Upgrade or Replace? Need advice...

fbermea

Estimable
Feb 14, 2014
3
0
4,510
Hello, I have a laptop I use for work, and it's gotten pretty sluggish recently. Will increasing my RAM and upgrading to a SSD drive improve performance given the specs of my laptop?

Current specs:

OS: Windows 7 Premium
Manufacturer/Model: Acer Aspire 5740-5255
Processor: Intel i3 M330 @ 2.13 GHz, 2133 Mhz, 2 Cores
System Type: x64
RAM: 4 GB
320 GB HDD

I want to upgrade two things, its memory and hard drive.

According to sparepartswarehouse.com, I need: 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3-1066 RAM.

I believe my laptop has 2x2Gb of ram, my plan would be to replace one of the 2GB sticks with a 4GB stick so i have a total of 6GB, but I can't find a stick on pcpartpicker.com. Any suggestions?

Second, can my laptop handle a SSD? If so, which one do you recommend?

Thank you, let me know if you need any more info.





 
Solution
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $179.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-16 14:06 EST-0500)

That is the best SSD for the price you are going to get. Here is a link to some ram:

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-8500-204-Pin-Notebook-CT51264BC1067/dp/B001KB21KA

Its not really a good idea to mix and match pairs of ram from different manufactures but you could try it. Most of the time you will be fine but sometimes you get that one system where is just doesn't work.

Boss Cat Johnson

Honorable
Dec 15, 2013
7
0
10,520
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $179.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-16 14:06 EST-0500)

That is the best SSD for the price you are going to get. Here is a link to some ram:

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3-8500-204-Pin-Notebook-CT51264BC1067/dp/B001KB21KA

Its not really a good idea to mix and match pairs of ram from different manufactures but you could try it. Most of the time you will be fine but sometimes you get that one system where is just doesn't work.
 
Solution

MrSlavw

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2012
4
0
18,510
sorry ,it is 64 ,didn't notice,go to crucial memory ram test ,run it , and see, ssd its ok(but not sure if its worthit ,how long do you want to keep this machine?!) , ram upgrade will help
 

fbermea

Estimable
Feb 14, 2014
3
0
4,510




I want to keep the laptop at least 2-3 more years. Then, if possible, I'd want to upgrade the MOBO/Processor and extend its life 2-3 more years.
 

fbermea

Estimable
Feb 14, 2014
3
0
4,510


Thanks! If I make these upgrades, could I upgrade the MOBO/Processor in 2-3 years and extend the life of this machine? Or is this pretty much the only upgrades I can make to this laptop?
 

Boss Cat Johnson

Honorable
Dec 15, 2013
7
0
10,520


You should be able to but finding parts for a decent price by then my be a challenge. I would suggest you just buy a new laptop in 2-3 years if that one is starting to perform slowly by then. You could always take the 840 Evo with you and put in the next laptop. Depending on the model you may be able to put the mechanical drive in the optical bay and put the 840 as the main boot drive. That way you would have plenty of storage and still have the speed of the SSD.