Time for me to upgrade or buy new?

C

Caleb

New Member
Hello. Thanks for reading in advance. I appreciate your help. I am trying to give as much detail as possible into my predicament.

So, I am a rising junior in college, who has mostly managed the past two years to operate without a laptop. As a math major, I don't have to do all too much writing and such but lately I've started to want to be able to have one quick solution where I can get all my work done (hence, the desire for a laptop). On this laptop, I will be doing all the basics of Word, and probably operating multiple mathematical programs (Latex, Mathematica, SAS, etc.) and probably hoping to enjoy online video (staying current with Cobert Report and other such important news). I doubt I will store too much music or video on my hard drive, although this could change if my demands increase or I start using my video camera more, which is currently being neglected. I have been borrowing my mom's laptop, which she does not use, but I have experienced some major slowdown even in running Microsoft Word (delays starting the program and frequent delays even while typing sentences or working on other tasks). The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L35-S2194 and was bought for $499 from Best Buy I believe. It's obviously a budget laptop, except that it doesn't even seem to handle the Word basics.

Processor: Intel Celeron M CPU 420 @ 1.60Ghz
RAM: 448MB (512MB)
Hard Drive: 80GB

So, I ask you experts. First, how can I determine whether upgrading my laptop is a possibility? Second, in your opinion from the information I've given, should I try to upgrade the laptop (which was only bought about last year by my mom, which she would give to me) or should I buy a new laptop? My budget for buying a new laptop is about $800. I would appreciate any suggestions of a new laptop, so I can take advantage of tax-free weekend here in NC if needed. Also, where can I get my laptop upgraded? Best Buy? And are all brands of memory considered the same for this upgrade?

I hope all my questions made sense. I appreciate all input.

Thanks.
 
You can usually upgrade the ram and hard drive in a laptop. Now, that laptop has 64mb integrated graphics (thus 448/512mb ram), a small hard drive, and a single core cpu. You can get a good laptop for $800.

For $800, this acer has a large hard drive and dedicated graphics.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115487

edit: And if you upgrade your laptop, bestbuy is a really bad option. Places like newegg.com have things like ram for literally half the price of bestbuy.
 
Dell is your best choice in laptops, plus most of the time they have promos taking up to 300$ off.

For desktops stay away from dell lol
 
I appreciate the recommendations. I am certainly looking at the Dell's, and the Acer as well.

As far as upgrading goes, after doing some investigating around, I found I could pick up some RAM from a website called Crucial.com. Has anyone used this website? And, the procedure looks relatively simple, but I've never upgraded my own system before. Is it easy enough for an upgrading novice to handle? Finally, I have heard that adding memory works a lot like the log curve, where as more is added the difference in performance becomes less noticeable. Is the upgrade from 1 GB (requiring only a 512MB add-on for $14) to 2 GB ($50) worth it?
 
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Upgrading that laptop won't help at all, since it's outdated, plus crucial site sucks, they recommend stuff that sometimes don't even work lol
 
Crucial ram is a very good company, and it is easy to upgrade the ram on a laptop. Just unscrew the bottom, take the old ones out and slip the new ones in.
 
Buy a new one.

What is your budget????
What country are you in????

And also no DELL, motherboards have cracked in a few laptops i've used.
 
1. He never agreed to make a major purchase on a laptop
2. Nice recommendation on the no dell there, cohen. How do you even crack a motherboard?
 
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