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    Worth to upgrade ASUS Q551LN?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Jtwin64, Jul 11, 2016.

  1. Jtwin64

    Jtwin64 Newbie

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    Would you recommend upgrading an original ASUS Q551LN Laptop? I am thinking of upgrading the hard drive to a Samsung EVO 850 500GB SSD and also upgrading the 8GB of RAM to 12GB of total RAM with Crucial* 8GB 1.35V RAM card? These are the two upgrades that I am considering to boost this laptop. It has a Intel i7 4th gen. NVIDIA 840 Graphics Card with 2GB of dedicated memory. The total upgrade will cost roughly $240.

    My purpose for this laptop is to boost the performance and secure a SSD hard drive to ensure reliability. Heavy College work and Photoshop is the extent of my usage.

    Should I upgrade the Hard Drive and RAM? Or just upgrade to a new laptop with a 6th gen i7?
     
  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    See:
    https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2659&cmp[]=2248&cmp[]=2586

    If you have the i7-4510U CPU now, I would suggest a new notebook based on latest i7 QC (non 'U') instead with 16GB RAM or more and of course, an SSD (1TB MLC SSD or larger, OP'd by 33% or more).

    I am assuming that both 'college work' and 'photoshop' will be 'heavy'. ;)

    While the upgrade cost is reasonable, it won't be a significant enough upgrade, imo. The RAM will be noticed (slightly), the SSD will give the system a feeling of responsiveness, but the CPU will still firmly be in 'u'** territory.

    ** 'U' CPU's are labeled such to indicate 'underpowered' (maybe)? :)

    If your PS work will be more towards the 'light' end of the workload spectrum, the present system may last you until you graduate from college (performance-wise), depending on your major/minor.

    Good luck.