How old is the laptop? Is it 'fixable'? (Virus / malware / not kept up with updates) If you want a new one anyway - I think most of the advice that you don't need anything mega special as your usage is quite average is sound.
I'm self employed and mostly use for spreadsheets. Had one of these for 3 years with zero issues. https://www.currys.co.uk/products/h...zen-5-512-gb-ssd-natural-silver-10250856.html
I bought a few Lenovo desktop computers a few years ago and all are working fine. My next upgrade will be Lenovo. 'Lenovo: The largest personal computer manufacturer globally. Lenovo is an iconic Chinese technology company manufacturing computers since 1984. The market data shows that Lenovo has solidified its position as the largest PC manufacturer globally.16 Mar 2023.' As a few have mentioned here, don't be spending too much on something you won't use. Buying high spec is fine if you can put it to good use now or in the future. Go to Currys, ask for advice, make a note of the computer model number, then check on Amazon and see if you can get it cheaper from a reputable seller with plenty of positive reviews. That's the way I've done it for many years.
You might want to think about what phone you use as iPhones work well with Macs and Android work well with Windows.
my main problem with occasional sluggish speeds is opening too many youtube tabs and not getting round to watching them.
The advice use to be to get the highest RAM you could. Is that still the case? Just I’ve looked at a list of best buys and some 4 gig RAM’s are up there with the 8’s. BTW, I’m sure I was looking at 16’s when I was last in the market??? Processor speed came into it too but I wouldn’t know where to start on that. I guess with online storage, ROMs wouldn’t be considered?
it's been suggested that microsoft will make the minimum requirement for windows 12 16GB. more ram is generally better, but some users may not need it. my laptop, now 9 years old, is still pretty nippy with 8GB plus newer SSD instead of the original hard drive. i could make it 12GB, but i'd have to replace a 4GB chunk of RAM with an 8GB and paying for 8 but only gaining 4 doesn't count as cost effective in my book. not at all sure what you mean when you asked "I guess with online storage, ROMs wouldn’t be considered?"
Isn’t ROM the size of your storage capacity, which was a major consideration when looking at specs? As most storage is now online, it’s irrelevant. My knowledge is based on what I can remember from my Maths, Stats and Computing degree in early 80’s. Probably no surprise that I didn’t complete the course btw. Suspect things may have moved on since then.
ROM stands for read-only memory, so it's not space we can use for storage. CDs that came with data or software were called CD-ROMs (viewers might recall the days of getting encyclopedias on CD-ROMs) and occasionally there were hardware ROMs that could be plugged into some computers and read from. storage capacity is mostly expressed in GB these days and is almost always a hard drive or solid state drive, either in a machine or attached in some way in a stand-alone device (such as a NAS, which is network assisted storage, or an external hard drive that can be attached via usb or the universal usb sticks). some of us still write stuff to CD ot DVD (or to the cloud, which hasn't earned my trust yet), i'm currently trying to get a particular file off a hard drive of a long-defunct type (with a massive 20MB capacity!). think i've just worked out how i can do it.
So If I'd finished the course, I could still get a job as a museum curator? RAM's are still relevant though? Whatever happened to ROMs?
yes, we still need RAM. i tried for ages to come up with a decent analogy for storage. in the end decided RAM is like a kitchen table and storage like your hard drive, etc, is like kitchen cupboards. work is done on the table and when you're done, you clear the table and put it away in the cupboard, but more than one person (or program) can sit at the table and do stuff, as long as the table's big enough, so more people can work at a bigger table. when the table's full, that's when the fun starts, and as soon as someone, or a program, has finished, there's more table space available. roms were mostly superceded by the internet and its speed increases, not to mention the ever increasing cheapness (and speed) of other storage devices. up to a point, your operating system and software might as well be on a ROM, but when there's software or operating updates, nowadays it's just a case of replacing or writing over the version you've been using, and you've got a newer and hopefully better version to use until the next new version comes along. roms might well still have a function in other devices, such as cameras, or washing machines, or tv set-top boxes, or even cars, but there again the useful lives of those devices can be increased by allowing updates too. some hardware will get updates now and then. my camera and printer get what they call firmware updates, sometimes with new or improved features. most hardware has firmware which translates requests from some sort of user request via software or an operating system.
You've got me thinking now about increasing the RAM, as it is a relatively new machine. Looking at the performance of this computer, it's only 4 GB, but with just browsing I am using 3.8 GB. Is that the reason it struggles with multi tasking? How can you tell how many spare slots it has? TBH, I rushed into buying this computer, and have just never got on with it. It's got a really annoying touch pad for numbers in front of the keyboard, which if you catch y55ou get9999999999999 in the middle of a sentence. This computer, Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge were all new to me at the same time, so I have no idea which bits belong to which and which I like, and never seem to find the time to explore.
perhaps the easiest way is to go to the websites of a company that sells RAM. crucial and kingston both do this. crucial has a scanner which you can download and run, and it will suggest updates for your system. kingston might have a similar scanner, but i can't see if on their front page. 4GB is a bit on the low side these days and generally more will help. lots of windows xp machines were sold with inadequate amount of ram. i once was asked to see if i could resolve sluggishness in one that been bought with only 250MB of RAM and the temporary addition of a larger chunk from my laptop turned it from a struggling three-legged dog into a greyhound.
