Question Will a new laptop be faster than my current one ?

[PaulDesmond]

Hi. I have an old ASUS A516J Laptop. It does take time to boot up compared to my PC which has a built in NVME drive with Windows 11. I was wondering if a newer laptop would be faster than mine as this is old technology. This is for home use only so I would not want to spend a lot on it as a second PC unless it was worth it for me. Any sugestions?

 

[rgd1101]

how full is the ssd? and how long exactly is the boot time?

 

[PaulDesmond]

I don't use the internal SSD as I use a memory stick to transfer the file form laptop to PC. The boot time is about 1 minute (8 seconds on my PC). SSD = 78G free of 245G. Maybe I am just used to a fast PC.

 

[geofelt]

Is fast boot enabled in the bios?
This Windows feature saves the current system state to a file before shutdown, enabling a faster boot when the computer is restarted.

 

[PaulDesmond]

I woldn't know how to get into the bios in a laptop. I am okay with PCs but laptops are alien to me.

 

[Misgar]

If the laptop has this i3 CPU, it's not going to be very quick booting up modern Windows:
https://www.asus.com/my/laptops/for-home/everyday-use/a516/techspec/

Intel® Core™ i3-1005G1 Processor 1.2 GHz (4M Cache, up to 3.4 GHz, 2 cores)

I was wondering if a newer laptop would be faster and this is old technology.

More Cores and Threads help, as do higher clock rates and bigger SSDs. If you have an old, slow CPU with a limited number of Cores/Threads, now is the time to upgrade, if you have the money. I recommend at least 16GB RAM, but you can get by with 8GB with many apps.

I switched to a 6C 12T AMD CPU laptop back in 2019 and a newer 8C 16T Intel CPU laptop in 2024 and they're both a pleasure to use. I upgraded the first laptop from 250MB to 2TB NVMe and the second from 500MB to 4TB NVMe. A bit faster but mainly because I needed more space.

My previous laptop was 4C 8T and it still chugs along. An old 2C 2T Celeron laptop from 2015 is horribly slow, even with Windows Fast Startup which I enabled recently.
https://www.howtogeek.com/243901/the-pros-and-cons-of-windows-10s-fast-startup-mode/

I've disabled Fast Startup on all my other laptops because it seems to mess with Macrium Reflect disk cloning. I can't be bothered to enable it, for the few seconds it saves on a modern laptop, plus I can disable hiberfil.sys and gain more free drive space.

I woldn't know how to get into the bios in a laptop. I am okay with PCs but laptops are alien to me.

Google it. Sometimes you have to keep dabbing function key F1 or F2 at startup. On other laptops it's the 'Del' key. You can also try holding down the 'Esc' key at startup.

 

[geofelt]

courtesy google AI:
o enable fast boot on Windows, you need to change a setting in the Power Options within Control Panel. Specifically, you'll find the "Turn on fast startup" option under Shutdown settings. If the option is grayed out, you'll need to first click "Change settings that are currently unavailable" to enable it.



Here's a step-by-step guide:
1. Open Control Panel:

• You can do this by searching for "Control Panel" in the Windows search bar.

2. Navigate to Power Options:

• In Control Panel, you can select "Hardware and Sound" (if using Category view) or directly search for "Power Options".
  • Choose "Power Options".

3. Choose what the power buttons do:

• • On the left-hand side of the Power Options window, click "Choose what the power buttons do".

4. Change settings that are currently unavailable:

• • If the "Turn on fast startup" option is grayed out, click "Change settings that are currently unavailable" first.

5. Enable Fast Startup:

• • Check the box next to "Turn on fast startup (recommended)".

6. Save changes: Click "Save changes".


Important Note: Enabling fast startup can significantly reduce startup times, especially when the system is already shut down, but it might also cause issues with some hardware components or updates.

 

[PaulDesmond]

I am using W10 home edition on my laptop. I do know about i3, i5, i9 but what are the basic equivelents in AMD as I loved AMD.

 

[geofelt]

I3, I5, I9 no longer mean what they used to, namely how many cores and with or without hyperthreading.
It is now more of a general capability designation.

Laptop processors are not the same as their similarly named desktop counterparts.
Nor are the graphics chips.

One way to compare is to look up the passmark ratings.
For example, the i3-1005G1 laptop processor has 2 cores with hyperthreading making 4 processor cores.
The all thread fully loaded rating is 4861 and the single thread rating is 2168.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-1005G1+@+1.20GHz&id=3560
The perhaps comparably named desktop i3-10100 has 8 threads and a rating of 8830/2637.

The amd R5-1500X desktop might be comparable at 8 threads and 9091/2110.

 

[PaulDesmond]

So what I need is to get the benchmaks of the laptops?

As for hyperthreading, this is a way of making one core behave as 2? If that is the case, the core is not running twice as fast. Should that not be two threads working at half speed? Or is threading not the same as hyperthreading?

 

[geofelt]

On every core there are multiple functions available. Not all are ever used at a particular moment in time.
Hyperthreading allows windows to dispatch a second task to the core to utilize functions not currently in use on the previously dispatched task.
The net effect is perhaps the first thread running at 100% speed and the second at 80% speed.
Hyper-threading is an Intel proprietary name, but has become a general use name.
Intel explanation:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/hyper-threading.html

 

[Flayed]

Hi. I have an old ASUS A516J. It does take time to boot up compared to my PC which has a built in NVME drive with windows 11. I was wondering if a newer laptop would be faster and this is old technology. This is for home use only so would not want to spend a lot on it as a second PC unless it was worth it for me. Any sugestions?

What I did with my old underpowered Asus laptop is get rid of Windows and put Linux Mint on it. Linux Mint seems to do better with old slow hardware than Windows.