Is it worth updating an old laptop or should I buy new?

[cakeandacuppa]

Hello. I am thinking of buying a new laptop, but can only afford under £300, so I wondered if it would be worth having the old one refurbished or just buy new.

I currently have a Toshiba L450-12X satellite pro, 7-8 years old. It uses windows 7 home and I use open office, no windows 10. It has 1gb ram 160gb hard drive. 512kb processor cache, 2.1ghz processor clock speed, SI-42 processor model number, ATI radeon - HD3200, 1407mb shared graphics, AMD Sempron. Don't know what half this stuff is!

The laptop has trouble buffering/connecting/staying connected to the internet, a short task can take hours or I have to give up. I assume this is down to only having 1gb ram, but I'm no expert. I don't have trouble with using tablets or phones here so I don't think broadband is the problem, except in being received by the Toshiba. I think the hard drive storage wise is fine because I'm not a heavy user, although I do have files of songs and photos but together probably do not exceed 1000. The battery is completely dead so use via mains (battery won't recharge) so obviously that needs sorting and bigger ram needs adding but not sure about processors etc and even though my hard drive seems fine is it the wrong type?

Can anyone tell me if the costs of upgrades would be so much, bearing in mind a local computer shop would have to do the work as I couldn't, that I may as well just buy a new laptop? Would buy for under £300 so storage may be less, but my current laptop is fine to hold my files, songs etc so I'm not worried about that at moment (would need to replace battery still). New one would be mainly for the internet and new docs/songs produced from internet, NO gaming, movie streaming, photo shop etc. Been looking at laptops with 4gb minimum & 64gb, 500gb, 1tb hdd or 128gb ssd (on own not ssd/HDD together, I think!). Also being so untechy could a computer repair shop see me as a soft target and say this and that needs doing when it doesn't and end up costing as much or more than a new laptop. Would only buy from known and walk-inable shops eg Argos, Curry's etc NOT amazon, online small companies etc or get an online refurbished.

Any advice would be appreciated, and quite soon as I was looking if going the new route to get one in the current black Friday deals. If it passes the 24th don't worry you can still advise because even if I buy a new one now it may still be worth having the Toshiba refurbished so my son can have a laptop to himself if he goes to uni or leaves home.

Remember keep it in simple terms for me!

Thanks

 

[cakeandacuppa]

Thanks mjslakeridge,
I shall check that later and let you know, probably not till tomorrow, as deleting files and backing up at moment. It seems to make sense what you say though.

With regard to software was all preloaded and I just had a number to activate it, their was no discs provided.

Thanks

 

[cakeandacuppa]

Hi mjslakeridge and USAFret.

I removed the current ram & can now see where a second one would fit in.

Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Hi mjslakeridge and USAFret.

I removed the current ram & can now see where a second one would fit in.

Thanks

See? Easier than you thought...

 

[mjslakeridge]

When you do purchase and install the new RAM sticks, you may need to go into the BIOS to enable dual channel operation, which will make the RAM operate better (faster). Some systems will detect the 2 RAM sticks and automatically enable dual channel, others require you to set it manually. Your manual should explain it for your system.