I have a 3-4 year old MSI gaming laptop that I wish to give to my brother-in-law for his first gaming laptop. Will a few upgrades save it?

[Tyuzo]

The laptop in question:

 

MSI GL62 6QD-015NE 15.6" bærbar gaming PC - Gaming PC laptop - Elkjøp (elkjop.no)

Specs:

• Processor: i5-6300HQ
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 950M, 2GB
• RAM: 8GB DDR4 at 2133Mhz
• Storage: 1TB SATA HDD at 5400RPM

 

I bought this gaming laptop in 2016 and it served me until late 2019. It has gotten noticeably slower over the years, and takes 10-15 minutes to start Windows. This is most likely the harddrive slowing down, as it still runs games pretty okay-ish.

 

I opened up the back of the computer yesterday and noticed that it is only running with a single 8GB stick of RAM and runs on an ancient 5400RPM SATA HDD.

 

My question is; would this system be capable of games such as GTA Online, Minecraft, Rocket League, ROBLOX, Fall Guys, Among Us, etc. at reasonable settings if I were to upgrade the RAM to dual channel at 2x8 (16GB) and replacing the HDD with an NVME M.2 SSD seeing as it is possible with this laptop.

I'm not expecting insane performance from this laptop, it is old and worn down, but I am hoping to squeeze some more life out of it seeing as it was only bought 4 years ago. Any input is highly appreciated!

[Downkey]

1 minute ago, Tyuzo said:

The laptop in question:

 

MSI GL62 6QD-015NE 15.6" bærbar gaming PC - Gaming PC laptop - Elkjøp (elkjop.no)

Specs:

• Processor: i5-6300HQ
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 950M, 2GB
• RAM: 8GB DDR4 at 2133Mhz
• Storage: 1TB SATA SSD at 5400RPM

 

I bought this gaming laptop in 2016 and it served me until late 2019. It has gotten noticeably slower over the years, and takes 10-15 minutes to start Windows. This is most likely the harddrive slowing down, as it still runs games pretty okay-ish.

 

I opened up the back of the computer yesterday and noticed that it is only running with a single 8GB stick of RAM and runs on an ancient 5400RPM SATA HDD.

 

My question is; would this system be capable of games such as GTA Online, Minecraft, Rocket League, ROBLOX, Fall Guys, Among Us, etc. at reasonable settings if I were to upgrade the RAM to dual channel at 2x8 (16GB) and replacing the HDD with an NVME M.2 SSD seeing as it is possible with this laptop.

I'm not expecting insane performance from this laptop, it is old and worn down, but I am hoping to squeeze some more life out of it seeing as it was only bought 4 years ago. Any input is highly appreciated!

Upgrade to 2x8 RAM if your laptop has 2 ram slots. (Make sure you buy 2133mhz SODIMM)

Also do you have an SSD or HDD? You say you have an SSd but then you say "5400RPM"

If you don't have an SSD get a cheap 120 or 240GB one, and add w the HDD.

[WhitetailAni]

3 minutes ago, Tyuzo said:

Storage: 1TB SATA SSD at 5400RPM

Was about to ask that too - SSDs don't have RPM speeds. They are solid state.

HDDs have RPM speeds, and 5400 RPM is pretty slow.

I can one-up you on slow speeds - 3600 RPM on 1.5 GB.

[Tyuzo]

9 minutes ago, Downkey said:

Also do you have an SSD or HDD? You say you have an SSd but then you say "5400RPM"

 

7 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Was about to ask that too - SSDs don't have RPM speeds. They are solid state.

HDDs have RPM speeds, and 5400 RPM is pretty slow.

I can one-up you on slow speeds - 3600 RPM on 1.5 GB.

My bad here! I meant to write HDD, not SSD. :facepalm:

[Tyuzo]

12 minutes ago, Downkey said:

Upgrade to 2x8 RAM if your laptop has 2 ram slots. (Make sure you buy 2133mhz SODIMM)

I have some leftover DDR4 SODIMM rated at 2666Mhz laying around. Is it okay to install these? I assume these will automatically downclock to 2133MHz anyway.

[Downkey]

Just now, Tyuzo said:

I have some leftover DDR4 SODIMM rated at 2666Mhz laying around. Is it okay to install these? I assume these will automatically downclock to 2133MHz anyway.

Yeah, it will work. It will just downclock to 2133, although that's not a big deal for 6th gen intel

[wall03]

4 minutes ago, Tyuzo said:

 

My bad here! I meant to write HDD, not SSD. :facepalm:

upgrade to SSD

[Tyuzo]

1 minute ago, Downkey said:

Yeah, it will work. It will just downclock to 2133, although that's not a big deal for 6th gen intel

Sweet, gonna order an NVME SSD now and then start making these small upgrades. Hopefully he likes his christmas present. Thanks for the help! 

1 minute ago, wall03 said:

upgrade to SSD

The laptop has support for upgrades to an NVME SSD so I will install a 500GB one and keep the HDD for secondary storage.

[panzersharkcat]

What the people above said to do for upgrades. As far as what it'd be capable of, I think all of those you listed except GTA Online will be fine. Among Us is not exactly graphically intensive.