Keep, Sell? HP j021nr

ShayOh · June 14, 2020

Hi Guys,

So i have an HP j021nr
I7 4700MQ

GTX 740M
17inch
for 6 years now, bought it used for $600. since then i upgraded it from 8gb hynix to 16GB corsair RAM.
recently it started getting a bit slow and freezes for 10-20 seconds on certain tasks, i havent format it in probably 4 years and still running on a 1tb mechanical HD.
i know switching to SSD and getting a fresh windows installation should solve the problem, BUT,

I work two jobs, one a 9-5ish kind of a work and the other out of home which i work after my 9-5 and over the weekends.

when im at the 9-5 job, i have about an hour of break that i could utilize to get some work done for my other job, but this laptop is so freaking heavy and requires a backpack to carry which i cant fit in my locker, so i was thinking of selling it, and by looking at the CRAZY used market right now, it is possible i could get $300-$400. so i could probably afford a $600 laptop.

The thing is, i rather not get a new laptop to take to work and only get an SSD upgrade to the existing one, if i can only get a $600 laptop that would have the same or only a slightly better performance.

i was thinking of getting the MOTILE 14'' with the Ryzen 5 and Radeon VEGA 8 for $450, but not sure how big of a performance boost will that bring.
i dont game on the laptop, and switching to Linux for performance efficiency is an option,i code a lot on WordPress, and usually have 3-4 browser windows with 5-10 tabs on each for work.

what would you recommend me to do?

Thank you!

kb5zue · June 14, 2020

I'm trying to understand the situation. You have an anchor for a laptop and you do work on it but I'm confused about the particulars of "where" you work on it. Do you take the notebook back and forth with you every day or do you leave it at home during the day and only work on it at night? If you take the notebook to work with you during the day but only have an hour to use it, then why take it with you at all? If you like the notebook and would prefer to keep it, then go ahead and keep it but replace the mechanical hard drive with an SSD. You could clone the mechanical hard drive to the SSD and then put the SSD into the notebook and everything would be fine. Just trying to understand what it is exactly you're trying to say.

ShayOh · June 14, 2020

7 hours ago, kb5zue said:

I'm trying to understand the situation. You have an anchor for a laptop and you do work on it but I'm confused about the particulars of "where" you work on it. Do you take the notebook back and forth with you every day or do you leave it at home during the day and only work on it at night? If you take the notebook to work with you during the day but only have an hour to use it, then why take it with you at all? If you like the notebook and would prefer to keep it, then go ahead and keep it but replace the mechanical hard drive with an SSD. You could clone the mechanical hard drive to the SSD and then put the SSD into the notebook and everything would be fine. Just trying to understand what it is exactly you're trying to say.

You're right, i edit the post to make it more clear, basically i work two jobs, a 9-5 brick and mortar job and a second job from home type of a job,
when im at my 9-5 job i have an hour break, which i thought to use that hour break to work for my other job.

kb5zue · June 14, 2020

Thank you very much for responding. I understand the situation a lot better now.

Seems to me that you're pretty busy all the time and taking the time to "break" in a new laptop would take some time that you don't have but at the same time if you were to purchase an SSD for your current notebook that it would take time to set that up too.

But for six years now you have been using a machine that you bought used for $600 and considering everything that is a pretty good deal. You really don't know how old the machine is and there is no way to really tell how many miles it has on it because you don't know what the previous owner did with it or how long he really had it.

So, taking all that into consideration I think, and this is just my opinion, that you just might be better off with a new laptop. Laptops these days are faster and more light weight. And you can always just plug in an external, portable, hard drive for those times when your working on a very large file. But more importantly you can use a fast, external drive as a backup drive.

Of course, these are just my opinions on the situation and we all know about opinions, they're just like arseholes, everyone has one.

Take care, be safe and have a nice weekend.