Is Alenware 17 R1 simply too old?

[Dathrenar]

I am looking for advice. I have been running my Alienware 17 R1 for the last 5 years, and it has worked more or less perfectly.
However, recently, I have noticed that the laptop does heat up, despite cleaning it every six months and changing the thermal paste annually.
The gaming experience has been smooth for the most time, running Skyrim and Witcher 3 at respectable over 60 FPS on medium settings...
Furthermore, I remember being able to achieve over 100 or even 200 FPS in games like League of Legends, but now, I can rarely creep to the 70s and often dropping below 30.
The final straw was when the recommended settings for relaunched WoW Classic settled in at medium-low...
The hardware has not changed since the day of purchase and is as follows:
I7-4700Mq 2.4-3.4 GHz (though last time I saw 3.4 GHz was in late 2017)
AMD Radeon 7950M/8970M (Wimbledon) (this GPU claims 4 GB of memory but at 300Mhz Core and 150Mhz Memory clock speeds)
Sk Hynix HMT45156A-PB 4 GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIM RAM
WDC WD10JPVX- 75JC3T0 1TB HDD x2
Liteonit DMT-80M6M-11 mSata SSD 80GB

The issue is that I have been experiencing crashes on an increasing rate in the last months, plus the overall performance seems to be declining as well. My question is, can an SSD upgrade, maybe an Nvidia 470M save the notebook, or is it simply too old and it's time to move on. It has been a great run, and to this day, the notebook has never let me down, and would rather end on a high pitch than to get soured at the end. 

[Husky]

I think that it is too old and you should start looking for a replacement. You could try and fix this one or upgrade it but I don't think that is worth your time or your money so I would just look at buying a new machine.

 

Unfortunately I am not an expert at laptops so I can't suggest a model for you to purchase as a successor but I am sure someone else can help you here.

[Dathrenar]

6 hours ago, Husky said:

I think that it is too old and you should start looking for a replacement. You could try and fix this one or upgrade it but I don't think that is worth your time or your money so I would just look at buying a new machine.

 

Unfortunately I am not an expert at laptops so I can't suggest a model for you to purchase as a successor but I am sure someone else can help you here.

Thank you for your reply. I saw the review Linus did on the Alienware m15 r2. However at over 3300$ it is too expensive. Keyboard is very important to me, since I write a lot but also because I have hard time adjusting to a new style after years of the same. Something in the 2000s (CAD) is what I am looking for.