New laptop or upgrade old one

stinky_daddy

Hi all

as the title suggests, I am in a bit of a quandary.

Should I buy a new laptop or just a new motherboard / chip, SSD (is there any great difference between a 256GB and a 512GB SSD) and the like?

I would not do the work myself (no idea what I am doing unfortunately and don't want to experiment on something that could cost me lots of money if I screw it up)!

Probably (not checked) but getting a new motherboard & SSD etc would be the more cost effective solution (as I have a laptop ready to fit it all into - it is approx. 5 / 6 years old but am happy with the screen on it).

I currently use it for emails, surfing the web and converting files to different formats and general matters _ I do not use it to play games on (the occasional game of solitaire but that's it).

I would look to spend circa £400 (or less) doing either.

Any suggestions and/or recommendations at all?

TIA

s_d

stragglebod

Laptop motherboards aren't standardised, you are very unlikely to find one that will fit your existing laptop other than an expensive like for like swap.

What's wrong with what you've got at the moment? Without knowing that it's impossible to advise you.

If you don't already have an SSD that's usually an easy way to do a cheap upgrade.

almillar

Tell us the make, model, specs of your current laptop and we can work out whether it's worth spending money on. If you've got £400 though, spending that on another laptop, rather than upgrades, will get better results I'd imagine.

molerat

Make and model of laptop and processor / memory configuration would be helpful for some meaningful advice. I am happily running laptops from 2007 with SSDs and memory maximised, perfectly adequate for general browsing / streaming video etc, both upgrades being the simplest of DIY tasks. The size of SSD depends on what you want to store on it, around the 250GB mark seems to currently be the optimal value point.

Cisco001

If you want a new one, here are few may worth considering


https://www.ebuyer.com/879510-hp-250-g7-laptop-i5-8gb-256gb-full-hd-15-6in-win10-home-6mp21es-abu


https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/81F400E9UK-Lenovo-IdeaPad-330s_2498826.html


https://www.johnlewis.com/asus-vivobook-s14-s430fa-eb021t-laptop-intel-core-i3-processor-4gb-ram-256gb-ssd-14-full-hd-gun-metal/p3943352?sku=237889150&&s_kwcid=2dxLIA&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkpH5jeuY4wIVLLftCh2b4AVXEAQYAyABEgLeiPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


https://www.ebuyer.com/855754-lenovo-v330-14arr-ryzen-5-laptop-81b1001euk?mkwid=s_dc&pcrid=51467863979&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz_qm-uOY4wIVw4jVCh17dQOXEAYYASABEgJ45_D_BwE

stinky_daddy

A chip on the motherboard had issues and shorted out unfortunately, so I cannot power it on hence why I thought about changing / upgrading the motherboard and chipset.

It is an ASUS model is an X53E and has a I5 processor and 15.6" display another reason why the ask about upgrading, as the majority of models in that price range are usually I3 and / or 14" screens (think I might notice the difference going down in size). Not too sure if an I3 processor (later generation) is better than an older I5 or not. I had 8Gb of RAM added to it to help speed it up after it became a bit sluggish.

TIA

s_d

EveryWhere

stinky_daddy wrote: »

A chip on the motherboard had issues and shorted out unfortunately, so I cannot power it on hence why I thought about changing / upgrading the motherboard and chipset.

It is an ASUS model is an X53E and has a I5 processor and 15.6" display another reason why the ask about upgrading, as the majority of models in that price range are usually I3 and / or 14" screens (think I might notice the difference going down in size). Not too sure if an I3 processor (later generation) is better than an older I5 or not. I had 8Gb of RAM added to it to help speed it up after it became a bit sluggish.

TIA

s_d

ASUS X53E with i5-2410M is eight years old.

Whether it is worth it, is dependent on the cost of the parts and labour.

Processor is good enough, but the screen is a relatively low resolution TN screen. Certainly nothing special.

that

possibly at least 2 different but similar types of mboard. both about £31 each
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/For-ASUS-K53E-A53E-X53E-K53SD-Laptop-Motherboard-PGA989-60-N3CMB1300-Mainboard/322349767581
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOR-Asus-K53E-A53E-X53E-K53SD-Intel-S989-Mainboard-60-N3CMB1200-C09-Motherboard/322448500682

or a working second hand one for £150, but for that price I would jump ship.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASUS-X53E-SX1186V-15-6-Laptop-Intel-i5-2nd-Gen-2-40Ghz-4GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-Win-7/283468194008

then there is the private seller one that will close on saturday currently at £62 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-X53E-Laptop-Windows-10-Intel-R-Core-i5-2430m-CPU-2-4ghz-6gb-RAM/264377354565

stinky_daddy

Thanks for that - I will look now

s_d

that

From stragglebod #2

What's wrong with what you've got at the moment? Without knowing that it's impossible to advise you.