More RAM or SSD?

[mknabster]

Hi all,

I know this has been asked before, but i wanted to ask anyways, because the upgrades i'm talking about aren't too big of a step, and i'm just trying to figure out which would be best. So the laptop in question is an HP 2510p with 80GB ZIF HDD and 2GB RAM with a 1.8Ghz Core2Duo. My question is what would be a better upgrade where i would notice a difference, a 128GB SSD or 4GB of RAM? Both are about the same price which is why i'm torn between the two. Like with an SSD and 2GB of RAM and the other specs it has, would it still be speedy?

I only use the laptop for classwork and to occasionally travel. I don't want to get a new laptop because i'm happy with the portability of this one, just want it to be a bit quicker.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I've got an old Laptop with a Core2Duo P8400, 4GB of RAM and an old first gen 128GB Samsung SSD and it's still pretty good for a basic browsing computer. You really almost need 4GB of RAM with Windows 10. An SSD would make a huge improvement as well but I'd consider it secondary to having 4GB of RAM.

If you can find an older SSD for cheap that laptop isn't going to support SATA 3 speeds anyway.

That being said no amount of money is going to turn that into a fast machine. It's just too old.

 

[geofelt]

You really need to try to do both.
I updated a similarly old laptop.
with 2gbof ram everything was abysmally slow. Adding 2gb helped and replacing the Hard drive with a ssd made all the difference in the world.
Make certain that you have a supported ram upgrade.
Kingston and others will have a ram upgrade app.

 

[mknabster]

Yea this computer has one RAM slot so i would need to replace the current 2GB stick with a 4GB stick and those can be pretty pricey, i'm seeing $85 as the cheapest for DDR2. The SSD I was able to find on ebay for $75 for a 128GB ZIF so i thought that was reasonable, but i don't know if i should even bother with it at all.

 

[ayocoded]

both your HDD and RAM can be uograded.

 

[geofelt]

Yea this computer has one RAM slot so i would need to replace the current 2GB stick with a 4GB stick and those can be pretty pricey, i'm seeing $85 as the cheapest for DDR2. The SSD I was able to find on ebay for $75 for a 128GB ZIF so i thought that was reasonable, but i don't know if i should even bother with it at all.

If your motherboard has only one ram slot, it may also be restricted to 2gb of ram.
CPU-Z will tell you what the motherboard model number is.
That will tell us what your max ram can be.

Also, I am guessing that the motherboard is so old as to not support sata.
If so, I would not bother with any sort of an IDE ssd.

You are better off buying a cheap replacement.
You can buy a much more capable replacement for $200.
Look at Lenovo outlet.

 

[1shado1]

both your HDD and RAM can be uograded.

Yes, he already knows that. He's trying to decide which upgrade would be better.

 

[geofelt]

Reading the specs, it looks to me that you have one ram permanently affixed of 2gb, and you have one available upgrade slot.
http/h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c01057682
There is a warning that added ram needs to be compatible.
I do not see updates for your laptop available from Kingston or g.skil.
Here is a lint to one user who upgraded his to 4gb using F2-5300CL5S-4GBSQ
http/forum.notebookreview.com/threads/upgrading-my-2510p-to-4gb-ram.306389/
That ram costs $85 on newegg. I do not know why.
You might enter a saved search on ebay to find a stick at a price reasonable to you.

On the ssd, you have a PATA device which makes a ssd an expensive proposition, at least compared to sata.

ON ebay, there is a kingspec 128gb ssd starting at $50, buy it now for ?85
http/www.ebay.com/itm/KingSpec-128GB-1-8-5mm-ZIF-SSD-KSD-ZF18-6-128MS-/162275580618?hash=item25c860daca:g:lnIAAOSw8w1X9cZ5

Then, you would have to figure out a way to clone your hard drive or do a clean windows reinstallation.

You might be able to use some sort of a PATA to SATA adapter.

Lots of work.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

^ Lots of expensive work for an old laptop that could die from any number of reasons tomorrow. You could make it faster but with a PATA interface the gains from an SSD aren't going to be terribly impressive.