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Upgrade laptop or get a whole new one?

Dorito

I start my senior year of highschool in a couple of days, and I'm going to need to be using a laptop at school quite a bit. Money isn't that big of a concern, I've got about $2k saved up right now.
 
Right now I have an Asus K55A-BBL4 which I bought 2 years ago around this time. Its specs are as follows:
 

- Intel i5 3210M @ 2.5 GHz

-4 GB DDR3

-500GB HDD (probably 5400rpm but not sure)

 

It's 15.6" and has a 1366x768 screen

 

I've been extremely happy with this laptop for the past two years, however it's slowed down quite a bit from where it used to be. To fix this I've been considering adding in a second stick of RAM to the available slot (totaling 8GB) and replacing the HDD with a decent 240GB SSD. 
 
The other option I've been considering is purchasing a new 13" laptop. While my current one is great, I'd really love to have one that is more portable. 15.6" is inconveniently large for sharing desks with my notebooks etc, its battery life is only around 3.5 hours, and its plastic body is somewhat flimsy.
 
Based on your experience, what would you recommend I do? Is having a well built and portable laptop with a metal body worth it? What are some laptops to consider?
 
Note: I'm not looking for a gaming laptop or anything, I already have a desktop for that kind of stuff.

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If you would prefer a new laptop I'd suggest the lenovo y40, its amazingly powerful and compact (14 inch), while only costing about $800-900 (in the US)

Though there are still many other options that may suit you better.

 

If you would prefer to keep your laptop then I'd throw in a samsung 840 evo 250GB, and 4 more GB of ram.

Specs: CPU - Intel i7 8700K @ 5GHz | GPU - Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming | Motherboard - ASUS Strix Z370-G WIFI AC | RAM - XPG Gammix DDR4-3000MHz 32GB (2x16GB) | Main Drive - Samsung 850 Evo 500GB M.2 | Other Drives - 7TB/3 Drives | CPU Cooler - Corsair H100i Pro | Case - Fractal Design Define C Mini TG | Power Supply - EVGA G3 850W

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since it's 2 years old, then upgrade the laptop with more ram and a ssd, then get a new laptop in a couple of years.

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Get a new laptop, throw in a 250gb ssd if it doesn't have one. Use the included HDD as an ext hdd

i7-4790k | Asus Z97i-Plus     | Kingston HyperX Fury 16gb | MX100 256gb     | Seidon 120XL | Silverstone SFX 600w Gold | Node 304 White
G3258    | Asus Z97i-Plus     | Kingston HyperX Fury 16gb | 4 x 3TB WD Reds | Seidon 120XL | Silverstone SFX 600w Gold | Node 304 Black

i7-965EE | Rampage II Extreme | Kingston HyperX Fury 16gb | CM M2 700w | Sapphire Nitro 380 4GB

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New craptop then later be ready to buy another new craptop.

Forgive me El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education...

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DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU'RE DOING, if you have cash to splash a new laptop would be awesome. If you think the money can be better spent, just upgrade it if you're happy with it. I'd say the recommendations up above were sufficient, upgrade RAM, add a big SSD.

13" Macbook Pro i7 (I7-3520M) | 16gb RAM | 128gb Sandisk SSD

Current build------------------------------Future build↓ 
Intel Core i7-4790K 3.5GHz Quad-Core | G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 | Asus GTX 970 Strix | Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower | EVGA SuperNOVA 750 | MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 | 128gb Sandisk SSD | Corsair H90 94.0 CFM Liquid

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If you really don't mind spending the money, I would upgrade. That laptop that you have is nice but I would upgrade to a newer model. At least get into the 1080p game! I would recommend my latest purchase, the Lenovo Y50. Make sure you get one that fits your needs though, depending on if you want to game in the future or not. The Y50 is a great gaming/portability, but if you don't think you'll ever want to game on it then you can spend your money somewhere else.

Black/Red Beast: CPU: i7 4790k Cooling: Hyper 212 Evo MB: MSI Z97 Gaming 5 GPU: MSI GTX 980 RAM: 16GB 1866 HyperFury X SSD: 256GB Samsung Evo 840

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If you really don't mind spending the money, I would upgrade. That laptop that you have is nice but I would upgrade to a newer model. At least get into the 1080p game! I would recommend my latest purchase, the Lenovo Y50. Make sure you get one that fits your needs though, depending on if you want to game in the future or not. The Y50 is a great gaming/portability, but if you don't think you'll ever want to game on it then you can spend your money somewhere else.

there are so many laptops aside from the  y50 what can you afford op ?

Desktop:ryzen 5 3600 | MSI b45m bazooka | EVGA 650w Icoolermaster masterbox nr400 |16 gb ddr4  corsiar lpx| Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1070ti |500GB SSD+2TB SSHD, 2tb seagate barracuda [OS/games/mass storage] | HpZR240w 1440p led logitech g502 proteus spectrum| Coolermaster quick fire pro cherry mx  brown |

 

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y40 and y50 don't really seem to be what I'm looking for, thanks though. I'm looking for things similar to the Macbook Air in terms of build quality, size/weight, battery life and overall premium feeling.

 

I've got just a bit over 2 grand at this point but there's no way I'd want to put all that towards a laptop right now. Really $1,000 would be starting to push it. 

 

I think what I'm going to do is upgrade my laptop since it'll be fun and educational and only around $150, then I'll see how that feels for a few months before black friday and everything. At that point I'll probably go and get whichever laptops of the ones I'll be considering has the best sale. I'll probably sell or give the old one to a family member then since my dad's laptop is hardly running and my little brother doesn't have one. 

 

Anyways then, anybody have experience with some macbook airs, asus zenbooks, or similar devices? 

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