Is my laptop still "up to date"? 2009 Studio 1555

[tracerit]

I bought this laptop to replace my desktop since I mainly just use the internet and watch 720p movies and tv shows. no gaming at all.

Here are the specs:

P8400 2.2Ghz
3GB RAM
Radeon 4570 256MB RAM
250GB 5400rpm HD


I'm thinking about adding RAM to get it to 8GB since i have a lot of windows open. Should I sell for around $400 (is this reasonable?) or invest another $100 to get a newer laptop?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well...

It's as up to date (if not slightly moreso) than mine (2.16 GHz, GeForce 9400M/256, 4GB DDR2-800 & 500GB Seagate 7200.4.) I use it for same stuff as you - watching netlfix, web surfing. Also use some nerd-tools and a couple VMs for classwork. And, of course, DOSBox. 🙂

An i3-powered $500 laptop wouldn't really be worth the hassle of migrating my files.

Something in the i5/i7 range, with all those delicious cores and higher IPC, would get either of us a lot better compute performance, but what we're about doing isn't really CPU limited for the most part, so I fail to see the point.

If it seems laggy, you might consider: a system wipe/reinstall, upgrading to Win7 if you haven't already, or an upgrade to a 7200 rpm HD or SSD. I personally think 3GB is probably enough RAM for you, but if you have spare cash and a 64-bit OS, it wouldn't hurt anything.