Laptop memory upgrade is it worth it?

I have a 7 yrs old 17" laptop with vista & 160gb hdd and a year 2000 version of office. Everything works ok but it is worrying me that there are now no updates for vista. Is it worth me buying and installing windows 7 or 10 and a new office product at a cost of about £250 or should I buy a new laptop at £400 or just stick with what I've got.

Also I have looked at adding some ram memory. I can increase it from 2GB to 4GB. I have seen memory at 667mhz at £19 and one at 800mhz at £29 is it worth the extra £10 for that much more speed.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Graham

To be honest I would buy a new one as spending money on upgrading it will also cost and have little benefit on a machine that old.

Others on here will probably also advise the same and may give you pointers on what to look for/get and as I dont use a laptop I cant advise much. What exactly do you use Office for? Most I know that have it only use it for word processing and if that is the case you could use a free Office suite. That would save you money to go toward a new laptop.

If you do decide to upgrade then ask here as some may have the memory you want at a bargain price.

Yea I'd go for a new machine as well, you don't wanna chuck decent money at an old laptop only for it to kick the bucket a few months later.

Agree with apelike and geared, get a new one. Even the cheapest laptops now are more powerful than your machine. You will also get an HD screen, far more harddisk space (unless you get an SSD which will actually make the machine even quicker).

Windows 10 is what you want to upgrade to, it might look and feel a bit different to what you are used to, but it is a fine operating system once you get used to it, not Mac great, but not Windows Vista terrible for sure

+1 to the replacement. It would be sods law to throw money at upgrading the RAM and hard drive only for the display to fail. I'd imagine the battery and charging socket would also be at the end of their life. 7 years is a pretty good innings for your laptop though.

Having no updates isn't too much of a worry if you have Avast or some other good anti virus software installed. I still use a windows XP machine for really old applications or devices the don't work with newer versions.

I'd upgrade the RAM, put an SSD in there and install a fresh copy of Windows 7 from a computer that's no longer using its license.

Most of them have OEM licenses but if you use the automated telephone registration and enter in 0 when asked how many computers are using the license it usually works.

*the automated telephone registration is now an automated online registration so you'll need another computer or smartphone to do this.

If you can't find a license just buy a crappy PC from Gumtree or Ebay that has a windows 7 license sticker on it and ta-da!

Support for Vista ends April 2017

John Lewis have a 17 inch Asus laptop for £430.00 ( follow link below )

I have never used this laptop, I've put it there as an example

http://www.johnlewis.com/asus-x751ld-laptop-intel-core-i3-8gb-ram-1tb-17-3-black/p1843996

Depending on what you use office for, you may like to consider Office 365. ( it's Microsoft's way of

getting a regular income from its users ).

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msuk/en_GB/cat/Office/categoryID.64542500

I'm really chuffed with all your replies, thank you very much.

Although my emachines laptop is 7 years old it has never ever let me down. It is a 17.3" screen and works perfectly. I use word & excel in my 16 years old office which I have on a disc and can re-install it anytime. Trouble is, if someone sends me a word or excel file or document from a newer version I have trouble opening it. If I could upgrade this laptop I would but as you say, will I have to replace everything eventually. First memory then battery etc.

I've heard a lot of people moan about window 10 saying they wish they could go back to windows 7 or 8 so I wasn't keen on buying it. I have recovery discs which I have used 2 or 3 times since I bought it in 2009 so I'm happy to keep Vista if it carries on working ok without the updates and as you say if I have good antivirus that might be ok.

I have an external hard drive of 1TB so space isn't that much of a problem and your idea of a SSD is a great idea which I'll look in to. I've just took the back off my laptop for the first time and discovered a space for a secondary hard drive I think but no idea how to find right one and fit it there.

I'm not all that well up on computers but will have a go to save money as I am a bit tight, being a pensioner, and £400+ is a lot of money. I know if I get a new one It'll have windows 10 & a HD screen & it'll be faster and have vast space, but I'd want a 17" screen. Thank you again for your opinions. I do ramble on a bit when I get going.!!! Graham

---------- Post added 31-08-2016 at 22:36 ----------

thank you for that Mike. I thought support had already finished. That gives me another 8 months to think what to do.!!

I had a look at the Asus at John Lewis thanks for the link.

Graham, modern day 'widescreen' 15" laptops have more screen real-estate than your current 17", I know it is difficult to change (my wife has a brand new iMac next to her 10 year old Sony!) but it is usually and genuinely for the better.

If you want to not upgrade, than fine, but in that case, don't waste money on an upgrade and just keep your machine running as it is.

Agree with apelike and geared, get a new one. Even the cheapest laptops now are more powerful than your machine. You will also get an HD screen, far more harddisk space (unless you get an SSD which will actually make the machine even quicker).

Actually that's not entirely true as a lot of manufacturers are building laptops with tablet CPUs which can still be less powerful than a 7 year old laptop, depending what CPU it had.

The trick is to make sure you only go as low as a Pentium and generally aim for an i3, i5 or Core-M.

I think I will buy some extra memory as it is quite inexpensive and hang on to my laptop for a while. I have a choice of 2GB DDR2-667mhz 5300 or one at 2GB DDR2-800mhz 6400 The faster one is £9 dearer. Will I notice the difference on my laptop, will it be worth paying the extra £9

Thanks

Graham

I think I will buy some extra memory as it is quite inexpensive and hang on to my laptop for a while. I have a choice of 2GB DDR2-667mhz 5300 or one at 2GB DDR2-800mhz 6400 The faster one is £9 dearer. Will I notice the difference on my laptop, will it be worth paying the extra £9

Thanks

Graham

No, the difference is hardly noticeable.