Unsure whether to upgrade components or new laptop

[Jared Groves]

Question from Australia, the Mrs has a Sony vaio model vpc-eh18fg specs as follows

15 inch screen
i5-2410M @ 2.30GHz
4GB ram
500GB 5400rpm HDD
GeForce 410M
Windows 7 (64-bit)

Windows index reports
Processor = 6.9
Memory (RAM) = 7.1
Graphics = 5.1
Gaming Graphics = 6.3
Primary Hard disk = 5.7

I'm trying to decide whether to add an ssd looking at MX100 256GB, new battery and increase to 8GB ram at 1600MHz or just buy a new laptop that has USB 3.0. I'm looking at $140 for ssd, $70 for new battery and $90 for RAM.

She mainly uses the laptop for assignments and accounting stuff also movies and web browsing, she has a 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive for storing the movies and TV. At the moment it's a heap of crap, takes forever to load anything and refuses to multi-task. It even struggles to open office etc.

I'm going to do a clean install of windows 8.1 just unsure whether the upgrades will be worth it or if we should just get something better. I'm not sure whether the ram is really needed either or if I can get away with just the ssd, also is there a way to add usb 3.0 to it somehow? I don't think it has an express port but is there another way? Maybe replacing the optical disk drive with something or the usb 2.0 board?

i forgot to mention the battery is cactus lucky to last 30mins off charge. Any reputable replacement battery manufacturers I can only find chinese batteries here and they always split and leak

 

[Louise Porkolt]

Hi there,

I think with an upgrade without the RAM you will gain enough speed. Depending on what she will do with the laptop ! is she a developer or gamer then I advise to add more RAM (16GB) but just for accounting and open some extra documents at the same time 4GB is enough.

If you want to buy a new laptop you'll pay more then what you'll get for the old (current) one selling it !

If you change the SSD the speed will increase the speed more than buying a new one with out SSD !

about the USB3.0 I don't know if it exists ! if you buy a new laptop you'll have USB 3.0 for sure !

hope this helps !

Cheers, Louise.


PS: We haven't spoken about reinstalling the OS with apps' when you buy a new computer !! If you consider "time" as a cost !

 

[jaguarskx]

If your wife had no issues with the laptop when it was new, then re-installing Windows 8.1 should clean up any crap that may have caused the laptop to slowdown over the years. This should be your 1st step before buying any new parts. Just make sure to backup any important data to the external hard drive before reinstalling Win 8.1 because that will wipe any data on the C: drive. Hopefully this should clear up all or most of the issues your wife is having.

Adding 4GB of RAM can help increase performance a little especially if your wife have a lot of programs opened at once that would eat up the RAM. But based on what she is using the laptop, it does not sound like that is happening.

A new battery does not affect performance. However, if the current battery has shorter battery life compared to when it was new and your wife need to use the laptop away from an electrical outlet, then a new battery doesn't hurt. If the laptop only used at home and is always plugged in, then there is no need to buy a battery.

A SSD will allow the laptop to boot up / shut down Windows and load programs faster. But I would only install it if your wife feels that the laptop is not as responsive as she would like after re-installing Windows.

Regarding upgrading to USB 3.0, you basically cannot do that. You will need to buy a new laptop with USB 3.0 port. Yes, if your wife is moving a lot of video files from the laptop to the external HDD, then USB 2.0 will be a bottleneck. But once the large video files have been moved, USB 2.0 will be fine to playback the movie from the external HDD.

 

[Jared Groves]

If your wife had no issues with the laptop when it was new, then re-installing Windows 8.1 should clean up any crap that may have caused the laptop to slowdown over the years. This should be your 1st step before buying any new parts. Just make sure to backup any important data to the external hard drive before reinstalling Win 8.1 because that will wipe any data on the C: drive. Hopefully this should clear up all or most of the issues your wife is having.

Adding 4GB of RAM can help increase performance a little especially if your wife have a lot of programs opened at once that would eat up the RAM. But based on what she is using the laptop, it does not sound like that is happening.

A new battery does not affect performance. However, if the current battery has shorter battery life compared to when it was new and your wife need to use the laptop away from an electrical outlet, then a new battery doesn't hurt. If the laptop only used at home and is always plugged in, then there is no need to buy a battery.

A SSD will allow the laptop to boot up / shut down Windows and load programs faster. But I would only install it if your wife feels that the laptop is not as responsive as she would like after re-installing Windows.

Regarding upgrading to USB 3.0, you basically cannot do that. You will need to buy a new laptop with USB 3.0 port. Yes, if your wife is moving a lot of video files from the laptop to the external HDD, then USB 2.0 will be a bottleneck. But once the large video files have been moved, USB 2.0 will be fine to playback the movie from the external HDD.

thanks for your answer i guess i forgot to mention that the battery is cactus lucky to last 30mins off charge and all our other devices boot from ssd so the laptop stands out like a sore thumb hence the upgrade
thanks