Gonna attempt to preserve my 7 year old laptop by upgrading it

[Naer]

Gonna replace the battery cause it doesn’t hold a charge anymore. Gonna add a stick of ram(8 gb) to make that 16gb. And I’m gonna replace the ssd with a faster larger capacity ssd
Wished the cpu in my laptop wasn’t soldered tho. I’d upgrade that too. But it's fine
I could just buy a new laptop if I needed one(I don’t) My desktop is really good
Just want the experience of upgrading the laptop. I have history with this notebook computer. I think it’s cool that I’m keeping it

The laptop is an Acer e5-575g

 

[sdifox]

 

[Captante]

Long as you don't spend much (like max $50-$60) and have no plans on gaming go right ahead.... don't expect miracles though.

Assuming it's running Windows 10 either reset the OS (preserves drivers) or better yet wipe it and do a clean install too while your at it.

 

[Naer]

wood 16 gb ram be overkill based on a 2 core 4 thread cpu?

 

[Captante]

wood 16 gb ram be overkill based on a 2 core 4 thread cpu?

How much $?

It's not "overkill" if its cheap enough!

HOWEVER my ancient dual-core w/HT low-power i3 @ 1200mhz (lol) STILL runs Win 10 Pro just fine with 8 gb's DDR3 @ 1ghz. (booting off a 256 gb Samsung 840 Pro SATA SSD)

 

[Naer]

There's room for 2 ssd's. One nvme and a bay to place a 2.5 inch ssd. Gonna skip the battery replacement for now. That's low priority imo. A stick of 8gb ram is about 30 dollars(same manufacturer, acer) 500gb m.2 ssd is about 40 dollars. A 256gb 2.5 inch ssd is about 22 dollars. So the total goes slightly over what you suggest the maximum investment should be.. But I think it's worth it. All Acer made components

I just love the display on this laptop. It's better than my desktop monitor. And there's history with this laptop

 

[igor_kavinski]

First laptop I ever owned was an Acer Aspire Centrino laptop with an AMD GPU. It was really nice and I got it somewhat cheap (it was on display and the only one that the shop had). I insisted on buying it and they gave it to me. Had to sell it at 40% loss around 18 months later to buy a newer laptop. I sure wish I had kept it. Would have served as a great retro gaming laptop.

 

[Captante]

I would suggest skipping the NVME drive and just go with the 8gb RAM plus the 256gb SATA drive along with a fresh Windows install.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I would suggest skipping the NVME drive and just go with the 8gb RAM plus the 256gb SATA drive along with a fresh Windows install.

Curious recommendation. Any particular reason?

 

[igor_kavinski]

And there's history with this laptop

Met your first and only love online on this laptop? Or is it something as boring as playing games on it endlessly?

 

[Captante]

Curious recommendation. Any particular reason?

Know what I mean by "a long climb for a short slide" ?

Price would be the reason.... switching to booting from an SSD vs an HDD will be a huge and noticeable performance increase but seat-of-the-pants I doubt it's even possible to tell NVME from SATA in an older laptop (except for your lighter wallet!) without benchmarking.

Also there's no reason to stick with Accer-branded components unless by some chance they're actually the best deal. (Ideally Samsung for the SSD and GSkill or Corsair for the RAM)


EDIT: Another reason to go SATA is that apparently there's some question as to weather an NVME drive will work at all depending on your exact model and even if it does the available M2 interface is only PCIe 3x2 which will run at half the bandwidth of 3x4. Save the money/hassle and grab a 2.5 inch SATA.

 

[Kaido]

 

[lxskllr]

Why upgrade at all? That's a solid laptop as-is, and aside from more storage(do you need it?), it'll just be an upgrade in specs, not an upgrade in experience. Both of my desktops are older than your system, and they do everything I want(no gaming).

 

[Captante]

Why upgrade at all? That's a solid laptop as-is, and aside from more storage(do you need it?), it'll just be an upgrade in specs, not an upgrade in experience. Both of my desktops are older than your system, and they do everything I want(no gaming).

Replacing the boot HDD with ANY SSD (other then a DRAM-less bottom feeder) is literally a no-brainer. The difference is usually night & day.

The RAM won't hurt anything but may not help any either and there's zero reason to spend extra $ on an NVME drive over SATA in that machine.

 

[Naer]

I'll just leave the NVME drive that's already in there. I just assumed I could get a "faster" NVME drive. Gonna go for a secondary sata 2.5inch ssd as well. Cause there's a bay that allows it

 

[Captante]

I'll just leave the NVME drive that's already in there. I just assumed I could get a "faster" NVME drive

So you ALREADY have a fast SSD boot-drive?

@Ixskllr is right .... save your money & just grab a cheap battery on Ebay.

 

[Naer]

wait, I'm not entirely sure if the ssd I have right now is 2.5 inch or nvme. I haven't opened it up yet. I looked at task manager, it says hfs256g32tnd-n210a

 

[Naer]

battery and ram upgrade are my best bet for this? I want a secondary ssd for more storage tho. THe bootable ssd i have right now is only 256 gbs space

 

[lxskllr]

Keep an eye on windows taskmanager, and see how much ram you're using now. Adding more ram that isn't used will make the computer heavier, and your wallet lighter. If the laptop moves, a battery is a good idea. If it's always plugged into a wall, why bother? If you want/need more storage, that's self explanatory.

 

[Captante]

Is the current boot-drive running short on space?

You can of course add a second SSD for storage/backup but considering the age of the laptop I would go the external route instead.

Like I said the RAM won't hurt anything but may not help much either unless your using it.

 

[Naer]

can you tell me if my ssd is sata 2.5 inch or nvme? It's a hfs256g32tnd-n210a

So if I want more storage I get the one I don't have I guess

 

[lxskllr]

can you tell me if my ssd is sata 2.5 inch or nvme? It's a hfs256g32tnd-n210a

HFS256G32TND-N210A - Hynix 256GB Multi-Level Cell SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive

Hynix HFS256G32TND-N210A 256GB Multi-Level Cell SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive

harddiskdirect.com

 

[Naer]

Ok, I will get a 256 gb nvme to compliment my bootable 2.5inch. I've seen youtube vids of my model laptop being installed with one

 

[lxskllr]

Check your capacities/price. You might be better off buying a bigger drive. A lot more storage for a little increase in price. That's if you need it of course. More storage isn't a value if you don't use it. Saving $10-$20 is better, even if it increases the $/GB.

 

[Naer]

Yeah, 512 gb nvme isn't that much more expensive. THen again, like you said, would I even use it