[SOLVED] Upgrade my old laptop

[rmi7824329]

My laptop is old I mean really old. Let me add the specs. 2GB DDR3 RAM, Pentium dual-core processor (emerald lake I guess), 5400 rpm wd elements hard drive (I don't know but due to some reason it gets hot while I use). I am having trouble using chrome, vs code, atom etc but I want to upgrade please, tell me, will only 8 GB of DDR3 RAM do good or not? Any other suggestion will be highly appreciated.

 

[Math Geek]

more ram will help for sure but it won't all of a sudden be a fast zippy laptop. as you noted it is OLD!!!

dropping in an ssd in place of the slow hdd will help a good bit as well. things will load a bit faster and lag less with less page file use. but in the end it is still an old laptop.

 

[chemmajorp53]

More RAM would certainly help, but temper your expectations, it's still an old pentium. Not sure how much money I would sink into a computer as old as that one, you might want to consider getting a newer used laptop if you need more performance and don't have much money to spend.

 

[robert600]

What model of laptop do you have exactly?

 

[rmi7824329]

Lenevo G580 and the specs are already mentioned above.

 

[Math Geek]

still say the ram and a nice ssd would help a lot and is about all you can do for it anyway. will make it a it more responsive and extra ram will spend less time loading up the page file and more time actually working.

 

[robert600]

I think it is worth a few judicious upgrades. It appears to have usb 3 ports and hdmi out so it's not ridiculously outdated. It will never be like today's machines but it can easily be made much better than it currently is for not too much money.

UPGRADING THE RAM - Yes, it needs it badly. Currently you have 2GB. Do you happen to know if that is one 2gb stick or two 1GB sticks? If it's one 2GB stick, I would suggest getting one 4GB stick to give you a total 6GB. If it is two 1GB sticks, I would suggest replacing both of them with two 4GB sticks to give you 8GB. You should be able to get 4GB sticks for about $20 each. A potential problem may be lurking in your OS. A 32 bit OS will only support something like 3.5 GB of Ram - you need a 64 bit OS - which do you have? It's not a huge financial issue if you have a 32 bit version - just a bit of a fiddle and ... you will lose all your installed software.

YOUR PROCESSOR - that pentium has got to go. It's hard to advise too precisely given that you haven't identified what processor it is. What is it? I'm guessing it's the B960. If so, it could be replaced by something like the i5 2520m for $21. It is much better the pentium.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-i5-2520M-SR048-Dual-Core-CPU-Processor-2-5GHz-3M-Socket-G2-0776/232991102027?epid=589874973&hash=item363f5a144b:g:YGoAAOSw-ghb3MoP:rk:4f:1

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-i5-2520M-SR048-Dual-Core-CPU-Processor-2-5GHz-3M-Socket-G2-0776/232991102027?epid=589874973&hash=item363f5a144b:g:YGoAAOSw-ghb3MoP:rk:4f:1

HARD DRIVE - A ssd would be a great upgrade but more money than the above suggestions. If you can afford it - go for it - but only after upgrading the ram and processor. Another solution would be a hybrid drive - something like this 1TB for $61.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822179111&Description=firecuda&cm_re=firecuda-_-22-179-111-_-Product

 

[robert600]

Oddly, it won't post a link to that i5 processor.