laptop advice upgrading parts

Ganton Gunner

Ganton Gunner

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996
Name
peter
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Yes
first thing is I have not had this laptop that long and I am not looking to replace it and have no room for a desktop.
I did not do any picture editing etc, when I got the laptop it was just for general use web browsing etc, so specs were not too important.
now I use lightroom quite a bit and I really do notice it :(
my query is a simple one would a SSD and memory upgrade to 16GB improve it much or not.
I am afraid I am not a computer expert by any means otherwise I would not be asking :D
this is the laptop i have spec's
  • Operating system
  • Windows 10 Home 64
  • Memory, standard
  • 8 GB DDR4-2133 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)
  • Memory and storage
  • 8 GB memory; 2 TB HDD storage
  • Hard drive description
  • 2 TB 5400 rpm SATA
  • Processor family
  • AMD Quad-Core A-Series processor
  • Processor
  • AMD Quad-Core A12-9700P APU (2.5 GHz, up to 3.4 GHz, 2 MB cache)
  • Display size (diagonal)
  • 39.6 cm (15.6")
  • Graphics
  • AMD Radeon™ R7 Graphics
  • Battery type
  • 4-cell, 41 Wh Li-ion
  • Power supply type
  • 45 W AC power adapter
  • Webcam
  • HP TrueVision HD Camera with integrated digital microphone
  • Pointing device
  • Touchpad with multi-touch gesture support
  • Audio features
  • DTS Studio Sound™; Dual speakers
  • Ports
  • 1 HDMI; 1 headphone/microphone combo; 2 USB 2.0; 1 USB 3.0; 1 RJ-45
  • Network interface
  • Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
  • Wireless
  • 802.11b/g/n (1x1) and Bluetooth® 4.0 combo (Miracast compatible)
  • Expansion slots
  • 1 multi-format SD media card reader
 
Yes to both questions BUT the easiest is to upgrade the memory, an SSD will help but Adobe are saying that the latest LR upgrade needs 16gb to run at its best.
Do the memory first then consider the SSD if you need it and have space.
 
troutfisher said:
Yes to both questions BUT the easiest is to upgrade the memory, an SSD will help but Adobe are saying that the latest LR upgrade needs 16gb to run at its best.
Do the memory first then consider the SSD if you need it and have space.
Click to expand...

thanks :)
i am using LR 6
 
if it only fits a single hdd or ssd then it is going to be very expensive to have even a 1tb ssd unless you use small ssd in the laptop and external hdd but I hate external hdd on laptops myself.

the ram will also be very expensive because they likely used 2 4gb modules so you would have to buy 2 8 gb modules and have 2 4gb modules surplus ( try to find a buyer for them )

I hate to say it but with laptops you have to get it right first time or it costs yoyu an arm and a leg and its not worth it, you can get very fast used laptops much cheaper and with faster cpu`s too
 
It has 1x 8gb ram in it and 1 empty slot.
I never use the CD drive could I use a caddy in there for a 2nd hard drive.
 
Ganton Gunner said:
It has 1x 8gb ram in it and 1 empty slot.
I never use the CD drive could I use a caddy in there for a 2nd hard drive.
Click to expand...

That's handy.

When the machine is slow, is that when it's opening an image for editing or when you're making changes when developing? If the problem is opening then an SSD will make all the difference, but is the problem is poor performance when actually editing then nothing short of a better processor and fast memory will help. I used to edit in LR5 on a dual core machine with 8GB RAM and SSD, and that would get so slow when using the brush that it was almost unusable.
 
its slow when opening and saving etc. and when edited one picture going to the next to edit it takes a second or 2 sometimes after its been open a while.
 
Ganton Gunner said:
its slow when opening and saving etc. and when edited one picture going to the next to edit it takes a second or 2 sometimes after its been open a while.
Click to expand...

SSD will probably help a lot then. Watch out for a 1TB job on special offer from Amazon. I also saw a 2TB job on offer recently at £379, but that's just a bit too much for me still.
 
If it is not that old then you may have space in it for a M.2 or msata drive. But a SSD is a noticeable difference.
 
Suomi said:
If it is not that old then you may have space in it for a M.2 or msata drive. But a SSD is a noticeable difference.
Click to expand...

hi I have been delayed with this but just ran a scan with crucial update and it says i can fit a M.2 does that mean its a additional drive inside or does it replace my present hard drive ?
 
or would i be simply better buying a different laptop budget would be about £500 so i guess 2nd hand would be the best option ?
 
ok i have done some reading and i would be able to keep my original 2tb hard drive for bulk storage.
so i figure upgrade 16gb ram (buy another 8gb stick)
and buy a m.2 ssd and make that my main boot drive
what would be a suggested size for the M.2 please i have just checked my total usage on my hard drive at present is 600gb but i know probably 200gb of that is just rubbish lol
 
Logic would suggest that you use the m.2 drive for your OS and apps and retain the 2TB drive for mass storage.

If you get an m.2 and it is smaller than your current hard drive then you will have to partition your current hard drive so that the elements you wish to copy over (including the recovery partition) are smaller or equal to the size of your new m.2

Your saving grace though is that if the laptop utilises m.2 sata rather than m.2 Nvme then the drives are cheaper.
For example this WD 500gb m.2 sata is only a smidgen over £100.
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/500...ead-560mb-s-write-530mb-s-95k-84k-iops-retail

They are slower than an Nvme drive but the same as a standard 2.5c SSD so you will still see a vast improvement over your current 5400 rpm hard drive.
 
what is the make and model of the laptop
 
Hi Peter, yes would be a new drive and as Stuart say's a m.2 ssd are a reasonable price now (overclockers have a WD blue 500GB or £114). Personally I would not go below 250GB you may well be able to move some stuff that you don't use often to the HDD.
 
well i have taken my time doing this but seems i have fallen lucky :)
just ordered 8gb more ram from cex £31.50
and ordered a m.2 500gb ssd from crucial.com who have a discount running online at the moment so £81.44 :D
 
It's hard to be certain, but it looks like your laptop may well have an M2 slot, in addition to the normal SATA connector.
 
The ribbon cable with the writing on it just to the left of the empty memory socket is where HP connects either it's SATA HDD boards, or it's M2 SSD adaptor boards.
The optical drive SATA connector is above and to the left of that ribbon, but it won't take an M2.
 
ok as it does look like i have no m.2 :(
i think mybe ring crucial in the morning get them to send a 2.5 ssd instead and get a optical drive caddy ? (i very rarely ever use the optical drive) i think would make sense to intall the SDD in the Hdd slot and use the present HDD in the caddy in case i ever needed to swap the optical drive in ?
 
Last edited:
I know optical drive slot HDD caddies exist for some laptops, but I haven't seen anything about this model.
You see that screw hole at the top of the optical connector board? That will match up with a little tag screwed onto the back of the drive, and they're non-standard; every manufacturer seems to make something slightly different to lock in the very standard drives, so you'd need to xfer that tag to the caddy to stop it falling out.
If you can find a generic caddy (they tend to be two thicknesses; 12.5mm and 9.5mm) that fits your machine, you can move the HDD into that, but you'd need the HP adaptor to fit the M2, unless you get a generic M2 > SATA board to go in the HDD slot, and plug into that.

Geting Crucial to send a SATA SSD would probably be the easiest option, but you'll still need the optical slot caddy.
 
OK something is going wrong :(
I installed the new sdd and ram.
Did a fresh install of Windows etc and updated all drivers.
The laptop is now painfully slow.
Trying to load Web pages etc is ridiculous can take 10 seconds plus.
I can close a page go to re open the same page and still slow.
I have run a HDD test and speed rating is over 500 mb read and write and it does boot up very quickly.
I am at present running a Windows scan of the memory I found a link online for how to do it.
It has restarted my laptop and it is scanning it right now but seems to be a slow process.
I am certain it is not my Internet connection as my Mrs is running fine on hers and I am on. My phone on it and it is also fine.
Any advice much welcome as I don't really have any idea what I am doing the memory scan is at 24% at the moment and no problems.
 
ok i have run a diagnostic on it and it keeps saying "windows could not automatically detect this network's proxy settings"
tried reinstalling it and no joy :(
 
Yeah sounds like a bad driver for your wireless what about plugging in via a network cable
 
Mr Bump said:
Yeah sounds like a bad driver for your wireless what about plugging in via a network cable
Click to expand...

just tried network cable as you suggested and just the same my 4 start up pages took 27 seconds to load
just opened them on my Mrs laptop lot older and lower spec less than 2 seconds for the same pages :(
 
when i 1st click to go on web i get plain white screen for 5 seconds before i even see the tabs appear :(
 
Ganton Gunner said:
just tried network cable as you suggested and just the same my 4 start up pages took 27 seconds to load
just opened them on my Mrs laptop lot older and lower spec less than 2 seconds for the same pages :(
Click to expand...

did yo disable the wireless though first?
 
have you done all the service pack updates, check that
 
ok windows says no more updates
hp says no more updates
radeon says no more updates
all still the same :( wish i never tried to upgrade it now
 
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