Dads slow laptop

[SpaceJellyDonut]

Hi guys! 

 

So my dad bought a laptop a while back for about $260(R3500) in South Africa. The thing has always been extremely slow so I tried recently to see what could be the main cause. I saw that it has a Intel Celeron N2830 cpu that has two cores. Both of which nearly always run above 50% load and when you do little things like switch between programs or opening up a browser they shoot to 100% while you're waiting for whatever to happen. I'm almost certain the cause is the processor seeing that the laptop has 8gb DDR3 memory and a 500gb hdd that is 90% free. 

 

I was thinking of getting him an SSD for his laptop, seeing as he doesn't have enough money or want to buy another laptop. My question is if you guys think it's going to make any real world difference? Seeing as the processor is so slow? He uses his laptop for work so he really gets frustrated with it being so slow. I should mention that the work he does on the laptop is Web Browsing and Emails mainly. The laptop takes forever to startup and to open up programs like Incredimail and Google Chrome.

 

The hdd that he has currently is just a generic 500gb 5400rpm 2.5inch laptop hdd.

 

Thanks in advance!

[dragoon20005]

your bottlenecks on the laptop is the CPU and the HDD

 

installing the SSD will help with programs loading and OS bootups

 

but when dealing with program switching, it will still slow down

[connorpiper]

The HDD will be causing some issues with starting up the computer and programs, but I would say the CPU is mostly the problem. A SSD is not going to do enough to make the computer seem fast. 

[vgfan1995]

It will, I just fixed a computer for my neighbor and after putting an SSD inside, it runs like a boss. (That computer has a Pentium from 2011 I think and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM)

 

P/S: It will be dependent on the speed of the CPU as well because some tasks (if not all) depend on CPU speed to be smooth as well.

[Spork829]

It would probably help a bit. If it's always been extremely slow like you said then the problem is probably more based on the fact that it's running a Celeron. If you said it's o0njly been slow recently then it might be the HDD getting old, but since it's been that way from day one I don't think the SSD will help very much. I'd honestly tell him he probably should just get a new one. If he's only doing web browsing/emails, look into getting him one of the new Chromebooks that support Android apps as a replacement. That way he can get actual decent performance for $250, which you just can't really do with a Windows laptop. 

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, vgfan1995 said:

It will, I just fixed a computer for my neighbor and after putting an SSD inside, it runs like a boss. (That computer has a Pentium from 2011 I think and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM)

Pentium>Celeron by a long shot. He will still be seeing slowdowns even with an SSD in this case because the processor will hold it back.

[MaxBunny]

10 minutes ago, johanvheerden said:

snip

If all he does is browse the web then you should download a low requirements Operating System on it over the Windows 8/10 it probably has now. Whether that's one of the minimal Linux systems or whatever, it'll likely fix your problem.

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, MaxBunny said:

If all he does is browse the web then you should download a low requirements Operating System on it over the Windows 8/10 it probably has now. Whether that's one of the minimal Linux systems or whatever, it'll likely fix your problem.

If his dad is comfortable learning the whole new OS.

[Mark77]

Yeah the SSD will make a big difference compared to a slow 5400rpm drive.  It won't ever be a really fast laptop, but it is more likely to be bearable with the SSD than without. 

[MaxBunny]

5 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

If his dad is comfortable learning the whole new OS.

Clicking a Firefox icon on a Linux system and going to google/youtube/etc. isn't really difficult.

[SpaceJellyDonut]

Thanks so much for the replies! He wouldn't be open to learning anything new so linux is out. I think I'm going to get an SSD, even if it improves just a little he will be happy. I can always put the SSD in a new laptop if he eventually buys one. 

[Daniel644]

Speaking from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with MY DAD'S laptop that has some crappy Pentium Dual Core thing in it (this was literally a 4 or 500 US dollar 17.3" laptop when it was brand new to give you an idea of the level of crap this thing was), I took him from 4gb to 8 gb after I finished maxing out the capacity of my ROG G750 (had to remove 2 4gb chips to add 2 8 gb chip so I had a spare 8 (2 4gb) to replace the 4 (2 2gb) he already had in there and the difference was pretty minimal, then I caught a sale on an 850 Pro and decided what the hell lets get me the newer model (previously had an 840 Pro) So I sold the 840 to my dad, installed it in his computer, did a Clean install of 7 then upgraded him to windows 10 (while it was still free to upgrade) and holy crap man, it is a WHOLE different computer now, it has NEVER been this fast, I am now thoroughly convinced the crappier the computer is the bigger an impact an SSD has on it.
 Is it on par with my computer, NO not even close it still has some stutters and stuff but man did that SSD really make a difference, he also needed it his HDD was audibly clicking so it wasn't long for this world.

[SpaceJellyDonut]

4 hours ago, Daniel644 said:

Speaking from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with MY DAD'S laptop that has some crappy Pentium Dual Core thing in it (this was literally a 4 or 500 US dollar 17.3" laptop when it was brand new to give you an idea of the level of crap this thing was), I took him from 4gb to 8 gb after I finished maxing out the capacity of my ROG G750 (had to remove 2 4gb chips to add 2 8 gb chip so I had a spare 8 (2 4gb) to replace the 4 (2 2gb) he already had in there and the difference was pretty minimal, then I caught a sale on an 850 Pro and decided what the hell lets get me the newer model (previously had an 840 Pro) So I sold the 840 to my dad, installed it in his computer, did a Clean install of 7 then upgraded him to windows 10 (while it was still free to upgrade) and holy crap man, it is a WHOLE different computer now, it has NEVER been this fast, I am now thoroughly convinced the crappier the computer is the bigger an impact an SSD has on it.
 Is it on par with my computer, NO not even close it still has some stutters and stuff but man did that SSD really make a difference, he also needed it his HDD was audibly clicking so it wasn't long for this world.

You had me at whole different computer!  Thanks for the feedback!