My current laptop is a bit over 8 years old. It still works fine and does everything I need but it is a little slow at times on complex tasks (video editing, 3D cad, photoshop). The battery is pretty tired and the USB is sometimes flakey. It’s not cripplingly slow, I mostly use it plugged, and I’m a bit anti consumerism so I’m loathed to just replace it. I must admit I’m struggling to grasp what’s what with new processors. Current one has an i5 2430M 2.4G 2 core. Lenovo z370 with 8g Ram and an SSD. Will I get something much better without spending a fortune (around £500-600)? A quick google and the specs look about the same, but has tech moved on much?. Must be a windows PC before we go there.

Used thinkpad P1(etc) / T480.

AMD Ryzen processors are getting good reviews according to my son, who’s more into his tech now than I am.

Don’t forget an i5 CPU from today will be significantly more powerful that an i5 from 8 years ago.

If you check out hardware review sites, you can compare the performance of different CPUs and complete systems on different tasks. My guess is that a tenth generation laptop i5 with modern graphics card will be massively faster on video editing than what you have, even though they look similar on paper.

The “i5” CPU is really a brand, not the spec of the CPU. A mobile i5 CPU is not the same thing as a desktop i5, so you need to check reviews of the specific chips on a machine, not just any random “i5” chip. Same general thing with graphics chips.

Another thing to be careful of with laptops is that cooling can make a massive difference, so the same CPU in two different laptops might perform quite differently if one is undercooled and has to throttle the CPU to stop it overheating.

Yes, a new laptop with a mid-range 10th Gen i5 and an NMVe SSD will much better than what you have now.

Frankly getting 8 years out of a laptop is pretty good these days, when we consult we give a usable working life for a laptop as 3-5 years depending on spec / work environment etc.

I’ve recently bought 40 of the latest gen Lenovos for a client, they have a metal case which helps avoid flex (flex can wear / kill a laptop) and they seem pretty nice, certainly on par with my high-end ASUS.

General usage – there’s not much in it, IMO. SSDs are the massive upgrade, once that’s done there’s not much noticeable, assuming build quality and screen are the same.

BUT if you are doing 3D and CAD, you might notice the increase in performance from the CPU.

I’ve recently bought 40 of the latest gen Lenovos for a client, they have a metal case which helps avoid flex (flex can wear / kill a laptop) and they seem pretty nice

My first ThinkPad in this job (early 2010s) had a metal chassis, with a plastic case. When I dropped it, the laptop was fine but the corners of the case smashed and splintered, I had to glue the bits back on for cosmetic purposes 🙂

Probably the biggest bottleneck with your current laptop is memory.

If you go for a new one then definitely try to spec 16GB (or take the low memory option and then upgrade it yourself which can be cheaper).

I ordered a laptop from laptop and pc warehouse, a T460 and the one they were preparing did not meet their standards , they called me and gave me a free upgrade. I have a much better laptop now.

If you can upgrade to 16gb ram it should make a noticeable difference. Nowadays everything likes to hog ram. On my work laptop-which was used for similar stuff to yours, the upgrade to 16gb ram was night and day.

My laptop’s using 12GB at the mo and I just have Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, IE11, Edge and Chrome running (OK I have 106 tabs open in Chrome but still… :p )

First thing I’d be doing with that is flattening it and doing a clean W10 install before worrying about the hardware. Might not make any difference, but you’ve not lost anything other than time in trying it if it doesn’t.

Then I’d use Task Manager to see where the bottleneck is rather than guessing. If it is RAM you might find that it’s alreay 2x4GB SODIMMs rather than 1x8GB, meaning you’ll have to replace what’s in there. CPU-Z will tell you this.

I had a lovely HP spectre x360 laptop which i dropped a broke the screen, I replaced it with cheaper HP with the next generation (8th) i5 and there was a significant improvement in performance but the build quality was appalling and just over a 2 years later it’s ready for the bin.

I’d get a refurb business laptop at the budget you can afford the performance will still miles better than your current laptop but it will last far longer than a £500 laptop from Curry’s.

8 years is more I’d expect from a MacBook before getting annoyed with performance. That you’ve managed that out of a Lenovo is testament to your calm demeanour or modest needs.

a modern laptop will be much better in several ways. Unsure what £600 buys you in Windows PC terms, but expect a much better screen, faster everything, and possibly more RAM. Though I find that Office 365 on Windows 10 is currently disappointingly sluggish on a T470. Probably just a passing phase as it used to be OK.

edit. And yes, what folks say about going for a used or refurb model over a new Curry’s one.

First thing I’d be doing with that is flattening it and doing a clean W10 install

The forum should include this as an automatic reply to any thread concerning PCs, along with “Brand X” for any dropper post thread.

prettygreenparrot

8 years is more I’d expect from a MacBook before getting annoyed with performance. That you’ve managed that out of a Lenovo is testament to your calm demeanour or modest needs

My £550 Acer is 8 years old & still works fine for all sorts of things – Zwift (even though according to Zwift it’s below the min spec), 3D CAD for home use, 3-D printing file slicing, basic photo-editing…..all I’ve done to it is stick in an SSD. It’s an i5 with 6Gb RAM.
I am relatively careful not to load it up with crap & keep it clean in terms of the software.

8 years is more I’d expect from a MacBook before getting annoyed with performance.

My MBP is mid 2010, but just refuses to die…..

The new Ryzen 5 series (4xxx) are fantastic. I have a Lenovo ultrabook with one of the previous gen 3xxx series and its really fast for the cash. I paid £550 with 8gb RAM and a 2K 13″ screen.

The benchmark numbers being pulled from the new ones are fantastic. The in-built graphics will be more than powerful enough for work / productivity and some light gaming but if you intend to do proper gaming and / or audio and video editing I’d always recommend a laptop with dedicated graphics.