[sameerg]

Originally Posted by dearchichi

Advice needed to resurrect an old and slow Windows laptop.

.

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Just an extra 4 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD will magically transform your old laptop.

I completely agree with Smartcat here; get an SSD from a reliable brand. Upgrade your RAM to 8GB (4GB + existing 4GB) minimum, but if you want to go crazy and budget permits, get 12-16GB. This should solve your problem unless you want to do some heavy-duty gaming or rendering.

[arnieshwartz]

Originally Posted by dearchichi

Advice needed to resurrect an old and slow Windows laptop.

We have a 5-year old laptop that's not seen much use due to it being painfully slow at any task.

Configuration:Brand: HP Notebook
Processor: i3 6th generation
RAM: 4GB
HDD: 1 TB
OS: Windows 10 Home Edition

The following is the pressure I see on the system even when idle.

I assume the HDD is the major bottleneck here, followed by the low RAM.

Please let me know the following.

1. We intend to have two laptops at home (we have none now apart from my work laptop and this HP one). Is it worth upgrading this laptop's RAM and HDD, so only one additional laptop purchase is needed to handle heavier workloads? The present laptop could then be used for lighter tasks and during travel.

2. If it can be upgraded, can it take up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB of SSD storage? I cannot install utility software packages that could potentially tell me this information. If yes, how much would this cost us?

3. If it cannot be upgraded, can this laptop be traded in during the purchase of a newer one?

4. In general, is it better to purchase new laptops from physical stores of the manufacturer, physical stores of third party dealers or online?

Thank you for your help.

#1 and #2 -- I would highly recommend checking out the Crucial Upgrade Tool if you want to take the upgrade route. Once you select the laptop model, the tool will advise you regarding the HDD and/or RAM and how much capacity you can go up to.

If your existing RAM stick is soldered on to the motherboard, and you only have one empty slot, it is preferable to add another 4GB stick. If not, feel free to swap out the existing one for a single stick of higher capacity, or, add two sticks of equal capacity each.
The i3 6th gen is a capable processor suitable for everyday family users and students, and can easily handle tasks like web surfing, video streaming, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, online banking, some video gaming, etc. Windows 10 and 11 will chug along better if you have atleast 8GB RAM. If you can, go up to 16GB of RAM.

16GB DDR4 RAM plus a 512GB internal SSD should together cost somewhere around 6k and thereabouts.

#3 -- I believe a trade in should be possible as long as the laptop is in good condition, turns on, and the battery is able to hold charge once charged to full capacity. Amazon and Flipkart do have exchange options, you may need to look around and see where you get a fair exchange price.

#4 -- I think this would depend on whether or not you enjoy the confidence of shopping directly from manufacturer, or, physical stores dealing with computers, or, whether you would rather enjoy the many offers available on ecommerce websites.
I have ordered laptops and computer parts from Amazon over the past ten years and have not had a single problem. Ofcourse, one should do their due diligence.

[dearchichi]

Originally Posted by arnieshwartz

I would highly recommend checking out the Crucial Upgrade Tool if you want to take the upgrade route. Once you select the laptop model, the tool will advise you regarding the HDD and/or RAM and how much capacity you can go up to.

Hi arnieshwartz, thanks for this.

Yes, did I consult Crucial and have just ordered the following for the laptop:

8GB DDR4 x 2
Crucial 500GB 2.5" SATA
CD Caddie 9.5mm

I intend to swap the current HDD with the new SDD and move the HDD into the CD Caddie, and reinstall Windows and applications on the SSD only. The HDD would be used for storing user data.

If this is not physically possible, I will use the new SSD in the caddie, but I am not sure if I could load the OS and the applications on them.

Question: The laptop came with Windows 10 (64-bit) installed. Can I load the latest Windows 11 on the new SSD instead, considering that Windows 10 would not be supported beyond October 2025?

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by dearchichi

If this is not physically possible, I will use the new SSD in the caddie, but I am not sure if I could load the OS and the applications on them.

Question: The laptop came with Windows 10 (64-bit) installed. Can I load the latest Windows 11 on the new SSD instead, considering that Windows 10 would not be supported beyond October 2025?

It should be a straight swap as you got the 2.5 inch SATA SSD. You might have had an option to use a NVMe drive though - if your laptop supports it. It would have given you a slightly faster SSD. But anyway, an SSD would be a whole lot faster than hdd where you are now.

The way I would suggest is to diskcopy the old drive to the SSD and run it on win 10 for some time. Once everything works and the HW is stable then upgrade win 10 to win 11. Make a recovery disk on win 10 first in case you would like to go back. Similarly make a win 11 recovery drive (a USB stick would be best to use) once you install windows 11.

[SunnyBoi]

Got a Lenovo Thinkpad Z16 with an 8 core ryzen processor, 32GB RAM, 2TB nVME. Cherry on top is a 4K+ 16:10 OLED and the screen is to die for!

[clevermax]

Any Surface Laptop users here? How do find the performance of these devices? I recently got one for work and I find the performance very poor. It comes with 12th Gen i5 and 16GB RAM but it grossly underperforms my previous Dell Latitude with 11th Gen i5 and 16GB RAM. The thermal throttling is very aggressive and the moment the CPU temperature hits a value like 85-90deg C, everything starts to crawl. And it never recovers from it until after the next reboot.

Surface laptop go3 is just a show piece and no good in terms of performance, do not buy this if you are a power user - I mean if you run multiple office/productivity apps in parallel, browses web with many tabs on, and plays high-res videos all at the same time. If you trouble the CPU even a little bit, it will go into non-cooperation movement very aggressively.

[arnieshwartz]

I have a Surface Pro 7 with the 10th gen i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM and can attest to the heating issue and subsequent performance throttling. Most recently, I observed the device to be hot to the touch while it was installing a bunch of Windows updates. No other apps were running and the responsiveness degraded quite perceivably.

I got this as a laptop on-the-go for the spouse and what really tilted the scales in its favour was the size, which would comfortably fit in her bag, plus the Type Cover wireless keyboard. It is used primarily for taking notes, where the Surface Pen delivers an excellent experience. Other activities include, but are not limited to - use of spreadsheets, interior design work, browsing, streaming videos etc.

[mohan41]

Originally Posted by bijims

Since you haven't specified a budget, here are a few laptops under Rs.50,000 that are worth considering:

Please suggest some good options below Rs.40000.

[Light]

Originally Posted by mohan41

Please suggest some good options below Rs.40000.

I use this, Lenovo V15 G2. Quite VFM with a 6c/12t AMD APU, you can spend the rest of your budget adding extra 8GB memory in its free slot and a 1TB SATA SSD for additional storage.

Tip: don't try adding more than 8G of additional memory as the onboard graphics uses/reserves 2.5G of main memory as its VRAM and I ran into some pretty severe kernel panics.

The keyboard, trackpad and build quality is good, much better than my previous Asus gaming laptop that cost 4x anyway. I use an external 4K screen and it is able to drive it without issues, playing 4k 60 fps Youtube videos do max out its capabilities though. Can't handle anything more than that, for example if I increase playback speed on such a video it will start dropping way too many frames and Youtube player will downgrade to 1440p.

[DetectiveMiles]

Anyone bought Dell Vostro Laptops in US?
I don't see any retailers listing latest Vostro Laptops apart from official Dell website.

I checked out BestBuy, Costco and Target.
Amazon.com has older models.

Also, any websites providing good deals on Laptops in US, please suggest.

[bijims]

Originally Posted by mohan41

Please suggest some good options below Rs.40000.

Here are some good options below Rs.40,000

1. Acer Travelmate
https://www.flipkart.com/acer-travel...8VtlQt001m8lYI

It costs only Rs.29,990 at present which is a steal in my opinion, but don't know how long the offers last

2. HP15S
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0BZYTVPR2/...8VuGlu001PcjcO

3. LENOVO THINKBOOK
https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-thin...8VuICz001KfiYj

[montsa007]

Originally Posted by bijims

Here are some good options below Rs.40,000

1. Acer Travelmate
https://www.flipkart.com/acer-travel...8VtlQt001m8lYI

It costs only Rs.29,990 at present which is a steal in my opinion, but don't know how long the offers last

2. HP15S
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0BZYTVPR2/...8VuGlu001PcjcO

3. LENOVO THINKBOOK
https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-thin...8VuICz001KfiYj

I too was looking for laptops under 40k for a relative but AMD's U series processors are base tier , seems will have to wait out a bit.

[bijims]

Originally Posted by montsa007

I too was looking for laptops under 40k for a relative but AMD's U series processors are base tier , seems will have to wait out a bit.

You could get a Zebronics laptop with a 12th Gen i7 1255U Processor for Rs.38,990 but considering the brand and service, I wouldn't recommend it. Still for anyone interested here is the link:
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0CJ74Y6H6/...T0018jtS9&th=1

Or you could also get a Thinkbook Ryzen 7 Octa Core 7730 U too
https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-amd-...8lCjJI001Rr3Hg

If you are looking for good deals, the best time would be next month, when Amazon and Flipkart hold their sales (Great Indian Summer Sale and Big Saving Days)

[montsa007]

Originally Posted by bijims

You could get a Zebronics laptop with a 12th Gen i7 1255U Processor for Rs.38,990 but considering the brand and service, I wouldn't recommend it. Still for anyone interested here is the link:
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0CJ74Y6H6/...T0018jtS9&th=1

Or you could also get a Thinkbook Ryzen 7 Octa Core 7730 U too
https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-amd-...8lCjJI001Rr3Hg

If you are looking for good deals, the best time would be next month, when Amazon and Flipkart hold their sales (Great Indian Summer Sale and Big Saving Days)

Once I purchased a zebronics usb hub, returned it, super cheap build quality. That day on I deciced no more zebronics stuff, the Thinkbook looks tempting but I am comfortable to wait till the summer sale, thanks!

[Rshrey22]

I wanted to pen a review of a used HP Elitebook 840 that I purchased in 2020 during Covid times. My younger bro had recently joined BTech CS and was looking for a good laptop.

While him and I were strolling through the IT Market, looking for a decent laptop in 80-90k budget range, I saw a shop with big hoarding saying USED BUSINESS LAPTOP I7.

We went inside, he showed us many Dell and HP laptops.
We selected a Gen 1 HP Elitebook 840 I7. The price was 22k but we managed to bargain it to 18k.

Got it home, installed a SATA 3 SSD, upgraded RAM to 16gb, gave it a gentle wipe, intalled Windows 10 and it was ready to go.

Good part about this laptop was that it ran extremely cool. Fan only started moving under sustained loads and even then it wasn't noisy at all. Even zoom meetings were managed silently and there were no signs of heating. Display quality was quite good but I got the screen upgraded for 2k in 2022. New screen was much brighter.

Bro was quite happy with this purchase. He attended numerous VCs almost daily. And the laptop was on for like 8-10 hrs everyday (Covid Times). Numerous PPTs were made. Coding was done. Yada Yada. Basically, it was used a LOT.

My bro even gave his MBA interviews on it and got selected into IIT Bombay.

We put a total of 27k in this project and it was WORTH EVERY PENNY.

Goes to show, how much is possible even with a little investment. We could've gotten an 80-90k laptop at any time, but my bro loved his Elitebook so much that he never asked for another machine despite me telling him multiple times to tell us whenever he wants a new one.

The machine still goes strong but has now been put in the cabinet. Bro got a Lenovo Yoga I7 as a gift from our parents.

Long live Elitebooks.