Looking for a laptop in the $300 range

slayerbizkit

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Sep 26, 2009
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Laptop is going to be mainly used for school/work. I don't really plan on gaming on it but it should run fast/smooth for browsing and whatnot. My current laptop gets laggy and slow when I'm browsing and trying to work in Word/Powerpoint/Excel. Suggestions?
 
Solution
If you are OK with the smaller and lower res screen, it will be faster as far as the CPU and hard-drive goes. You may just look into getting more RAM and a newer SSD hard drive for yours, will be about $100 and I think it will run as fast at a cheap laptop. Two matching 2GB RAM sticks are about $30 and will give you dual channel speeds, another $70 for a 256 GB SSD, laptop will feell like new. If you want to spend the extra on a new system, you'll get a faster CPU but will have a slower hard drive (once you swap it for a new one) and lower quality screen. Your current laptop even if it's older, is higher quality than any new system under $500, outside of the slower CPU and RAM. If this was my system, I'd upgrade it for the $100...

slayerbizkit

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Sep 26, 2009
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I have an HP 8730W, dual core 2.5Ghz with 3GB of RAM. Did a clean install of Windows 7 64-bit but it freezes up when I have multiple tabs open. It's impossible to multi-task on it. Here is what I'm thinking of getting:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J42JPL4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
If you are OK with the smaller and lower res screen, it will be faster as far as the CPU and hard-drive goes. You may just look into getting more RAM and a newer SSD hard drive for yours, will be about $100 and I think it will run as fast at a cheap laptop. Two matching 2GB RAM sticks are about $30 and will give you dual channel speeds, another $70 for a 256 GB SSD, laptop will feell like new. If you want to spend the extra on a new system, you'll get a faster CPU but will have a slower hard drive (once you swap it for a new one) and lower quality screen. Your current laptop even if it's older, is higher quality than any new system under $500, outside of the slower CPU and RAM. If this was my system, I'd upgrade it for the $100 before buying a new one, if the issue was just slowness with several tabs open.

On the other hand, if you feel like getting something new, you should be able to sell your laptop for at least $100 and get some money towards a new system.
 
Solution

slayerbizkit

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Sep 26, 2009
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I think hit solve too soon. I found the correct RAM for my laptop and just ordered it. As for an SSD, what size should I get for my HP? Would a 2.5 fit ?
 


You want a standard SATA laptop drive, so yes, 2.5" form. This is a good price for the capacity http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178967&cm_re=pny_ssd_240gb-_-20-178-967-_-Product Or you can get the current standard for $20 more http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147372&cm_re=samsung_evo_850-_-20-147-372-_-Product