Upgrading my laptop

[ADogg]

I’ve bought a Dell 5570on Black Friday last year. Since I bought it I’ve changed what I need a laptop for and want to upgrade it and not replace it.

I’m wanting to upgrade the ram (currently 8GB) and put an M.2 SSD to run alongside the HD. Where is best to buy bits from? Or am I flogging a dead horse?

Fwiw this time last year I just needed it for basic stuff - spreadsheets and the like, now I’m dabbling more with Serato.

Thanks in advance.

[Slushbox]

Plenty of places sell the bits, including Amazon, Ebay

The trick is getting the right ones. Crucial have a 'scanner' that checks your hardware then recommmends the right bits. This assumes you have spare slots into which the bits will fit.

I upgraded my desktop and laptop with Crucial, because their site saves me buying the wrong bits.

Or you can use the Crucial scanner first, and order the bits elsewhere. Ebay can be cheap.

8GB of ram is a sweet spot, are you sure you need more?

http://uk.crucial.com/


Dell say:

M.2 SATA SSD–Up to 256 GB
M.2 NVMe SSD–Up to 512 GB

Edited by Slushbox on Thursday 15th November 07:00

[ADogg]

Thank you, I’ll check crucial out!

Not sure if I need ram, but guessed it I was going to install an M2 SSD I may as well do it whilst I’m there!

[Slushbox]

ADogg said:

Thank you, I’ll check crucial out!

Not sure if I need ram, but guessed it I was going to install an M2 SSD I may as well do it whilst I’m there!

With 8GB in the laptop already, it might be a single stick with a free slot, or two 4GB sticks and no free slot.

In the latter case upgrading the 4GB to 8GB to give 12GB would leave you with a 4GB stick unused. :-(

I got a Crucial 4GB DDR4 RAM stick for my laptop at £34 after their scanner recommended it. The first 4GB is 'soldered in'.

It worky.

[Nigel_O]

SSD will transform a previously average laptop, as will some more RAM

I overdid mine with 32GB of RAM, but it was cheap, so why not. I also fitted a 500Gb SSD for the OS and apps and a 2Tb HD for all the data - Lappy is now very much future-proofed (at least until I want something small and light, rather than the huge brick that it is)

Edited by Nigel_O on Friday 16th November 08:00

[PorkRind]

I got a dell 7550 for work thinking it'd be good for when im away wiht work 'cos its got a decent nvidia graphics card - basically its loud as hell with the fans running all the time its plugged in on power, ive tried making the local graphics card do the windows work and the nvidia card do the gaming stuff as per the nvidia tool but alas it still sounds like a concord ramping up to take off.

[ADogg]

I have purchased the necessary bits and bobs off the back of this thread so once they’re here I’ll get cracking and keep the thread updated. I haven’t a clue what I’m doing but hey!

[Nigel_O]

ADogg said:

I haven’t a clue what I’m doing but hey!

There's loads of Youtube videos on how to upgrade laptops - may even be one for your specific model

Take sensible precautions - un-plug the mains adapter and remove the battery - don't force anything - most components locate with a fairly gentle push - it its stuck, its probably screwed in

I'm no hardware techy, but I fitted a new 2Tb extra hard disc on Thursday - took 20 minutes, which included the configuring of the file system and the drive letter

[ADogg]

All the bits are here... Do I use Macrium to clone it?

[ADogg]

All done! Boot up time was 55 seconds and is now 16. Happy days.

[Slushbox]

ADogg said:

All done! Boot up time was 55 seconds and is now 16. Happy days.

Well done, Team. :-)