Upgrading my internal laptop SSD and RAM

[Harry Houdini]

My laptop that I bought in 2016 for around $1300 / £1000 / €1100 is now becoming noticeably slower. I don’t have the means to buy another expensive laptop at the moment, and probably will not for at least another year if not longer.

I did notice however that I could upgrade my memory (currently have 16gb which can be expanded to 32gb) and my storage (currently have 1TB HDD and an empty m.2 SSD slot).

I mostly use my laptop for watching 4K videos/movies that I download using torrents (file sizes are usually anywhere from 20gb to 60gb). I mostly use SM Player, which plays much better than VCL Player for me. I also play some older games (like Counter Strike) because newer games don’t run very well on my laptop.

EDIT: I forgot to add that in the coming month's, I will also be using my laptop for AutoCAD and Bluebeam.



Here is a list of problems I have;

My laptop takes around 5 minutes to turn on and actually let me do anything, even opening Chrome/Brave.

Sometimes, it even struggles to play a movie stored on the device using SM Player/VCL.

I often get buffering when playing YouTube even know I have 200mbps fibreoptic.

I have 1TB HDD but I really need more. I don’t want to get an external storage drive because these fail so often. I would prefer a SDD that I can partition to store my films etc.

I want to be able to play newer games without lag etc.


What I am asking for here;

I guess the main question I have is that is if I do get an extra 16gb RAM and 1,2 or even 4TB SSD will it make any difference? I don’t mind spending 2 or 300 bucks on this, but would like to know if it is worthwhile.

I would like to know what parts are worth upgrading and also be provided links to these parts.

As you may have gathered already, I am a complete noob so I would greatly appreciate your time and help. TIA


Here is some details;

Laptop model: Lenovo ideapad Y700-15ISK 80NV

Purchased; August 2016

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.60 GHz

Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)

Device ID 19ACD24A-6C6C-4111-9EAB-3514A788E7BD

Product ID 00325-95905-20335-AAOEM

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home

Version 10.0.19045 Build 19045

Other OS Description Not Available

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Manufacturer LENOVO

System Model 80NV

System Type x64-based PC

System SKU LENOVO_MT_80NV_BU_idea_FM_Lenovo ideapad Y700-15ISK

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2601 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date LENOVO CDCN28WW, 11/01/2016

SMBIOS Version 2.8

Embedded Controller Version 1.28

BIOS Mode UEFI

BaseBoard Manufacturer LENOVO

BaseBoard Product Allsparks 5A

BaseBoard Version SDK0J40709 WIN

Platform Role Mobile

Secure Boot State On

PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View

Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS

System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32

Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.19041.3636"

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB

Total Physical Memory 15.8 GB

Available Physical Memory 10.9 GB

Total Virtual Memory 18.2 GB

Available Virtual Memory 12.9 GB

Page File Space 2.38 GB

Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Kernel DMA Protection Off

Virtualization-based security Not enabled

Device Encryption Support Elevation Required to View

Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes

Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes

Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware No

Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

 

[johnb35]

You don't need to upgrade your ram for what you are doing. I do recommend scanning your system for malware using Malwarebytes free since you are downloading torrents. Buy a big enough storage drive to hold everything.

 

[beers]

SSD will liven it up quite a bit, even a budget or midrange one. 2TB sata drives are floating around the $100-110 mark, I'd just stick with a major brand like Samsung, Crucial/Micron, SK, WD

You'd have to either clone your drive or reinstall windows. Personally I would put the previous drive in an enclosure and then just pull the data you want off while the SSD has a fresh Windows install.

 

[Harry Houdini]

You don't need to upgrade your ram for what you are doing. I do recommend scanning your system for malware using Malwarebytes free since you are downloading torrents. Buy a big enough storage drive to hold everything.

Hey and thanks for your reply! I installed Malwarebytes and it found the following threats. Now quarantined as that was the only option. Would have rather deleted the threats given the option.

Going by the two replies so far, it sounds like the best thing to to is forget about buying 16gb of RAM for the time being, and focus on getting a SSD and seeing how things go with that first.

 

[johnb35]

Thats only a partial list. If you click on scanner and then reports then double click to open the report and then click on export at the bottom, export to a text file, save it and then attach it to your next reply. Yeah a SATA SSD will do more for you than buying more ram.

 

[Couriant]

To add to what has been mentioned, if you are using the original 500GB/1TB drive that is shown for the model, then replacing the 5400RPM drive should definitely help. Mechanical drives wear down over time and will show the sluggishness that you mentioned. I would however also second a clean install of Windows on the new drive and use an enclosure to transfer and/or use as a temporary back up drive.

Malware can also cause slowness as you can see, you have had quite a few. Do you have any internet security programs? If not, I would say make sure at least Windows Defender is enabled and updated .

Lastly, check the Startup tab and disable any unnecessary programs from starting up.

 

[Harry Houdini]

Thats only a partial list. If you click on scanner and then reports then double click to open the report and then click on export at the bottom, export to a text file, save it and then attach it to your next reply. Yeah a SATA SSD will do more for you than buying more ram.

I have attached a the Report file.

Will make a separate post about my quest to find the best SSD for this laptop. Thanks again.

 

[johnb35]

OK, it seems you have pirated software installed cause thats what those riskware detections are all about. I'm not sure which product so you may have issues running it.

 

[Harry Houdini]

OK, it seems you have pirated software installed cause thats what those riskware detections are all about. I'm not sure which product so you may have issues running it.

Microsoft Office is pirated but it actually works perfectly. I downloaded it using uTorrent and followed the steps to install it. Was tricky but got there in the end. This was like 2 years ago I think.

Do you think I have viruses or it's just false positives. When I installed Microsoft Office, I had to separately install this program called Keygen or something like that. It was basically the app that activated Office with an activation code. It looked a bit sus though.

 

[beers]

We don't really help out with piracy, but many pirated apps are bundled with malware.

 

[Harry Houdini]

We don't really help out with piracy, but many pirated apps are bundled with malware.

When I get a new SSD and do fresh Window install, I will get the real Microsoft Office so I don't have any problems ever again.

 

[johnb35]

Keygen's come with malware which is probably what malwarebytes detected. Would definitely recommend reinstalling windows fresh and using a valid copy of office.

 

[Couriant]

If you are not wanting to pay for Office (for Personal, it's 69.99 USD a year, free upgrades), then I would suggest an alternative: https://www.libreoffice.org/

LibreOffice does support Office files and can also save as an Office file. This would be a good choice if you don't do anything too complicated.... or you could use Office Online. It's free with a Microsoft account. (though it's only online so some advanced features may not be available.)