Is this laptop worth upgrading? [update post 31 page 2]

[balloonshark]

My niece brought me her Windows 7 laptop and said it was slow. I spent the night updating everything and it fixed her ability to watch netflix. She mainly uses it for browsing, facebook, looking at pictures, etc. AFAIK.

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5093. The model number PSK2LU-02700C if that matters.

Will upgrading to Windows 10 help? Will drivers be a problem if we upgrade?

It has 3GB of RAM. 2GB in one slot and 1GB in the other. Would adding memory help? Is 4GB enough and can we mix and match with what is already installed? If so could you please help me find cheap compatible memory at newegg or somewhere else if it's affordable? I would grab 8GB if I could get it for around $40. I do have a 10% off coupon for today only.

 

[Yuriman]

The single biggest upgrade in terms of "feel" will be a SSD. It should feel like a decently fast machine with a cheap 120GB SSD.

 

[Gunbuster]

Crucial.com, take it to 8GB, add SSD, update to win 10, done.

 

[balloonshark]

The single biggest upgrade in terms of "feel" will be a SSD. It should feel like a decently fast machine with a cheap 120GB SSD.

I know nothing about mobile CPUs. Is this thing even worth upgrading? Will a SSD work in place of the HDD?

 

[balloonshark]

Why can't I find the part numbers from Crucial's site when searching newegg, bing and duckduckgo? http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Toshiba/satellite-l655d-s5093

 

[VirtualLarry]

I know nothing about mobile CPUs. Is this thing even worth upgrading? Will a SSD work in place of the HDD?

Probably. I upgraded my Bay Trail Atom N2830 dual-core Dell laptop, with a Samsung 120GB 850 EVO SSD. Runs really sweet. Been debating whether to bump it from 4GB to 8GB of RAM.

 

[balloonshark]

Probably. I upgraded my Bay Trail Atom N2830 dual-core Dell laptop, with a Samsung 120GB 850 EVO SSD. Runs really sweet. Been debating whether to bump it from 4GB to 8GB of RAM.

That's good to hear. It sounds like we're on the right track.

 

[cholley]

you might just ruin it for her with windows 10

it's only an upgrade if it works as expected after.

 

[Ketchup]

With the SSD and a memory upgrade it should be a fine laptop. I run a couple Windows 7 VMs with one core of an i7 and 2 GB of RAM. With a good drive, the speed is fine.

That laptop should do fine on Windows 10, but only if she wants it. I wouldn't push it, unless there is a specific feature she would like.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The turion should be about on par with a Core 2 Duo.

An SSD is a cheap upgrade that will be pretty awesome, I'd do it.

 

[balloonshark]

Thanks for all the input. About the SSD, will it directly replace the HDD or do I need an adapter that replaces the cd/dvd drive? It seems like I remember reading something like that in the past.

Is Crucial the only place to find guaranteed compatible memory or can we get cheaper memory somewhere else?

 

[Ketchup]

You aren't going to get much cheaper than 2 GB for $13.99.

You might find a bit better sale price on the SSD though.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks for all the input. About the SSD, will it directly replace the HDD or do I need an adapter that replaces the cd/dvd drive? It seems like I remember reading something like that in the past.

Is Crucial the only place to find guaranteed compatible memory or can we get cheaper memory somewhere else?

The SSD should be a direct, drop-in replacement of the existing SATA hard drive.

 

[balloonshark]

You aren't going to get much cheaper than 2 GB for $13.99.

You might find a bit better sale price on the SSD though.

How much memory would you go with and in what configuration? The laptop has 2 slots. One with 1GB and the other with 2GB for a total of 3GB 1066Mhz. Can I replace the 1GB stick with the crucial 2GB for a total of 4GB even though they have different specs? Would 4GB be enough RAM for a non-gaming user? If not then I'm looking at either getting a 4GB stick for 6GB total or an 8GB kit.

The SSD should be a direct, drop-in replacement of the existing SATA hard drive.

Thanks Dave.

 

[Ketchup]

4 GB is plenty for non-gaming. Espiically if you have an SSD. Laptops use the SPD rating of the lowest stick, and set that speed for both . So if the aren't the same rating, the stick in the laptop most likely has the lesser rating. Crucial wouldn't match you up to something rated lower.

 

[balloonshark]

Ok thanks. I also forgot about the voltage. It looks like the existing sticks need 1.5V and the Crucial sticks use 1.35V so I guess mixing and matching sticks isn't possible.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Ok thanks. I also forgot about the voltage. It looks like the existing sticks need 1.5V and the Crucial sticks use 1.35V so I guess mixing and matching sticks isn't possible.

Nah, that would be fine. The 1.35V RAM should be able to run at 1.5V (otherwise known as "normal DDR3 voltage") without issue.

 

[balloonshark]

Thanks again Dave.

Here I have Chrome open with a youtube vid running and anandtech tab open. It looks like the hdd light is constantly blinking. Can you tell anything from the pic?

 

[Ketchup]

Hard drive light is due to paging and/or drive fragmentation. CPU usage is a bit high due to youtube. If you uninstall Flash, the CPU usage may be lower (as youtube would revert to HTML5).

SSDs don't care about fragmentation, because it puts data in the best spot the first time.

 

[mxnerd]

It's not worth it. Buy a new laptop and sell the old one. But it will force her to use Win10.

The Turion CPU & AMD 4200 GPU probably are too slow for HD videos, youtube or not, using any browser or media player on the market.

SSD & more RAM cold help, but not much if CPU is the bottleneck.

CPU usage could shot up to 99% in some cases and you won't be able to anything else.

Don't upgrade to Windows 10, not everyone likes it, it's her decision.

The UI change is too dramatic, if you upgrade for her and she complains, you know...

 

[Eug]

It's not worth it. Buy a new laptop and sell the old one. But it will force her to use Win10.

The Turion CPU & AMD 4200 GPU probably are too slow for HD videos, youtube or not, using any browser or media player on the market.

SSD & more RAM cold help, but not much if CPU is the bottleneck.

CPU usage could shot up to 99% in some cases and you won't be able to anything else.

Don't upgrade to Windows 10, not everyone likes it, it's her decision.

The UI change is too dramatic, if you upgrade for her and she complains, you know...

Since it is a Core 2 Duo class CPU, it will fly (relatively speaking) with SSD even with just 3 GB RAM.

As far as I know, the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4250 GPU should be fine for HD H.264 playback, because it has it in hardware.

So, yeah, as others have said, this machine would be an excellent candidate for an SSD upgrade. However, I'd just check to see if something like a 128 GB SSD enough. I wouldn't spend more than that on a machine this old. And definitely not more than the cost of a 256 GB consumer SSD.

BTW, my main laptop is a Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz with GPU with hardware H.264 decode, and after I installed an SSD in it, it feels like a modern machine. I want to replace it eventually, but not because of performance. I want to replace it to get a better screen and to shave weight.

My Windows laptop has a much, much slower CPU (1.3 GHz Pentium SU4100) and with SSD it's usable too, albeit on the slow side. It has 3.12 GB RAM (which is 4 GB but only with 3.x recognized). It plays HD video fine because it too has hardware H.264, on its integrated Intel GMA 4500HD GPU.

In contrast, our kitchen 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook is a pain for HD video because it doesn't have hardware H.264 support. It struggles with HD H.264 and even though it can play it, the CPU is all stressed out and the fan is in vacuum cleaner mode.

 

[mxnerd]

I know SSD helps a lot. Just not sure whether the CPU&GPU combination is still good enough.

OP also should make sure he buy the SSD that comes with software that can clone & shrink the volume.

Since OP has a SSD in his machine, if OP is nice enough and has time, he can pull it from his machine and put it into his niece's machine, let the OS re-detect hardware and install the drivers and see how it goes. But better test before buying.

 

[Eug]

It's good enough. As mentioned, the CPU is Core 2 Duo class, and the GPU has hardware H.264.

With 3 GB RAM and SSD, that's all you need for a decent Windows experience, unless you're a gamer or have other heavy duty needs.

And as mentioned as well, those specs are very similar to my main laptop, which is a 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 MacBook Pro with GeForce 9400M (with H.264 in hardware), and 4 GB RAM plus SSD.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thanks again Dave.

Here I have Chrome open with a youtube vid running and anandtech tab open. It looks like the hdd light is constantly blinking. Can you tell anything from the pic?

As was mentioned, Flash will keep your CPU use high.

The HDD blinking intermittently during use is normal. Every time it blinks, the computer waits for a few milliseconds, and that adds up. You don't notice, per se, but it makes for a balky, sluggish user experience.

Dropping in an SSD cuts the wait time by a couple orders of magnitude, it's pretty awesome.

If you've got the drive light basically staying nearly solid, you're thrashing, which is bad for many reasons, and probably means you've got something else wrong, but SSDs are pretty good at treating the symptom.

 

[balloonshark]

Thanks everyone! So the amount of memory in the pic showed everything was fine? The HDD has been thrashing a lot. I'm defragging as we speak to see if it helps. It was 21% fragmented but she has a bunch of pics and videos. I also vacuumed a bit and blew out a little dust.

What is a the cheapest reliable SSD? The Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB looks popular and runs $50. It uses the SandForce controller which I think I remember hearing it is or was bad.