Should You Upgrade or Replace Your Laptop?-gctid53021

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Should You Upgrade or Replace Your Laptop? | PCMag.com

                             Don't toss out that old  laptop! With just an upgrade or two, you may be able to make it faster,  add features, and extend its useful life.
                                           
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•                                                      
  
•               By Brian Westover
  
•                         July 31, 2012
• 1 Comment
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             Contents

 
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•                           Should You Upgrade or Replace Your Laptop?
•                     Battery & Other Considerations
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When you've owned your laptop for two or three years  you'll find yourself wondering whether or not you should buy a new one.  Although it might be time to go browse our reviews to find a  replacement, don't write off that old system just yet. With a little  money and a bit of technical know-how, you can grant your laptop a new  lease on life, or at least buy yourself a few more months. To determine  if upgrading is the right choice for you, ask yourself the following  questions:

   Will upgrading solve my problem? If you're simply enduring   sluggish performance or you've run out of storage space, then the  problem can probably be solved by either increasing your computer's RAM  or replacing its hard drive. Other issues have more complicated  solutions that may extend further than a basic part swap can fix. For  example, if your laptop is unable to play Batman:  Arkham City, it may be that you lack the necessary graphics processor,  have insufficient RAM, are running short on hard drive space, or are  experiencing a combination of all three. Solving this problem with an  upgrade may not be possible (adding a discrete graphics card isn't  always an option in a laptop), or may be prohibitively expensive or more  complicated than you want to take on.

   Do I know how to perform this upgrade? Swapping out a part can be  as simple as removing a battery and replacing it with a new one, or as  complex as opening the laptop case or removing the keyboard. Always  research a potential upgrade beforehand to determine if it's feasible  given your equipment and comfort with the internals of a system. While  broad tutorials are sometimes helpful, laptops vary widely in design and  construction, so you'll want to find information for your specific make  and model. Resources like iFixit's repair manuals and YouTube tutorials  can be invaluable when deciding to undertake a repair or upgrade  project.

   Is it worth it financially to upgrade a part instead of replacing the laptop?  While replacing a laptop outright can quickly ring up a tab of several  hundred dollars, individual components are often much more affordable. A  battery replacement may run from $20 to $50. It can cost as little as  $50 to upgrade a laptop's RAM. A 500GB 2.5-inch internal hard drive  costs about $75, but a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) upgrade kit may  sell for $200 or more. A laptop Blu-ray drive can fall anywhere between  $50 and $700 depending upon the model and whether you want disc-writing  capability. These expenses all grow rapidly if you take your system into  a professional instead of upgrading it yourself.

   If you've decided that upgrading is your best course of action, then the next thing to figure out is where you should start.

               
Battery

Over the months and years you use your laptop, its battery's capacity  drops. After a couple of years, your battery life can dwindle down to  under an hour, severely limiting your laptop's portability. The battery,  thankfully, is the easiest part of a laptop to swap or replace, because  it's usually accessible without opening the case. Switching to a new  battery will return your lost longevity, but you can extend it further  by bumping up to a larger capacity. If you're looking instead to make  your laptop more commute-friendly by cutting weight, a smaller-capacity  battery may be available to do the trick.
 
 RAM

When your computer stores information, it has two options. Long-term  storage of files and programs occurs on your hard drive or SSD. Random  Access Memory (better known as RAM) serves as immediately accessible  storage for programs and information that are currently in use. Adding  RAM lets you store more in this area, resulting in faster operating  speed, particularly when working with multiple programs or in intensive  applications like photo and video editors. Although not as easily  accessible as in a desktop tower, laptop RAM is usually accessible via a  panel on the bottom of the laptop, and will occasionally be placed  behind the keyboard, requiring removal to access it.  

   For light use, such as Web browsing and working with documents, 2GB of  RAM is usually sufficient. Multitaskers and power users may want a  little bit more. For heavy media editing, gaming, and anything else  similarly complex, you'll want more than 4GB if your system supports it.  (Some laptops support 12GB or more.)

   Because RAM is inexpensive and relatively easy to install (just open a  panel and plug it in), this is one of the first upgrades you should  consider. Most motherboards support only one type of RAM (DDR3 is the  most common, but some older models may still utilize DDR2), but  different capacities and speeds can be used together without problem as  long as the modules' voltages are the same. Be aware, however, that when  differing speeds are used, the laptop will be limited to the speed of  the slowest RAM module. To get the most out of each gigabyte of RAM  without paying for speed you can't use, try to match speeds.

  Hard Drives and SSDs

To expand the storage capacity of your laptop you can swap out the hard  drive for a larger model or a faster SSD. This can usually be done with  little more than a screwdriver, but before making it a DIY upgrade like  this you should always back up your data. But don't toss your old drive  when you're done—put it into an external drive enclosure. You can either  save it as is for a ready-made system backup, or reformat it and use it  as expanded storage.

   For faster performance, quicker boot times, and a slightly lighter  laptop, swap out your hard drive for an SSD. Using flash memory chips  similar to those used for RAM, an SSD can be swapped out just as easily  as a traditional hard drive. One caveat: On a per-gigabyte basis an SSD  will be more expensive than a spinning hard drive. Pay attention to  prices and weigh the benefits of faster performance against the expense  of an upgrade.

  Optical Drives

The days of laptops with modular optical drives have just about ended,  but if you do own a laptop with a removable drive, you have two options.  You may be able to find a compatible Blu-ray drive to replace an aging  DVD burner, or you can replace the drive with an additional hard drive  or SSD to further expand the laptop's storage capacity. Whether or not  this is a worthwhile upgrade depends largely upon what sort of drive is  in the laptop, what replacement drives are available, and how much the  total solution will cost. If the drive can be easily removed and  replaced for a reasonable price, go for it. If not, consider an external  drive as a stopgap measure until you have the opportunity to replace  the laptop.

  Keyboard, Touchpad, and Display

Although you can replace a laptop's keyboard, touchpad, or screen,  you're unlikely to find better options available aftermarket. Replacing  these parts may extend the united snakesble life of the laptop, but you won't be  gaining any capabilities that weren't there before. Swapping out this  kind of integrated hardware can be especially pricey, so be sure to get  an estimate before doing so—you might find it more cost-effective to  just buy a new system.

  Motherboard and Processor

Desktops may offer you the flexibility to replace both motherboard and  processor, but laptops don't have the same space to work with, and  rarely make either component easily swappable. Unless you're willing to  undertake this project as a hobby, irrespective of expense and  practicality, it's easier and usually less expensive to simply replace  the laptop.

  The Bottom Line on Upgrading

Unlike desktop tower PCs, which offer space and flexibility to add and  swap out components, laptops are much less upgrade friendly. They're  generally expected to last two or three years, and even if some new RAM,  bigger or faster storage, or useful peripherals extend this window by a  year or so, you'll still find yourself falling further behind the  current systems on the market. To make the most of both your laptop and  your budget, begin upgrades early and stick with your system for as long  as it meets your needs. But once it starts falling behind, replacing  the system outright is usually the simplest and most affordable way to  stay up to date with the rapid pace of technology.