Which components make for the ultimate web browsing computer?

[Gupta_]

I don't need a full build but just info on which components I should focus on.

I have a 1.5 year old laptop, Toshiba Satellite C55-C5379 with i3-5005U, 8gb ram, Windows 10, integrated graphics Intel HD Graphics 5500 running 1050p on an external monitor. It gets super slow sometimes when just browsing websites like amazon shopping or checking yahoo email and youtube can be a nightmare even with just 1 tab open sometimes. I thought an i3 over a pentium or celeron would be enough for a web browsing but I was wrong. What parts affect this sort of usage - cpu/graphics/ram/etc? Which part of my computer is lacking right now?

I suspect it might be graphics since I am using a higher resolution than the built in laptop screen uses - are laptops just not built to run higher resolutions then their built in screen? But when I am watching a dvd or HD video stream the video plays without any lag...its just when I am clicking around and loading/refreshing pages for the first time where I get all the slowness

 

[jankerson]

Laptops can be notoriously slow depending on grade they are, the high end gaming laptops are better than the lower end email machines.

That said you don't need a killer machine to brose the internet, especially with a desktop.

A lot also depends on your internet speed as in the speed of your internet connection. The computer can only process data as fast as the internet connection can feed it.

Today's internet is much different than it used to be as much more data is transferred and 2D graphics on the web pages can take a toll if the machine isn't up to it.

I would say a true quad core CPU like an i5 would help and a real graphics card with a good amount of memory helps things feel snappier.

I still remember back when I was running my older 1st generation i7 machine I noticed a rather large difference going from a 1 GB Radeon 5850 to the 8gb RX 480 just browsing the internet. People would be surprised how much of a real difference a fast GPU can make in browsing.

 

[geofelt]

I have changed out the slow hard drive for a ssd on every laptop my household owns.
A ssd will transform your performance.

 

[Solandri]

That laptop should have no problem driving two screens, a web browser with multiple tabs, and several videos playing simultaneously. Laptops CPUs use the same cores as desktop CPUs, the only difference is the number of cores and clock speed. The early Intel integrated video drivers restricted your max resolution due to performance concerns. But an i3-5005U should have no such restrictions.

Have you installed a codec pack like K-Lite? Codecs are kinda like drivers for decoding video. Without a proper codec, the computer can end up unable to decode video or trying to decode it in software (emulation mode), which can seriously drag down performance.

https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

Also, if you're driving two screens, you should probably go into the BIOS settings and increase the amount of RAM reserved for the integrated video. I think it defaults to 128 MB? That might be a little tight for two screens and playing video. Try 256 or 512 MB.

But when I am watching a dvd or HD video stream the video plays without any lag...its just when I am clicking around and loading/refreshing pages for the first time where I get all the slowness

That sounds more like Internet lag, rather than a slow computer. If the laptop has an Ethernet port, try plugging into that to see if your WiFi is the culprit. if the problem is the laptop's WiFi, the first thing I'd check is to make sure the antenna leads in the WiFi card are plugged in. Sometimes they pop out, and without an antenna your Internet speeds can be severely curtailed.