Hello duders, currently a student studying at a university. I'm entering the 4th year of my notebook's lifespan, which has the specs:

• Windows 7 64 bit
• 8 GB RAM (2 x 4GB sticks)
• Intel HD 3000
• Intel core i5-2520M @ 2.5 Ghz (4 CPUs)
• 7200 RPM HDD

I don't game on this machine, but I do use photoshop, CAD work (2D + 3D), numerical and data analysis, video streaming (especially on websites like Giant Bomb!), playing local music and video files, etc.

Lately, I've noticed my computer slowing down (not virus/malware related) such as taking longer to boot and opening programs, as well as the programs that supposed to load upon windows starting taking longer to open. Additionally, I'm noticing that some programs (outlook, firefox) are starting to hang and "Not Respond" for a few seconds. Instead of spending another $1,000 on a new notebook, I was wondering if upgrading will significantly help.

I'm going to reformat + install Windows 8.1, so I was thinking of installing a SSD (Crucial MX100). Do you think it will be worth it (going to be about $110). On the other hand, I believe my notebook can support up to 16 GB RAM (2 sticks), would that be a better investment? I just checked Amazon and Newegg, and I think buying 2 x 8GB sticks cost a lot more than $110.

Thanks everybody!

An SSD is a great upgrade. I had a Dual Core Duo back in 2011 when I got my first SSD and even that felt like a new computer after the SSD upgrade. A modern PC should always have an SSD. It is simply much faster to boot windows and open programs and it makes everything feel more snappy.

From what I understand, SSDs are basically one of the best upgrades you can make these days. I haven't succumbed to the temptation yet (the price per GB is still too high for my taste) but it greatly improves boot time, is completely silent and is less likely to break since it has no moving parts.

Yeh it's sort of less about general performance and more about perceived. Even having a small SSD and just using it for the windows drive makes a big difference.

Sounds like you need some effective means of managing bloat though from your description of things slowing down. Either that or you have a couple problem programs in your bootup or something that are draining system resources. You're proposed reformat should potentially clear up a lot of that.

8 gb of RAM should be enough I would of thought depending on how intensive cad and photoshop get I guess.

Is your laptop easily upgradable to an ssd drive being 4 years old?

Yup, bless Lenovo Thinkpads.

@wonderva: I'd install a ssd. Really easy upgrade for the performance increase & if you decide to upgrade the laptop at some point you can always pull it out & reuse it.

The difference when switching to SSD is night and day, once you do it you will never be able to go back. I actively hate using machines without them now having used SSD's as system drives for the past few years.

To attach some rough numbers to it your average high speed 7200rpm disk (WD Caviar Black) achieves about 150 IOPS of throughput on a good day, a 256GB Samsung Evo can run up to about 90,000 IOPS under good conditions and even under average workloads something like 60,000. There isn't a single better upgrade for a non gaming PC.

@rorie sort of convinced me to get a sparkling new 2560 x 1440 monitor, please don't make me do this too.

(seriously i can't afford it, i'm pretty bad with my money lately and need to start saving :( i will blame everyone but me for my poor impulse control in the meantime)

@ripelivejam: yeah he's convinced me to get a second monitor(luckily havnt pulled the trigger yet due to researching shelving for the monitor/I'm right in a corner). Rorie has no respect for the struggle.

Well here are a couple of thoughts. Firstly, SSD's don't improve general performance they improve load times. Everything will "seem" faster, though, as it will just load more quickly. So in that sense, yes, it can be a big upgrade.

Secondly, upgrading to 16 GB of RAM won't make a difference in CAD or Photoshop because you are going to be GPU limited, considering you don't have a dedicated GPU. You'll hit a bottleneck long before you can load 16 GB of data into RAM. Plus, with the SSD you'd be able to get data into and out of the RAM quicker so that might aid in RAM limitations as well, of course depending on the speed of your current RAM.

Thirdly, before going through all the trouble of buying a new hard drive and reinstalling Windows, might I suggest using something like CCleaner or SlimCleaner. They are programs that will search your hard drive for potentially unwanted files that you may not even be aware exist and let you delete them. They also include options for starting and stopping services Windows may have running in the background, and for selecting which programs you want to run at startup. I use both of these programs once a month or so to keep my drive free. After using them, if you delete a large number of files, be sure to run a drive defrag.

Lastly, and most importantly, your drive could be dying. Laptop drives are notoriously bad, and if you've had this computer for four years then your hard drive could simply be nearing the end of its life. Please do yourself a favor and backup all of your important files immediately. Like as soon as you read this. If you don't have an external drive then either purchase some online storage space until you get one, or at the very least back up as much as you can on something like Google Drive or Dropbox.

EDIT: Here is a link to CNET's optimization downloads page. You can be sure you are getting legit versions of those programs there. Also, DO NOT delete anything that you aren't absolutely sure Windows doesn't need to run. You can do more harm than good that way.

Performance? Probably none.

But helps with read/write, copying, opening, and generally anything else that is related to READING FILES OFF OF A DRIVE.

Four year old laptop is old. An SSD is good, but not a miracle worker on computer that might have 12-18 months of useful life. If you can't afford a new device I'd just try to clean off the machine, remove bloat, and defrag drive. Oh, it will still be slow but you can put money towards new machine later.

@ripelivejam: A decent sized SSD isn't anywhere near the price of a QHD monitor. You can get a 250gb Samsung 840 EVO drive for under $120/£90. The price:overall performance improvement ratio of an SSD upgrade is phenomenal, you should really prioritise that, in my opinion.

I recently did this with my 5 year old laptop and I think it's pretty well worth it, for a $125 or so upgrade it made a pretty dramatic difference but my use cases were pretty specific (switching between OSes often, loading large programs, etc.). I honestly didn't think I'd get as much out of my machine but it helped with some of the major slowdown I'd been experiencing with it and might give me an additional year or two until I really need to upgrade it.