RAM and Hard drive upgrades will definately tide you over until you replace the laptop.
With regards to hard drives, if you need a lot of storage on your laptop, hybrid drives (SSHD's) offer large drives with a lot (but not all) of the speed of SSD. You can get 1TB drives for about £80. Worth it if you need storage space locally.
I'd echo CAFCFan and Starinnaddick's comments about CCleaner. I make full use of it and it's great for clearing out crap which builds up easily - although watch it doesn't delete the history and cookies you might want to keep. The makers of it also created Defraggler which does a superb job of defragging your hard drive. With the pair of them combined I have sped up many a PC for a user. As they're free would recommend you install these and see if it makes enough of a difference so you don't need to shell out for hardware upgrades. These should be run regularly to keep things cleared down. Note: if you have an SSD you shouldn't run defrags as this will shorten the life of your drive (and is unnecessary). CCleaner is fine though.
Hope this helps, CrayAddick.
Thanks mate for that. I've just done CCleaner and I'll now have a look at defragger to.
I have no idea what's slowing it down... Ideally I would like it to play some games better and also be quicker when browsing the net and typing up documents.
Some laptops are just not very good at gaming. They don't have the necessary components, like a decent graphics card. (My laptop has a rubbish rating but that's not what it's used for.) If you look at the spec of something like an Dell Alienware 18 then your run of the mill laptop can't get close. It's a bit like comparing a Porsche 911 with a Vauxhall Corsa. Mind you, at a minimum of £1800 you could buy the Corsa instead!
If you want to play games without the expense then you really have to look at a desktop PC. Laptops cannot run games particularly well due to the limits on CPU/GPU wattage and their inability to get rid of heat!
I'm not great with computers, but in terms of browsing, I switched from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome a few months ago & I was amazed at the difference in browsing speed. I would recommend to everyone.
One further thought - have you over the months gradually added software? Do you know whether this stuff is set to be available from "start-up" or just on demand? Is it that your machine takes forever to start or is it slow running? Anyway, click on the Microsoft symbol (bottom left of your screen probably). In the search box type msconfig (or maybe msconfig.exe) when you click on the result it should give you a system configuration screen. Go to the "start up" tab and untick anything you don't want to run automatically. (Don't worry if you get it wrong you can always re-instate by going back and re-ticking.)
One further thought - have you over the months gradually added software? Do you know whether this stuff is set to be available from "start-up" or just on demand? Is it that your machine takes forever to start or is it slow running? Anyway, click on the Microsoft symbol (bottom left of your screen probably). In the search box type msconfig (or maybe msconfig.exe) when you click on the result it should give you a system configuration screen. Go to the "start up" tab and untick anything you don't want to run automatically. (Don't worry if you get it wrong you can always re-instate by going back and re-ticking.)
It started to get really slow over time. I had a couple of games on it and after a while it just got worse and worse. I will take your advice and have a look at the automatic start up process.
is much better value at £449. It has less RAM but has an SSD which will give you far, far better performance than the Lenovo you suggested. No optical drive though which might be a problem for you.
I'd avoid AMD if possible. Solid state drives (SSD) are the future of computing but for now I think you (and most casual laptop users) will do well with a regular drive.
is much better value at £449. It has less RAM but has an SSD which will give you far, far better performance than the Lenovo you suggested. No optical drive though which might be a problem for you.
@cafcnick1992 what laptop would you suggest for a gaming laptop? Under £500 ideally.
What kind of gaming are you thinking? A lot of 'gaming laptops' are very expensive due to the high specs and extra features for some games. If you're just using it for Football Manager and the like, an up to date, newer release laptop will be more than good enough.
What kind of gaming are you thinking? A lot of 'gaming laptops' are very expensive due to the high specs and extra features for some games. If you're just using it for Football Manager and the like, an up to date, newer release laptop will be more than good enough.
Can you give me any recommendations? I want it for my music and some word document bits. Not heavy gaming, football manager definitely!
i5 processor & 2GB graphics card - which is AMD that I did just say to avoid, that was in relation to the processor, for graphics cards you're ok in my opinion.
G50-70 has been a good laptop for me, I got the slightly higher spec one six months ago and it hasn't let me down.
It has a very up-to-date intel processor along with pretty good dedicated graphics for that price. The screen is also of a half-decent resolution compared to the real budget ones around the £400 mark. Only problems with it are that you might not want a 17 inch screen and obviously it's above your asking price.
Football manager would look great on it though!
Like callum said, gaming laptops are pricey as they have to fit high-quality components (with pricey intel processors) within a small case and cool it all. If FM15 really is all you're doing then to be honest, anything will do.
It has a very up-to-date intel processor along with pretty good dedicated graphics for that price. The screen is also of a half-decent resolution compared to the real budget ones around the £400 mark. Only problems with it are that you might not want a 17 inch screen and obviously it's above your asking price.
Football manager would look great on it though!
Like callum said, gaming laptops are pricey as they have to fit high-quality components (with pricey intel processors) within a small case and cool it all. If FM15 really is all you're doing then to be honest, anything will do.
Nick, appreciate this. Do you find looking on eBuyer better for laptop?
It's a little above the price I wanted. As long as I can play some football manager, store my music, browse the Internet and do some word documents now and then I'm more than happy.
It has a very up-to-date intel processor along with pretty good dedicated graphics for that price. The screen is also of a half-decent resolution compared to the real budget ones around the £400 mark. Only problems with it are that you might not want a 17 inch screen and obviously it's above your asking price.
Football manager would look great on it though!
Like callum said, gaming laptops are pricey as they have to fit high-quality components (with pricey intel processors) within a small case and cool it all. If FM15 really is all you're doing then to be honest, anything will do.
Nick, appreciate this. Do you find looking on eBuyer better for laptop?
It's a little above the price I wanted. As long as I can play some football manager, store my music, browse the Internet and do some word documents now and then I'm more than happy.
Butting in, I've used ebuyer several times for various stuff generally their prices are competitive. Some of their cheapo "never heard of that brand" stuff is a little weak and price driven. Probably best to avoid. But I got my current laptop (HP/Compaq) from them and it's done its job. Probably the best thing I can say is that the first one that pitched up was really noisy because it had a dodgy fan and they replaced it straight away - no grief whatsoever.
What kind of gaming are you thinking? A lot of 'gaming laptops' are very expensive due to the high specs and extra features for some games. If you're just using it for Football Manager and the like, an up to date, newer release laptop will be more than good enough.
Can you give me any recommendations? I want it for my music and some word document bits. Not heavy gaming, football manager definitely!
Did you buy a new laptop, CrayAddick ...... or did you upgrade?
@OggyRed decided to hold off until January sales, have yet to come across anything with decent spec to run well enough with music/games/microsoft etc...
@OggyRed decided to hold off until January sales, have yet to come across anything with decent spec to run well enough with music/games/microsoft etc...
Okay, post up on this thread when you come across something decent at the right price, please?
@OggyRed decided to hold off until January sales, have yet to come across anything with decent spec to run well enough with music/games/microsoft etc...
Okay, post up on this thread when you come across something decent at the right price, please?
My old laptop has been a real work horse, but it's almost 10 years old now and struggling, despite upgrades. Also USB ports are failing and most of the jacks are obsolete.
I've had a gander to see what's out there but my head spins after a while - time to see what others recommend.
I'm looking to get a new laptop for general use including taking to university and just chilling at home watching tv and maybe playing some football manager. I have had a 15.6inch packard bell easynote tm86 i3-330m, 4gb for 5 years atm but the battery no longer works and have been told I need to replace the hard drive (for the 3rd time). It's causing it to overheat and turn off (need to rest it on its lid when plug it into a TV through HDMI so that it doesn't just turn off). The new hard drive would cost £100 so thought it best to just get a new one.
Got a budget of around £400 and want to get a 13.3inch laptop light enough to take to university that would hopefully last quite long so at least 5/6 hours of battery life.
Hope for performance at least as good as my current laptop but hope for better, although not sure if this is possible at this budget.
Any recommendations would be really helpful as I don't really know what I'm looking at and there seems to be so much choice
No laptop will ever overheat because of its hard drive. Furthermore, a new laptop mechanical hard drive costs about £40 and can be replaced in 40 seconds.
If your laptop is getting hot, it is almost certainly a problem with the fans or there is a large build up of dust within the machine which is causing the CPU to overheat.
If you do feel the need to replace it, stick with an Intel processor and get something with, at the very minimum, 4gb of ram.
Comments
(My laptop has a rubbish rating but that's not what it's used for.)
If you look at the spec of something like an Dell Alienware 18 then your run of the mill laptop can't get close. It's a bit like comparing a Porsche 911 with a Vauxhall Corsa. Mind you, at a minimum of £1800 you could buy the Corsa instead!
Is it that your machine takes forever to start or is it slow running?
Anyway, click on the Microsoft symbol (bottom left of your screen probably). In the search box type msconfig (or maybe msconfig.exe) when you click on the result it should give you a system configuration screen. Go to the "start up" tab and untick anything you don't want to run automatically. (Don't worry if you get it wrong you can always re-instate by going back and re-ticking.)
Lenovo G505s AMD A10 Processor, 8Gb RAM, 1Tb Hard Drive, Wi-Fi, 15.6 Inch Laptop
http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-ativ-book-9-lite-laptop-quad-core-processor-4gb-ram-128gb-ssd-13-3-touch-screen-black/p607384?sku=232258324&s_afcid=af_169609&awc=1203_1417195914_5b29af3630578651a9ab0282803e18d0
is much better value at £449. It has less RAM but has an SSD which will give you far, far better performance than the Lenovo you suggested. No optical drive though which might be a problem for you.
Some really helpful posts.
i5 processor & 2GB graphics card - which is AMD that I did just say to avoid, that was in relation to the processor, for graphics cards you're ok in my opinion.
G50-70 has been a good laptop for me, I got the slightly higher spec one six months ago and it hasn't let me down.
http://www.ebuyer.com/642078-pc-specialist-cosmos-ii-x17-840-gaming-laptop-pcs-l672516
It has a very up-to-date intel processor along with pretty good dedicated graphics for that price. The screen is also of a half-decent resolution compared to the real budget ones around the £400 mark. Only problems with it are that you might not want a 17 inch screen and obviously it's above your asking price.
Football manager would look great on it though!
Like callum said, gaming laptops are pricey as they have to fit high-quality components (with pricey intel processors) within a small case and cool it all. If FM15 really is all you're doing then to be honest, anything will do.
It's a little above the price I wanted. As long as I can play some football manager, store my music, browse the Internet and do some word documents now and then I'm more than happy.
Okay, post up on this thread when you come across something decent at the right price, please?
My old laptop has been a real work horse, but it's almost 10 years old now and struggling, despite upgrades.
Also USB ports are failing and most of the jacks are obsolete.
I've had a gander to see what's out there but my head spins after a while - time to see what others recommend.
Got a budget of around £400 and want to get a 13.3inch laptop light enough to take to university that would hopefully last quite long so at least 5/6 hours of battery life.
Hope for performance at least as good as my current laptop but hope for better, although not sure if this is possible at this budget.
Any recommendations would be really helpful as I don't really know what I'm looking at and there seems to be so much choice
If your laptop is getting hot, it is almost certainly a problem with the fans or there is a large build up of dust within the machine which is causing the CPU to overheat.
If you do feel the need to replace it, stick with an Intel processor and get something with, at the very minimum, 4gb of ram.