Is it worth upgrading my 6-year-old laptop?

I have an Inspiron 1440 laptop with the following specifications:

CPU: Intel Celeron T3000 (Dual core, 1.8 GHz)
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
RAM: 1GB
OS: Windows Vista / 7 / 10
Screen: 14" 1366x768
Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
Ethernet: 10/100Mbps

However, this laptop's keyboard and battery are not working well. To fix these (by replacing them with new parts), it will cost around US$25.
If I am going to upgrade this laptop, I will consider to upgrade the RAM to 4/8GB (costs are US$30 / US$60 respectively)

This computer will serve for casual uses such as watching YouTube, as well as viewing and editing documents. With 1GB of memory and a HDD, the computer lags from time to time, even when doing those simple jobs.

To the best of my knowledge, both the processor and integrated graphics are "cheap" and have poor performance. Therefore, I would like to ask whether it is worth spending US$55 - 85 to fix + upgrade this laptop (given I want to keep using Windows). Or should I just buy a new one? How much will a 4/8GB RAM increase the performance of this laptop? Should I use a SSD with it?

Sorry for asking so many questions at a time. Thanks for reading my post.

 

Maybe, but only if you're worried about YouTube + document editing and nothing else.

I would buy a very small SSD and throw a lightweight Linux desktop onto it. High storage capacity is not needed if you don't have to carry some other data with you. 1GB RAM should be enough for YouTube and documents. Actually for YT and documents only I think I can live with no HDD, just booting from a spare SD card.


If you do plan to do something a bit more demanding, it's time for a replacement. Also think about the chance of changing your usage pattern. Will it make your life easier if you have access to a more portable device with longer battery life, so you can use it in situations you currently can't but want to? If yes, basically everything you can buy today is going to be better.

 

Of course I would like to "do something a bit more demanding", but I wonder whether gaming is possible with integrated graphics.

Do you think a 4/8GB ram upgrade can provide a significant FPS boost on those "less demanding" games such as Team Fortress 2 or League of Legends (I know the minimum requirement says 2GHz CPU + 2GB RAM on Vista and newer, but I'll just try and see if it can be installed on 1.8GHz + 1GB RAM if I really consider upgrading)? When these games are set to medium quality, and driver settings are at best, will I get 30-40 fps?

 

I would forget gaming entirely on that laptop. I mean don't even consider it, unless it's an old game like the original Half Life or titles made in that era.

If that was my laptop and I wanted to upgrade it I would do the following:

RAM: Increase to 4GB (2 X 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800) / Cost: ~40-50 New, cheaper if you buy used
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 / Cost: As cheap as $10 used on e-bay

The CPU and RAM upgrade will give you a noticeable boost in performance.

Also get yourself a new battery and keyboard like you mentioned, but I doubt a new battery and keyboard will only cost $25. Make sure you buy genuine Dell parts. If you are on a tight budget, you can get an aftermarket battery, but from my experience they don't last as long as the genuine stuff.

If your budget allows it, an SSD will also give you an obvious performance boost when booting and loading apps, but if you are only using it for light tasks like browsing the web, I would skip it for now.

 

Gaming...you got to be joking right? Get a Gaming laptop like Sagar if you want Gaming Spec for games like Team Fortress. For everyday usage example I upgrade my Dell 1525 to T8100 and 4gig and 500HDD and so far it works fine everyday.

 

Short answer: No.

I'm also skeptical you can find a genuine battery and keyboard for $25.


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Possible but very unlikely. If your system doesn't have enough RAM for the game and you're swapping, your game would either crash or slow to a crawl. If it does, adding more RAM would not do much to the FPS. You *might* reduce stuttering by adding RAM, but not stable frame rate in most causes, unless the game engine is programmed in some strange way.

Like others have said, I suggest forgetting about 3D gaming entirely with that system. Even though it might work and it doesn't hurt to try, don't expect much success. Something like the old CS should work well though.

 

While your ownership of the notebook in question may be around 6 years, the tech it is running on is much, much older.

For example, the 10/100 Mbps Ethernet was officially obsolete in 1998/1999... That tells you something of where the manufacturer internally positions the notebook...

The Celeron T3000 may have been launched a decade later in Q2/09, but even then it offered bottom of the barrel performance and at a high 35W level of inefficiency (even compared to other platforms of that time frame).

While the RAM upgrade will give a significant boost to many aspects of the performance (once Windows is loaded and programs are launched... i.e. very 'light' multitasking scenarios...) and an SSD w/Win10 will also give the impression of a more powerful system (it won't be; it will just be snappier - will still be limited to the HP the CPU+RAM combo can offer - and that stays near the bottom...), you will still be stuck with the cpu performance of an T100TA Z3740 CPU (that uses almost 10x less power than yours...) but with still much less igpu performance. (I also seem to remember that you could only upgrade to 4GB RAM maximum on that platform (but not 100% sure)).

Do not waste a dime on this system. For all you know, after doing all the above, the M/B, power connector, fan, etc. can also go and will only keep costing you time and $$$ to keep going for no benefits to a modern usage scenario at all.

Sell the system as-is for parts and pick a budget and come back with your expectations for your new system for further recommendations.

Whatever you do now with this obsolete platform will only be for learning experience only - your time is yours to spend as you wish, but just know that putting $$$ into this system will not transform it into something useable even for the next few months. Very, very soon; you will still need a more modern platform to do any day to day computing (and gaming) that you seem to require.

Good luck.

 

Gaming, as others have said, is pretty much a no-go on that laptop, even after upgrades. However, for basic tasks an upgrade in the CPU/RAM should work just fine, though for a smooth experience you might have to drop using a "heavy" OS and use something lighter (maybe Puppy Linux or similar).

However, I highly doubt that you'll find a quality battery for that laptop, regardless of price. I wouldn't recommend getting a third-party battery since the quality can be all over the place and generally isn't worth the hassle. You'd be better off saving the upgrade money towards a new laptop; even today's most basic laptops would be a big upgrade over what you currently have.

 

Considering you would very likely be able to pick up some 14 inch amd fusion sliver with a chiclet keyboard off e-bay for the price of a decent ssd (never mind ram, battery, etc.), that would outperform what you have in everything, including graphics - probably not worth the trouble. The inspiron chassis isn't exactly the prettiest or slimmest thing you can find either, is it I mean, I know people who have went through a lot of trouble upgrading some of the lenovo cases with the metal plate slot system and the high keys, and so on. So I can understand the attachment some people get to the old laptops, since some of them were really well made. Not so sure about the dell chassis here.

 

Thanks everybody for your valuable opinions. Based on the recommendations and suggestions, I decided not to upgrade this laptop and I will try to find/make good use of this laptop with its limited hardware.

 

This machine is not a viable upgrade candidate. If this were a 2009 Dell Latitude E 5510 with a Core i3 first gen, I'd say yes, but that Latitude is a major step up and today could be had for short money.