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Upgrading Netbook Worth It?

A

AdamB81

Junior Member
I'm so tired of how slow my netbook is. I'm debating whether to get a new one with all the bells and whistles or just upgrade my existing one. I won't be able to afford a new one for a few months, but I can afford a couple upgrades to my current one.

Currently it has an AMD athlon 64 processor, single core (I think it's comparable to the current atom processor). It has 2gb of ram and a slow 5400rpm hard drive. Running windows 7 home premium.

I'm thinking of putting another 2gb of ram, and a 7200rpm drive in there (I would go solid state, but that's just too expensive). Would this make a considerable difference or am I just better off getting a new one with faster hardware all around?

I don't do a lot of intensive stuff, like encoding videos or anything. I usually just have skype, MS word, a couple excel spreadsheets, and a few browsers up and running. It's pretty slow once I have everything open.

Any ideas?
 
I think you should get used to it. Netbooks aren't meant to be powerhouses. If you want more power, a notebook or sub notebook will be better, but can be costly, especially in the sub notebook range.
 
The only thing I could see doing is putting an SSD in there. I say this only because you can reuse the SSD in your netbook/laptop/desktop.
 
AdamB81 said:
I don't do a lot of intensive stuff, like encoding videos or anything. I usually just have skype, MS word, a couple excel spreadsheets, and a few browsers up and running. It's pretty slow once I have everything open.
Click to expand...

You need a dual core processor. That means you'll have to replace the netbook with a C2D CULV or the new Core i3/i5 CULV.
 
The fact that it's running Windows 7 Home Premium is the big problem here. That's not a netbook OS. Most netbooks running Windows 7 use the Starter edition which strips off all the CPU intensive crap in the full desktop version. Try turning all the fancy features off until you're back to the bare grey desktop.

You could also try running Ubuntu Netbook Edition. You'll have to go without Office (using OpenOffice instead) but it will run everything else. Should be faster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Netbook_Edition

Alternatively, you could put Windows XP on it.
 
Ubuntu would be the biggest speed upgrade you could make for a netbook. The Athlon 64 one should be able to run the 64 bit version too, which is a bit faster.

Otherwise, an SSD is really the only hardware upgrade you can do.
 
MJinZ said:
W7 Starter is perfect.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 starter is slower than Windows 7 if it disables Aero like Windows Vista starter did. It doesn't do anything for performance otherwise.

OP, check your memory usage too once you have everything open. 4GB wouldn't hurt (windows 7 will make good use of it), solid state drives can be had for $100 too. But a single core just isn't fast enough for windows 7, ubuntu would be better, or windows xp if you must stay on windows.
 
Fox5 said:
Windows 7 starter is slower than Windows 7 if it disables Aero like Windows Vista starter did. It doesn't do anything for performance otherwise.

OP, check your memory usage too once you have everything open. 4GB wouldn't hurt (windows 7 will make good use of it), solid state drives can be had for $100 too. But a single core just isn't fast enough for windows 7, ubuntu would be better, or windows xp if you must stay on windows.
Click to expand...

Why would it be slower if it disables aero?
 
lxskllr said:
Instead of using the underutilized gfx chip, the standard desktop uses the cpu, so you'd have less available for apps.
Click to expand...

Link please. I highly doubt turning on Aero will make a difference to my N450. Which is already fast enough to play a high definition movie on one side of the screen (30+ FPS) and web browse on the other just fine.l
 
I'm having a hard time finding a legitimate comparison between basic/classic/aero. I'll keep poking around....
 
MJinZ said:
Link please. I highly doubt turning on Aero will make a difference to my N450. Which is already fast enough to play a high definition movie on one side of the screen (30+ FPS) and web browse on the other just fine.l
Click to expand...

Here ya go. Aero is faster for some things, slower for others. Note that this is Vista, so 7 could be a bit faster still. The guy provides the benchmark tool so that you can test it for yourself.
 
I bought my Asus netbook in late 2008. My co-workers were so impressed that three (3) of them have since gone out and purchased their own. Three of the NBs have XP installed while one has W7. The one with W7 is noticeably slower that the XP-based machines.

Consider loading XP on your machine and test it out. My 1.6 Atom with only 1 GB RAM and 160 GB sloooow HD boots very quickly and seems fast compared to my other computers.

At least it boots quicker ...
 
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