Upgrade or buy a new laptop?

Do not throw away old laptop! Just upgrade it once or twice, you can make it run faster, add features and extend its life.

When you use a laptop for two or three years, you will probably ask yourself if you should buy a new laptop instead.

Although this may be the time you should monitor our reviews to find an alternative laptop, don't dispose of your old laptop right now. With just a little money and a little technical know-how, you can give your old laptop a new vigor, or at least extend the life of a few months even for years.

Here is the advice why you should upgrade your old PC Mag laptop .

To decide whether upgrading a laptop is a good choice, answer the following questions:

Will the upgrade solve the problem? If you're simply suffering from a low-performance laptop and running slowly, or you've run out of storage, the problem can be solved easily by increasing your computer's RAM or replacing it. hard disk.
Other problems have more complex solutions that only replace a part of the laptop. For example, if your laptop cannot play Batman: Arkham City, it may be because the laptop lacks the necessary graphics processor, or insufficient RAM, or the lack of free space on the hard drive. , or all three reasons above. Solving this problem with just one upgrade may not be feasible (because adding a discrete graphics card is not always feasible for every laptop), or it may be more expensive or more complex than you want a lot. .

How do I do the upgrade? Replace a fairly simple part like removing the battery and replacing it with a new, or more complicated battery, like opening the case or removing the keyboard. You should study how to upgrade first to determine whether it is feasible and suitable for the internal parts of the system. The general guidelines are sometimes useful but because each laptop has its own design and structure, you will have to find detailed information for your specific model. Resources such as iFixit manual and manual manual repair and instructions on YouTube are extremely valuable to you when you decide to implement a laptop repair or upgrade project.

Will upgrading a laptop part cost more than buying a new laptop? While the cost of buying a new laptop costs several hundred dollars (tens of millions of dollars), upgrading individual parts is much more affordable. For example, the cost of replacing batteries is only from 20 USD to 50 USD (about 420,000 to 1,040,000 VND). The cost of upgrading the RAM of a laptop is 50 USD. The cost of buying a 2.5-inch 500GB hard drive is only about 75 USD (about 1.6 million VND), but an upgraded 256GB SSD drive can be sold for $ 200 (about 4.2 million VND). or more expensive. A Blu-ray drive can range from 50 USD to 700 USD (about 14.6 million VND), depending on the product model and the ability to burn. These expenses are much higher if you ask experts to upgrade instead of upgrading your computer.

If you have decided to upgrade to the best, then the next thing to do is determine which parts you will begin upgrading first.

The battery

Over the years of use, the laptop's battery life will decrease. After only a few years, it can run down to less than 1 hour, severely limiting the mobility of the laptop. Fortunately, the battery is the easiest part of the laptop, because it can be removed without opening the case (except for some thin and light laptops that currently use non-removable batteries).

Switching to a new battery will help you regain the life of the lost battery, and even increase the battery capacity. If you want to reduce the weight of your laptop for easy carrying, you'll have to use a smaller battery.

RAM

A computer when storing information will have two options. Long-term storage of files and programs will take place on hard drives or SSDs. Random access memory (also known as RAM) stores programs and information currently in use.

Adding RAM allows you to store more of this information, speed up operations faster, especially when working with multiple programs at once or in intensive applications like image editing and video. Although it's not as easy to mount as the desktop computer, the laptop's RAM is usually placed underneath the bottom cover of the laptop to remove the bottom cover or a small cover underneath the laptop to replace RAM. Sometimes some laptop RAM is placed under the keyboard and need to remove the keyboard to be able to perform the upgrade, instead.

To browse the web and work with documents quickly, using 2GB of RAM is enough. For users of many functions, it is recommended to use RAM with a slightly larger capacity. For media editing, gaming and anything else that is similarly complicated, you should use more than 4GB of RAM if your system supports it (Some laptops support memory up to 12GB or more) .

Because RAM is quite cheap and relatively easy to install (just open the laptop's bottom cover and plug it in), so this is one of the first upgrades you should consider. Most motherboards support only one type of RAM (DDR3 is the most popular, but some older laptops can still use DDR2), but different capacities and speeds can be used together without what's the problem, as long as the module is the same voltage.

However, remember: when different speeds are used, the laptop will be limited by the speed of the slowest RAM module. To get almost every GB of RAM, try to adjust the speed accordingly.

HDD hard drives and SSDs

To increase the storage capacity of the laptop, you can change the HDD of larger capacity HDD or faster SSD. This can often be done by using a tool more than a screwdriver, but before performing these upgrades yourself, you should back up your data. Remember not to throw away the old drive when you're done. You can save important data on it as a backup, or reformat and use it to store documents as needed.

To increase performance, faster boot time and reduce laptop weight, replace your HDD hard drive with an SSD. Using flash memory chips similar to those used for RAM, SSDs can be easily replaced as traditional HDD hard drives. One thing to note is that each GB unit of SSD will be more expensive than an HDD hard drive. Pay attention to the price and consider the performance benefits compared to the upgrade costs.

Optical drive

Now that a laptop equipped with an optical drive module is gone, if you're using a laptop with a removable drive, you'll have two options. You can use a compatible Blu-ray drive to replace an old DVD burner, or you can replace the optical drive with an HDD or SSD hard drive to further expand the storage capacity. laptop.

Whether to upgrade or not depends largely on what laptop is using the drive, if the replacement drive is available and the total cost of the upgrade. If the machine drive can be removed easily and replaced with another drive for a reasonable price, replace it. If not, use an external drive as a temporary measure until you have the conditions to buy a new laptop.

Keyboard, touchpad and screen

Although you can replace the keyboard, touchpad, laptop screen, but you will find it difficult to find the appropriate options available on the components market. Replacing these parts can extend the life of a laptop, but it won't have any extra use. Replacing these integrated hardware is expensive, so make a careful estimate before doing so - this case you buy a new laptop will be much more profitable.

Motherboard and processor

For desktops, you can be flexible and easy to replace both motherboards and processors, but laptops are not and very rarely can replace both components easily. Unless you are willing to perform upgrades as a hobby, regardless of cost and practicality. However, if you buy a new laptop it will be easier and less expensive.

Conclude

Unlike desktops that easily add and replace parts, it is much more difficult to upgrade laptops. Laptops often work best in the first two or three years, and then even if new RAM, storage capacity is larger or faster, or replace new peripheral devices is useful, you will still see the laptop. Its lagging behind the current laptops in the market.

Depending on the status of your laptop and budget, start upgrading early and stick with it as long as it meets your needs. But once it starts to lag, buying a new laptop is absolutely the easiest and cheapest way to keep up with the fast pace of technology.