. It will accelerate boot-up time quite massively - something like under 10 seconds.

I'm not sure if the WiFi socket is designed for an M.2 SSD, but if it is you can use this slot for the system SSD and use the old HDD as storage. If not, you'll probably need an external 1TB HDD as well - 256GBs will be gone fairly quickly.

Other than that, there's little you can do with the current specs. You're running a dual-core i7 Haswell and a mechanical HDD and Firefox actually uses more RAM than Microsoft Edge. The AMD GPU is a decent graphics unit - I'm assuming it's the 2GB version.

Bear in mind that Windows 10 has hundreds of background processes running at any given time, and with a host of notification pop-ups and messages I'm not surprised at the Task Manager read-out. Remember also that Windows 10 will download and install updates automatically. You can tweak some Windows 10 settings, e.g. disabling notifications, and with an SSD you'll achieve significant improvement.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[hvhua123]

If you have the cash I'd recommend you get a decent 256GB SSD. It will accelerate boot-up time quite massively - something like under 10 seconds.

I'm not sure if the WiFi socket is designed for an M.2 SSD, but if it is you can use this slot for the system SSD and use the old HDD as storage. If not, you'll probably need an external 1TB HDD as well - 256GBs will be gone fairly quickly.

Other than that, there's little you can do with the current specs. You're running a dual-core i7 Haswell and a mechanical HDD and Firefox actually uses more RAM than Microsoft Edge. The AMD GPU is a decent graphics unit - I'm assuming it's the 2GB version.

Bear in mind that Windows 10 has hundreds of background processes running at any given time, and with a host of notification pop-ups and messages I'm not surprised at the Task Manager read-out. Remember also that Windows 10 will download and install updates automatically. You can tweak some Windows 10 settings, e.g. disabling notifications, and with an SSD you'll achieve significant improvement.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

Since I'm from the land downunder (Australia) tech can get pretty expensive and the selection tends to be quite limited. Wester Digital Green SSD are the reasonably priced ones from the local tech-store, would you recommend them? If not, what are some affordable ones? I tend to stay away from the Samsung range since they are pretty pricey! Thanks

 

[GreyCatz]

I use Kingston and Toshiba myself and they have worked without problems for the past 2 years. They are also less expensive than comparable Samsungs. I did some web-browsing and found a couple of Australian tech outlets. Filtering by brands (Kingston, Crucial and WD) I found these SSDs:

From mwave:
https/www.mwave.com.au/hdds/solid-state-drives-ssd/western-digital?display=list&filteroptions=188%3Dkingston!188%3Dcrucial!188%3Dwestern-digital&filter=188%3DBrand!188%3Dbrand!188%3Dbrand

And from Umart-online:
https/www.umart.com.au/SSD-Hard-Drive_C.html?id=580&brand=88&price_min=&price_max=&filter=0

As you can see, you can get 240GB and 250GB SSDs from between AUD109 and AUD130 and that's significantly less than similar Samsungs.

While I'm sure there's a reason why Samsungs tend to be more expensive I don't think they are worth the extra cost unless you absolutely need high-speed precision. Kingston seems to be the 'budget' brand and that's good enough for my needs - regular computer work and running Windows.

I use Western Digital and Seagate for my mechanical hard-disks (internal and external) but I assume their SSDs are on par with Kingston in terms of reliability.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.