How to make my laptop respond faster? Add memory or Graphic card change?

[spideyontheweb]

Hi
I must confess I am not very good with PCs although I have changed the Power supply to my PC in the past!
I have a Dell XPS15 Laptop (Specs included at the bottom). My daughter uses it extensively for her school work. Now she's taking part in an online competition where science images get projected and she needs to pick the right answer quickly and move on to the next and answer as many in 60 seconds. I am explaining this so that my needs become clearer.I understand Broadband speed will play a big role in any online event.
But beyond that is there any way to make my Laptop react faster without a lag.Will adding memory help or changing the Graphics card help at all? Can I add any memory at all to make it work faster?
If you need more info please do let me know and I'll try to dig it up.
Thanks in advance.Regards. Simon

Specifications:
XPS L501x (UK, FCG01) – i3-370M (2.40Ghz, 4Threads, 3M cache), Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
XPS L501x (UK, FCG01) – i3-370M (2.40Ghz, 4Threads, 3M cache)
Memory
3072MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x2048 + 1x1024]
Video Card
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420M Graphics Card
Hard Drive
320GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Microsoft Operating System
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Wireless
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 (EUR)
Cable
Primary Battery
6-cell 56Whr Lithium Ion battery
Processor
Intel® Core™ i3-370M (2.4Ghz, 4Threads, 3M cache)
15.6 HD WLED TL (1366x768) 720p
Power Supply
90W AC Adaptor

 

[kbp]

Memory - not really.
What would help is not to be on wireless and be sure to be connected "hard wired" Ethernet.

 

[spideyontheweb]

Memory - not really.
What would help is not to be on wireless and be sure to be connected "hard wired" Ethernet.

Hi
Thanks for that. Someone suggested replacing the hard drive with a solid state drive to make it go faster. Any thoughts?!

 

[Unit'Igor]

Except wired link which is crucial in that competition,
only thing that will make your laptop respond faster is SSD.For laptop go with Samsung,any.

 

[Dadofamunky]

1) Add more memory. Go for 8 GB. That will help, especially with higher workloads. It's cheap anyway.
2) You can't really swap out the video as far as I'm aware. It has nothing to do with overall system throughput anyway.
3) If possible, move over to an SSD. That plus the right amount of RAM should help tremendously. I'm assuming the laptop is modern enough to support a SATA-based SSD.

 

[tcsenter]

Check for driver update to the Intel WLAN adapter. Go to Intel's website, use its automatic driver update tool: http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm

SSD, for sure will be the best overall single upgrade.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Get an SSD, nothing else will come close to the feel of snappiness one of those can provide you...

 

[ch33zw1z]

IMO:

1. SSD
2. Add memory, upgrading to 2x4GB will help Windows have room to breath
3. Get on the wired network.

crucial has 2x4GB ram for your machine at $55 http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=XPS 15&Cat=RAM

 

[tcsenter]

crucial has 2x4GB ram for your machine at $55

It already has one 2GB module, he only needs to buy another to get 4GB. Or buy a 4GB module for 6GB total.

 

[corkyg]

SSD for sure. Adding memory will help dince your operating system is 64 bit. And yes, wired is generally faster (and mecure) than wireless.

 

[ch33zw1z]

It already has one 2GB module, he only needs to buy another to get 4GB. Or buy a 4GB module for 6GB total.

That's fine, but don't just correct me,help the guy in the right direction. You know, recommend him a dimm that matches his speed, timings, voltage, from a reputable manufactuer...

all questions I had no intent on asking...mostly because I like match pairs when it comes to dimms...in other words, IMO (how I started my post to begin with). Besides, 8 will be better than 4 or 6...

 

[Drsignguy]

dimm that matches his speed, timings, voltage, from a reputable manufactuer...

Couldn't agree more.

Get a Ssd, and good quality pairs of Ram. I personally did this to my older laptop and it did wonders to its performance. And with what you have, it will be a noticeable difference. Help with battery life as well.

 

[KingFatty]

Can you give us any details on the online competition? Maybe it's something that would benefit from one particular upgrade vs another.

It's even possible that none of the upgrades will affect the competition at all, so it's a waste to try to upgrade and you should instead go for a new laptop entirely if you want to improve performance for that competition?

 

[StarTech]

Make sure it is running on full power during the competition. I mean plugged in and no power savings enabled.

 

[zCypher]

You need the SSD and the extra RAM. 3GB is not a lot for Win7 unless you're a pretty light user. 4GB is ok for basic use and then some. The SSD will make the biggest perceived impact by far in overall responsiveness.

 

[spideyontheweb]

Hi
Many thanks to all those who took the trouble to pen your thoughts. I am going for a SSD upgrade and some memory and will let you know in a few days time whether it has made a difference to that particular format of online compt.
Regards

 

[Turbonium]

For the purposes of an online competition:

wired network >> more RAM > SSD

In that order of priority, imo. The SSD will help with loading stuff initially (like say opening a browser, but I don't think it will help much with actual pages loading, tbh). Besides, if you have sufficient RAM, you won't be using virtual memory and will be bypassing any bottleneck presented by a slower HDD.

I could be wrong though. I have little experience with SSDs.

 

[tcsenter]

Check for a BIOS update from Dell for your system. Occasionally, a BIOS update can be released to address some performance issue with some peripheral or device under certain conditions (e.g. after resume or something). Dell usually gives some change notes for its BIOS updates.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Definitely update the BIOS.

I'd recommend the ssd upgrade as well. Then, see if you need more memory or not. While 3gb isn't tons for windows 7, it should be enough if all you do is surf, use word, etc.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

SSD will give the most tangible benefit overall, for your specific request, hardwired broadband

 

[spideyontheweb]

Hi Guys
Update on the result. The SSD and memory did help in improved performance but not for the online competition! Clearly broadband of 2 megabits was the culprit! But thanks to everyone for taking the trouble.
Regards

 

[ch33zw1z]

Thanks for the update. 2 Mbps isn't the worst, what are your latencies like?

 

[j3SeCh6d]

Suggestions:

1. Download & install TCP Optimizer to improve internet input/output throughput.
2. Download & install Dataram RAMDisk to use a temp storage for browsers & windows. If you have 8gb ram, then 2gb ram drive for temp storage. If 4gb ram, then 1gb ram drive. This will help in avoiding ssd wear level & using your ram for massive temp throughput. I think all computers should use a ram drive.

Your welcome!