Okay, so let’s say your notebook isn’t exactly what it used to be. It was a proud stallion of a rig for years, it could play the newest games, it could run a hi-def video editor without a hint of slowdown or choppiness, but… those days are behind it.
You don’t want to just throw it away or sell it off, not after all you’ve been through together, but you’d really like to be able to play a game released more recently than five years ago!
Well, the solution is simple, just get it refurbished.
Of course, where do you start? It’s like when you have a junker car and a limited income. Do you finally replace the spare tire with a new one, or do you worry about the spark plugs first (protip: Do the tire first. That way, you can at least push it home if you get a flat and the engine dies at the same time). So with a laptop, what do you worry about first? The RAM or the disk space? The graphics card or the wireless modem?
Well the first step is to just consider what your notebook is lacking, and what you need. If you only need it for gaming, obviously RAM and a graphics card take precedence over a new sound card. If you need it for video editing, some more RAM and some new software is usually your best bet.
One thing we can say is that RAM is usually going to be your first priority. As new software is developed, the one thing that the software maker always seems to neglect I that this beautiful new program may work great on their state of the art testing computers, but isn’t going to work so hot on the average notebook, simply because it requires more RAM than most people have. Luckily, RAM is kind of cheap, and you can probably get some out of your old notebook or buy it off a friend.
If you’re lacking on disk space, that’ll be next. You might have to just throw away your old hard drive and put a newer, better one in its place, if your notebook doesn’t have room for a second drive.
After that, it’s up to you. Shop around for the lowest price and buy each new component as you can. It’s a lot cheaper than buying a whole new notebook, and a lot simpler than it seems if you’ve never customized a notebook before (really, it’s pretty much like putting together some Legos, it really is that easy).
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This was very helpful. Thanks