New laptop or upgrade existing?

[sturgeon]

It'll still be massively faster than a mechanical HD. Boot time will be faster, updates and installations also - but - as Graeme says there will be hardware bottle necks.

We are all beta testers for MS latest updates too, and as for antivirus stuff.....!!!

 

[Piff]

Without your guidance, fitting a SSD, I would probably have loaded an old Win 7 disc which I have and then upgraded to Win 10.
Is there a simpler way to load Win 10 from scratch?

 

[markjay]

As a rule of thumb.... always buy new.

A new PC will have faster processor, faster memory, faster graphics adapter, faster SSD interface.... it is misleading to think that by upgrading just one or two components you can match the performance boost of a brand new design.

Said that... it's a question of what you can afford and what you are willing to spend, obviously. Not everyone goes out and buys a new PC or laptop when the old one slows down. So by all means, install SSD and upgrade the memory, just don't expect it to be as fast a s a new PC would be.

With regards Windows 10 Install... if you have a valid license, then you can download and install Windows 10 from here:

Download Windows 10

 

[Piff]

Is the licence number recorded in the machine somewhere?

I have an old Win 7 disc & box with a licence number on it if all else fails.

As for upgrade -vs- new, the laptop only gets occasional use so whilst I can afford new, there doesn't seem much point spending more than necessary. (Is the SSD even necessary? Just thought it would speed up start up & shut down, plus speed up updates so the few times it is used the updates install faster)

 

[sturgeon]

Clone your HD and all should be good;

How to link your Microsoft account with the digital license

1. Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
2. Click Update & security.
3. Click Activation.
4. Click Add an account. ...
5. Enter your Microsoft account credentials, and click Sign-in.

There are a lot of slow new computers on the market, that use old technology and have poor build quality. Acer laptops are generally good. There are also many factors that govern the speed of a PC, software choice and configuration plays a large role. Speed of internet connection is another, and so on.

 

[Codger49]

If its any help to you, I upgraded my 2011 Dell XPS15 (i5) this Christmas to celebrate BT finally delivering Infinity to our village.

I put in a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD (circa £110 from Amazon) and cloned the existing HDD using Samsung's supplied utility, (needed a usb to sata cable for this). Also bought a genuine Dell battery for £40 from Ebay.

Was a bit concerned about Win 10, as mine was an upgrade from original Win 7 and have seen mutterings that a fresh Win 10 system would be more stable and I was getting a BSOD about once a month

It seems that the MS offer to upgrade Win 7 to Win 10 expired some time ago and you cannot do the 7 to 10 upgrade now. I log on to Windows with my Microsoft account, so knew my license was registered and activated, therefore I purchased a Win 10 pro oem license key from Amazon (around £10, now up for £4.49). This enables you to download a fresh Win 10 pro from Microsoft and install it using the purchased key.

Anyway, it all worked and the laptop now flies.

Suspect its on borrowed time though, as I found out Intel now state they don't support my machine's on-chip graphics driver for Win 10. But the driver version on my machine has a higher number than the last one listed on the Intel website, so maybe MS persuaded them to produce a compatible version when Win 10 was first released. Certainly I have never applied an Intel driver update, so can only assume MS Windows Update has updated it.

If it lasts a couple of years I will be happy; for £160, the machine is noticeably faster, more stable and has had its replacement delayed for a useful period.

PS the old HDD can be used for backup/extra usb connected storage.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Holding on to ancient kit is a recipe for disaster, if not today, then a little way down the line.

I'm no advocate of buying brand new, preferring to pick up last year's model, or something that a tech fan boy no longer needs.

The longer you stay with the old model, the greater the risk of incompatibilities or complete disk failure. And the more obsolete your own "skills" become. Use a family member or friend to help you come up to date - you'll be amazed how much better the new stuff is, if you can be bothered to invest some time into updating yourself.

 

[sturgeon]

Not having a backup is a recipe for disaster. How ever new your kit is.

 

[Codger49]

Not having a backup is a recipe for disaster. How ever new your kit is.

Absolutely, I have a saying about backup behaviours: the world is divided into 2 camps - those who have had a hard disk failure and those who have not.

I had my disk failure many years ago, so I run an onsite Synology NAS in mirrored mode and also back up to the cloud. Backup is automated using SyncBack Pro.