Worth upgrading older laptop vs buying new?

[ecKARd]

Howzit everyone with better knowledge than me.

Things happened and now I'm looking at getting a decent laptop for work purposes. Mainly will be running big Excels, VBA, SQL etc. No gaming or designing so graphics less important. However not sure if mentioned software will benefit from a good GPU?

AMD vs Intel: slightly AMD biased. (5 or 7)
Storage: 500gb SSD or better (meaning 1tb or NVMe, M.2 etc)
RAM: Most likely 16gb+ (is 2x8 better/worse/same as 1x16?)
Numpad kinda must have.

So now the question, should I just buy something new (any recommendations please?) or is it worth upgrading my 2016 Dell Inspiron 5558 15?
Current laptop specs:
i7-5500U 2.4Ghz
8Gb Ram
1Tb HDD

Can I add another 8gb ram? Or replace this one with 16gb?
Can I add/replace harddrive?
Is gen 5 i7 still fine? Can this be replaced?

Battery will need to be replaced.

So all in, will I be better of just buying something new? Or is this Dell worth saving? And if we go down the upgrade path, what should the new components cost give or take?

Thanks!

 

[Dom]

Howzit everyone with better knowledge than me.

Things happened and now I'm looking at getting a decent laptop for work purposes. Mainly will be running big Excels, VBA, SQL etc. No gaming or designing so graphics less important. However not sure if mentioned software will benefit from a good GPU?

AMD vs Intel: slightly AMD biased. (5 or 7)
Storage: 500gb SSD or better (meaning 1tb or NVMe, M.2 etc)
RAM: Most likely 16gb+ (is 2x8 better/worse/same as 1x16?)
Numpad kinda must have.

So now the question, should I just buy something new (any recommendations please?) or is it worth upgrading my 2016 Dell Inspiron 5558 15?
Current laptop specs:
i7-5500U 2.4Ghz
8Gb Ram
1Tb HDD

Can I add another 8gb ram? Or replace this one with 16gb?
Can I add/replace harddrive?
Is gen 5 i7 still fine? Can this be replaced?

Battery will need to be replaced.

So all in, will I be better of just buying something new? Or is this Dell worth saving? And if we go down the upgrade path, what should the new components cost give or take?

Thanks!

Budget?

 

[ecKARd]

Budget, that's the most difficult question.
I see decent laptops are going to be at least R10k, but more likely R15k+. I'd prefer staying under R20k. Is that realistic?

 

[Oj0]

Budget, that's the most difficult question.
I see decent laptops are going to be at least R10k, but more likely R15k+. I'd prefer staying under R20k. Is that realistic?

Yes it is.

Acer TravelMate P2 215-41-R5C7 Laptop — Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U / 15.6" FHD / 8GB DDR4 RAM / 512GB NVMe / Windows 10 Pro / Black — Best Deals at Progenix — South Africa

Acer TravelMate P2 215-41-R5C7 Laptop — Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U / 15.6" FHD / 8GB DDR4 RAM / 512GB NVMe / Windows 10 Pro / Black

progenix.co.za

with a RAM upgrade.

 

[Switch]

Buying new is always nice. But in your case you can upgrade and still be viable, use 2 x 8gb ram and 1tb ssd, and a new oem battery. Should be around 6-7k (battery is a ?), if not lower, if you shop around.

 

[Oj0]

Buying new is always nice. But in your case you can upgrade and still be viable, use 2 x 8gb ram and 1tb ssd, and a new oem battery. Should be around 6-7k (battery is a ?), if not lower, if you shop around.

Yes and no. The motherboard could fail tomorrow, then you need a new laptops anyway (replacement boards cost nearly as much as a laptop). You'll then be left with 16 GB DDR3 and a battery that are of no use to you.

 

[Oj0]

Oh, the CPU will also be a massive upgrade for anything multithreaded. The 5500U is a dual core, the Ryzen 5 is a six-core.

 

[mradovan]

i7-5500U 2.4Ghz

That CPU was designed for power efficiency, not performance.
Even if you manage to add another 8GB RAM, it cannot fix the CPU shortcomings.

If you won't play games, I would in your shoes get a Ryzen 5 or 7 - if you don't mind a bit of heat and shorter battery life, those guys shoot the lights performance-wise for relatively cheap. Speaking off the cuff, you can probably get a very decent one for around 15K.

Just remember that VEGA graphics would 'steal' cca. 2GB off your RAM, so 16GB becomes more like 14GB.

 

[moedeez]

Oh, the CPU will also be a massive upgrade for anything multithreaded. The 5500U is a dual core, the Ryzen 5 is a six-core.

+1 on this because

Mainly will be running big Excels, VBA, SQL etc.

All of this taking longer will be costing you money in terms of productivity.

 

[Switch]

Yes and no. The motherboard could fail tomorrow, then you need a new laptops anyway (replacement boards cost nearly as much as a laptop). You'll then be left with 16 GB DDR3 and a battery that are of no use to you.

That's true for anything out of warranty, it depends on the argument on how high your priority is on warranty (which ironically raises an existential question about places like carb, ebay, bidorbuy, and gumtree if warranty should always be the highest priority). It's why a lot of data centers cycle new servers every 3-5 years when their current server warranty expires, pretty damn lucrative when you get R30-40+ mill in the bank every 3 years, especially when they decide to upgrade networking and core switches.

 

[Oj0]

That's true for anything out of warranty, it depends on the argument on how high your priority is on warranty (which ironically raises an existential question about places like carb and gumtree). It's why a lot of data centers cycle new servers every 3-5 years when their current server warranty expires.

Again, yes and no. If a 3 year old graphics card dies, it's not the end of the PC. You replace the card as cheaply as possible and move on. If a 3 year old motherboard fails, you get something with the same socket here on Carb.

If a laptop motherboard dies, it's the end of the entire laptop as you won't find one at an affordable price, and they aren't generic the way PC components are. There is no such thing as a "standard form factor" or even standard internal connectors on a laptop. Almost everything is proprietary to the exact model or series.

With a desktop motherboard you have zero limitations that can't be worked around. You can use any brand of board with any of the 6 or so chipsets available to each socket. Even better on the AMD side, if you bought a Ryzen 1000 six years ago you can still get a brand new B450 board with support for it right now.

Gigabyte B450M H, AMD B450 Chipset, Socket AM4, Micro ATX Desktop Motherboard

AMD B450 Ultra Durable Motherboard with GIGABYTE Gaming LAN and Bandwidth Management, PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2, 7-colors RGB LED Strips Support, Anti-Sulfur Resistor Design

progenix.co.za

R 1,424 for a brand new AM4 motherboard that supports first gen Ryzen. It might not have all the features you WANT, but it'll get you running. If the board on that Dell laptop dies, you'll probably still be looking for a used replacement a few months from now.

 

[ThatGuyJD]

Would definitely suggest the new laptop route for you, the CPU is going to be faster giving you less wait time and although the 8GB ram might be slightly low for having a big excel open and then trying to do any processing of that data it won't be an absolute train smash.

 

[Oj0]

Would definitely suggest the new laptop route for you, the CPU is going to be faster giving you less wait time and although the 8GB ram might be slightly low for having a big excel open and then trying to do any processing of that data it won't be an absolute train smash.

You saw I said with a RAM upgrade (to 16GB), right?

 

[ThatGuyJD]

You saw I said with a RAM upgrade (to 16GB), right?

Was a comment in general as a warning as opposed to a reply to your comment.

I know you struggle to see over the desk so might have missed that I didn't quote your comment.

 

[Oj0]

Was a comment in general as a warning as opposed to a reply to your comment.

I know you struggle to see over the desk so might have missed that I didn't quote your comment.

Well I'm the only one that recommended a laptop, and it comes with 8 GB by default.

#logic

 

[ThatGuyJD]

Well I'm the only one that recommended a laptop, and it comes with 8 GB by default.

#logic

I was subtweeting you thus no need to be accurate in my warnings. Don't you know how this works.

 

[Oj0]

I was subtweeting you thus no need to be accurate in my warnings. Don't you know how this works.

You can tweet right off.