Is Upgrading RAM worth it, or buy new laptop?

inflationbusting

Hi,

I'd like some opinions on whether I should upgrade my laptop. I have a Sony TR1MP which is around 5 years old now. I love this laptop and it has given me no problems, however, the performance can be a little slow at times - sometimes taking an age to load. It only has a 30GB hard disk.
It only has 256MB of RAM and I am thinking of adding another 512MB onto it, which costs around £60 or so. Max is 1GB of RAM - how much improvement of performance do you get?

Is this a wise investment, or given that some netbooks are sub-£200 with 1GB Ram, bigger hard disks, is this a better option? I don't really need the computer for anything intensive such as games, although I do use it for work applications such as Office and Photoshop.

Thanks.

mickeypops

Hi

I assume that you're running Windows XP. 256Mb of RAM is going to run like a dog, so investiing in more RAM will definitely help dramatically.

But the decision to buy / not buy depends upon your attitude to money. The RAM upgrade might eke out another year / two before you'll want to change anyway for a number of reasons.

So is the £60 worth extending its life, or or you just "wasting" £60 that could go towards a brand spanking new laptop?

Your call...

BillScarab

Personally I would put the money towards a better laptop.

Upgrading the RAM should help but at £60 it's not that cheap and you've still got a small HD and presumably all of the other components are low spec compared to modern machines.

However if it does what you want and is just a bit slow then upgrading the RAM may make enough of a difference that you can carry on using it for a while longer.

aliEnRIK

Whats the cpu speed and what size hardrive is it?

1 gig would see a HUGH increase in speed from what you have now (even 3/4 of a gig should)

closed

The cheapest option is to backup your data and reinstall windows (from the factory restore partition if it has one), or to cut down the software running at startup using hijack this or autoruns and http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php

Contrary to popular belief, XP runs easily in 256MB, providing you cut down the bloat installed and running at startup since you bought it. Photoshop can be a little demanding on ram though.

Go into task manager, and look at processes pf usage and peak commit, trim startup apps until it gets down to 240MB or less, and it will run much faster. Also run a malware scan, malwarebytes etc, to rule out infections.

Donnie

Who told you that it would cost £60? Surprised that no one else has challenged this statement. It is most certainly worthy of upgrade.

512 MB PC 2100 SO-DIMM £15

zee_2

price 2gb ram 2x1 if space or 1x2gb if only 1 slot ,price at ebuyer.co.uk , cruicial.co.uk , same for 250 gb hard drive at ebuyer [ they have a on site forum for advice ] also small case to hold old hard drive [complete with fittings ] costs about £12 and plugs into your l/t to transfer anything .

Donnie

zee wrote: »

price 2gb ram 2x1 if space or 1x2gb if only 1 slot ,price at ebuyer.co.uk , cruicial.co.uk , same for 250 gb hard drive at ebuyer...... .

What on earth.....?

the182guy

I would go for a new machine, because it sounds low spec and you say you want to run MS Office and Photoshop. You'll need to upgrade to more than 768MB to run Photoshop well. I wouldn't upgrade to a netbook though, I'd want standard 15" screen at least for Photoshop work.

By the way, £60 is expensive for a 512mb stick of laptop memory. I got two 1GB sticks of Kingston RAM for my girlfriends's laptop ages ago for less than that.

Basil1234

Donnie wrote: »

What on earth.....?

think what he is getting at is sticking ram upto 2gb while your at it and stick in a larger hardrive.

personally if the motherboard can handle 2gb i would fill it once and then find its not enough later on like he has now or otherwise bite the bullet and buy something new which would cost more now but machine would be better overall fast proccesor everything make that do for next 5 yrs. always down to what your willing/got to spend.

Leopard

Broadly speaking, the further you can push your existing laptop down the road while still being content with its performance, the better and cheaper will be the next one that you will, inevitably, have to buy in the end.

When it comes to getting bang-for-buck with Windows laptops, Donnie knows his stuff. Trust him.

Upgrading works wonders. :money:

You'd probably be amazed at what a full gig of RAM would do for it.

You could also buy a new 80 GB or 120 GB hard disc drive for it now quite inexpensively (try eBay) and would be wise to do so before the existing, five year old drive in it fails suddenly and without warning. It's mechanical; they wear out.

I'm writing this on an eight year old Apple laptop (upgraded twice) and it still performs just fine for simple, basic tasks.

(When it comes to getting bang-for-buck with Apple laptops, I know my stuff; trust me. )