[SOLVED] Upgrading wife's Dell Laptop

[valreesio]

My wife has a Dell Inspiron 15 5568

i7 5600U w/ Integrated graphics
8GB RAM 2x4GB 2133MHz
1TB 5400RPM HDD
Windows 10

I am thinking about upgrading my wifes laptop rather than replacing it. She only uses it for social media, work with quickbooks, music, and light gaming. Nothing too stressful. The system is painfully slow to startup, run, and switch between tasks. The HDD only has 213GB on it bit is almost always running at 100% in task manager unless doing nothing at all.

My thoughts are to upgrade to:

16GB RAM https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0722Q3243/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

1TB SSD https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078DPCY3T/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Replace the battery https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T54BMPS/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_6?smid=A24YXKUDSCTOZA&psc=1

My thought is spend $300 bucks and give her something that will be leaps and bounds better than what she is currently using. If i upgrade only these parts, is the CPU going to bottleneck anything? I understand it can't run intensive games, that's ok. But should she be able to zip from task to task with no problems after these upgrades? Or should I just think about replacing the laptop for a few hundred more?

Can the CPU be upgraded by a professional? I get that it is soldered in (most likely), and that I should not do it at all.

Any other suggestions to upgrade it? I appreciate your replies in advance.

Edit: Ran Crystaldiskmark on my HDD, and ewwww...
Edit 2: Added Ram sticks and speed. Checking on dell.com they offer 2400MHz ram. I would upgrade from 2133-2400.
Edit 3: Linked the wrong stick of RAM. Fixed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2019 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
• KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

[Read]
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 79.281 MB/s [ 75.6 IOPS] <104862.80 us>
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 32.508 MB/s [ 31.0 IOPS] < 32207.15 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 0.591 MB/s [ 144.3 IOPS] <744801.57 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 0.171 MB/s [ 41.7 IOPS] < 23838.85 us>

[Write]
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 8, T= 1): 71.932 MB/s [ 68.6 IOPS] <115193.20 us>
Sequential 1MiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 53.689 MB/s [ 51.2 IOPS] < 19503.75 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 32, T=16): 1.042 MB/s [ 254.4 IOPS] <566394.69 us>
Random 4KiB (Q= 1, T= 1): 0.662 MB/s [ 161.6 IOPS] < 5291.81 us>

Profile: Default
Test: 1 GiB (x5) [Interval: 5 sec] <DefaultAffinity=DISABLED>
Date: 2020/02/17 20:53:45
OS: Windows 10 [10.0 Build 18362] (x64)

 

[Oussebon]

Upgrade the HDD to an SSD first, and take the opportunity to perform a clean installation of Windows 10

It's a slow HDD and any hardware performance issues will be pretty well entirely down to that, going by your post.

Upgrading the CPU wouldn't be worth it even if it were possible, which afaik it isn't. Adding more RAM may have little benefit. If the laptop has 2 x 4gb it's already dual channel - and for very light gaming and for office tasks 8gb may well be more than enough.

Start with the SSD, see how it goes.

Depending on local pricing,the Crucial MX500 is near enough as good as the 860 Evo such that you'd not notice a difference, but may be much cheaper, saving you $30+ for other uses.

 

[valreesio]

Upgrade the HDD to an SSD first, and take the opportunity to perform a clean installation of Windows 10

It's a slow HDD and any hardware performance issues will be pretty well entirely down to that, going by your post.

Upgrading the CPU wouldn't be worth it even if it were possible, which afaik it isn't. Adding more RAM may have little benefit. If the laptop has 2 x 4gb it's already dual channel - and for very light gaming and for office tasks 8gb may well be more than enough.

Start with the SSD, see how it goes.

Depending on local pricing,the Crucial MX500 is near enough as good as the 860 Evo such that you'd not notice a difference, but may be much cheaper, saving you $30+ for other uses.

You are probably right about the RAM. I usually see it at no more than 70%ish, but im going to try running a few older steam games that I play every once in a while when my daughters ACER Predator 300 isn't available for use to play modded Skyrim. It gets used a lot for the kids schoolwork and everyone's gaming in the house. The only things I play on my wife's laptop are Titan Quest and stuff like that, but it runs it fine.

I appreciate the comparison for the Crucial MX500. I will consider that when I go for the order. I just gave a look and it is 1-4 weeks out on amazon, where the EVO is available for delivery tomorrow. My order will most likely be placed this weekend, so I will see then if they have any in stock. Time vs money...

Thanks again for the advice.

Edit:

Just opened and ran Spotify, QB, and 8 tabs on Chrome (nothing compared to her, she never closes anything) and opened the steam console. RAM peaked at 94% while switching back and forth doing tasks and opening several things at once. Stayed between 65-80% after everything was opened. CPU not getting worked really at below 50%. While playing Titan Quest, for a few minutes, entire system was fine. CPU jumped a bit to about 60% avg.

All of this to say that I think I might go ahead and get the ram as well. $70 bucks is nothing if I just don't have to hear her complain if things slow down a bit. If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy...and work don't get done. Now I just need to buy her some ok speakers because she doesn't like wearing headsets...

Thanks again.

 

[valreesio]

Just updating. Received new parts. Just for a comparison, I did a start from full shutdown and it took just over 13 minutes to boot and before HDD was no longer at 100% usage. It was only about 3 before I was able to sign in. Ugh. After cloning the hard drive (about another 10 minutes or so) I will install the new SSD (860EVO) and RAM (16GB 2X8 HYPERX 2400 CL14) and see the difference.

 

[valreesio]

Upgraded and WOW what a difference. Less than 50 seconds to signed in and ready to go. I knew it was going to be a lot better, but actually seeing this PC do it is amazing.

On a side note, I am seeing the CPU hit 100% during tasks now that it didn't before, if only briefly and not constantly. I think this is telling me that because the HDD was in such bad shape, the CPU didn't even have the chance to get up and stretch its legs. Would this be an accurate assumption? Kind of like the HDD was so slow that the CPU didn't have to get out of its chair to do its job. Now it has to actually try to do its job and thus is operating at a higher capacity? Or am I just reading more into this than what is happening?

 

[Oussebon]

On a side note, I am seeing the CPU hit 100% during tasks now that it didn't before, if only briefly and not constantly. I think this is telling me that because the HDD was in such bad shape, the CPU didn't even have the chance to get up and stretch its legs. Would this be an accurate assumption? Kind of like the HDD was so slow that the CPU didn't have to get out of its chair to do its job. Now it has to actually try to do its job and thus is operating at a higher capacity?

Probably, yes.

Adding an SSD is a good excuse to do a clean install of Windows so you could do that and see whether performance improves further

 

[valreesio]

The reason I decided to clone vs the fresh install was because of all the stuff I would have to redownload and transfer. I know it is probably being lazy on my part, but is it really worth it? What are the advantages (besides a possible boost in performance) to doing a fresh install?

 

[Oussebon]

The performance boost and fixing anything that progressive in-place Windows updates/upgrades have broken as the usual ones