My laptop is 22 months old: Am I due for an upgrade?

Just curious if I would notice a huge improvement going from whats in my sign to say a Core2Duo 2.0 with 4GB ram.

Is it even worth it for me? Maybe save my money and keep using my current one till it dies? Since ive never had a single problem with it ever and its been rock solid for the most part.

Or I was thinking about upgrading my HD to a 7200RPM but i dont even know if that is worth it or if I should just hold off altogether.

edited...........now you can see my sign. Anyways I mainly use my computer for web, email, mp3, etc. NO games but I run photoshop, illustrator, and some other graphic apps etc and always multitask with lots of stuff open.

 

Sorry what's the laptop?

oh there it is beat me to it. You will notice a huge difference, but if its solid, and works perfectly, you can always get a 7200rpm drive. That should increase start up and app start up time quite a bit.


The jump to core 2 duo is a huge performance difference, but if it still works, then just wait for the newest mobile processors.

 

mine is 25 months old ...... ....and am buying a netbook to give it sum company

 

Thanks for the tips.

Even though my current one has been solid all this time, the reason why I have been considering getting a new one is for the dual cores - since i love to have tons of stuff open at once and a heavy multi-tasker, I notice an awful lot where my comp. performance is sluggish and I would imagine most of it roots to the fact that its only a P-M.

I have friends who tell me not to bother wasting money on the 7200rpm HD and just to put that money towards a new laptop cause chances are i wont be using this laptop for anymore than a year or two anyways. Hmmm...

 

ronnieb, there is no way you can upgrade from a pentium M to a core 2 duo.
The fastest processor "helpmyfriend" can put in his/her laptop is a Pentium M 780 at 2.26Ghz.
as far as the memory goes, 2gb is the maximum.
I am not sure what interface the harddrive uses, but if its a IDE based interface. go for the samsung HM160HC. If it is the SATA interface, upgrading to a 7200rpm drive like the 200gb or 320gb series will show a large performance upgrade for loading.

But is it worth it,
I would say that you should just keep your laptop the same and save up for another laptop.
If you want to upgrade, the ebst bang for the buck upgrade is going to be the harddrive.

K-TRON

 

I think the OP is looking for a whole laptop and the reply suggested upgrading the hard drive only. Assuming the one he/she has is in good shape selling it and buying another one is probably the most cost effective approach, while laptops depriciate quite a bit they have a residual value that can probably still be gotten out of it. If the one you have now isn't terrible I'd just sell it and get a reasonable mid range unit to replace it. Unfortunately I'd say new integrated graphics will be much better, but since most laptops now include vista most of that power is used up running the Aero interface etc on vista, so it'll look nicer but it may not be that much faster in the graphics department at least, but running apps etc will definately be vastly improved with a C2D and more ram. Pretty much all the components in a notebook now are substantially more powerful than the one you have.

 

If you don't have a problem with your current laptop there is no need to upgrade...

 

Try opening up Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Escape, then deselect Always on Top in the Options menu) and leaving it running while you use your computer. When the computer is sluggish, look at the Task Manager icon in the system tray. If it's at 100% CPU usage (all the way green), the CPU is your bottleneck. If it's not at 100% (there's still a decent amount of black), then the hard drive is your bottleneck (or memory - once it stops being sluggish switch to Task Manager and make sure it's not using more than 2 GB of memory). Which of these situations happens more often will tell you which one you should upgrade first. It might be both depending on the situation (which program you're running).

K-TRON covered your best possible upgrades. Whether you should upgrade or get a more powerful laptop entirely depends on just how sluggish it is - for an occasional delay I wouldn't, but if you regularly find yourself starting at the screen with nothing happening for several minutes you probably should. If it's in between, you'll have to judge how bad it is.

 

I never said he could upgrade to a core 2 duo, and he never asked if he COULD upgrade in the first place. He's asking whether or not he should purchase a new laptop or upgrade his old one.

 

I would just start setting aside money for a newer one in the future. I have one that is nearly as old as yours and decided not to sink any more money for upgrades. The parts are now expensive and hardly worth any minimal performance increase that I'd see......

 

I never have anything close to 2GB used in my task mgr, it stays in the 900-1200 range. And my CPU is mostly in the 10-30% range except when I load up programs then its 100% at startup.

 

I agree - I will most likely just buy a new one and hopefully be able to sell this one. Its still in mint perfect condition. What you guys think its worth?

 

2GB RAM is probably the max your notebook will take. A HDD upgrade will be good, and HDDs are usually cheap and you can get fast IDE/SATA HDDs for well under $100.

 

22 months old laptop?
I'd say you buy a new one as upgrading the existing one is not exactly worth it in my opinion.
Fill out the FAQ and we shall see what could suit you.

 

I'd say upgrade the HDD to the fatest available option (mechanical HDD no SSD). It'll be worth it, it does much for the experience of snappyness and multitasking.

And when you sell your notebook just put in the old one and keep the new one so you can still have use for it, not making you throw away any money. Using it as an external drive or primary in the new notebook you'll get (if it's not a better in it from the beginning). Or whatever you like!

 

Anyone wanna try 6 years old? 1.3GHz Centrino, 768MB RAM (maxxed out)?

 

General Questions

1) What is your budget? $1000 tops but would prefer $700-800 range.

2) What size notebook would you prefer? 14.1 or 15.4, doesnt matter.

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator. Canada

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like? I like Vaios since I have one and love the look and feel of their new design keyboards on the newer models.

5) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook? Web, email, music, photoshop, illustrator, multitasking, NO GAMES.

6) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both? No stays at home 99% of the time.

7) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games or types of games? No

8) How many hours of battery life do you need? Doesnt matter, more the better obviously but not really important since it will be plugged in.

9) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK? Yes prefered but not a big deal.

10) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc. XP Really dont need an OS as I have my own XP disc.

Screen Specifics

11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?
1280x800 or 1440x900

12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? Doesnt matter

Build Quality and Design

13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you? Yes very, prefer all black or all white

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you want; 80GB to 500GB? Do you want a SSD drive? 160GB min, 7200rpm prefered.

16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive? DVDRW

==========
END COPY

 

dont' know how much money you have but I think replacing the laptop once in each 36 months seems more reasonable to me...