Notebook computer 8gb ram 240 ssd for less than 20000 thb ? where ? brand ?

[Ks45672]

18 hours ago, Pib said:

Ks45672,

   With no disk activity and CPU at only 3% something something is definitely eating up your RAM....maybe you have a lot of programs open in the background not really doing anything at the time of the snapshot based on the low CPU usage/no disk activity....maybe you have dozens of static browser tabs open, or maybe some RAM caching program like how Samsung SSDs can use Magician RapidMode to dedicate RAM (amount of your choosing) to SSD caching.   Or maybe you have some GPU which allows you to allot main RAM to it?

 

  But below is my memory snapshot of my laptop i7 CPU, 500GB SSD, and 8GB RAM with only one Chrome browser tab open with MS Office Outlook 2016 open in the background.....only using 3.1GB of the 8GB RAM installed. 

 

  And I can tell you if I still had 4GB it would show around 2.8GB of 4GB RAM because I made it a point to take a look just before I updated to 8GB RAM as I wanted to see how much RAM my computer would use with only one or two basic programs open like one browser tab and Outlook email with two different amounts of RAM installed.  The computer started using a little more RAM with 8GB probably because it offloaded some Windows drive pagefile usage to memory.

  

 

I will post a list of everything installed when i get time and exactly how much ram it is using

But i know what the largest culprits are and i could disable them if necessary 

[YorkshireTyke]

Interesting posts, thanks all. I need to replace my Acer as harddrive has bad sectors but been running slow and has mouse/trackpad problems for a while.

 

I would like SSD but as pointed out a bit pricey.

 

So, I have options of used Dell Latitudes 7250 or 7440, both 8Gb Ram and 256 SSD for around 12,000 Baht. Good value or too old?  Is a new cheaper of the  SSD drive laptops, around 20k, better value ?

 

My use is a couple of hours per day, internet, forums, reading newspapers, news and general browsing.

 

Any opinions to a complete novice appreciated. (I'd never heard of SSD until I started research when mine gave up the ghost last week).

[JamJar]

7 hours ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Interesting posts, thanks all. I need to replace my Acer as harddrive has bad sectors but been running slow and has mouse/trackpad problems for a while.

 

I would like SSD but as pointed out a bit pricey.

 

So, I have options of used Dell Latitudes 7250 or 7440, both 8Gb Ram and 256 SSD for around 12,000 Baht. Good value or too old?  Is a new cheaper of the  SSD drive laptops, around 20k, better value ?

 

My use is a couple of hours per day, internet, forums, reading newspapers, news and general browsing.

 

Any opinions to a complete novice appreciated. (I'd never heard of SSD until I started research when mine gave up the ghost last week).

 

Dependent on the model and your location, it could cost as little as 2000 baht to replace the faulty trackpad(if it is faulty) and to install an SSD to your existing laptop.

 

The fitting of the solid state drive and a clean install of the operating system will likely transform the performance of the machine.

 

No need to spend much for your particular usage pattern.

 

To give you an idea of the improvement that fitting an SSD bestows on old devices, take a look at this;

 

 

What's the model number?

 

 

[YorkshireTyke]

Thanks Jamjar, it's Acer Aspire E5 473G 59US, 4GB.

 

It came with Windows 10 which I presumed was genuine, I bought from lazada exactly 3 years ago, because of the problems with it, running slow, I copied everything from my hard drive, and tried to do a factory reset. It seemed to go through the motions but came with an error message 'could not reset' or similar. Then it would not start as boot error message.

 

Took it to my repair man and he said too many bad sectors on the hard drive. My dilemma was if I replace the hard drive, he was quoting 2,300 Baht, is there other problems with the machine so I would end up replacing it after another 6-12 months or so.

 

So I took the hard drive from my old Acer (which I'm using now), which is Windows Vista, easy to remove as the drive was in its own compartment, however, the one in my new laptop I had to remove all of the back and there are two 'straps' to undo, one in the middle and one stuck to the hard drive itself. So I replaced the drive but wasn't sure if these straps were connected properly. When I tried to start it I got the same error message about no boot. Replaced the drive back in to my old laptop (this one) and it works.

 

So.......is there another fault in my laptop that needs fixing plus I would need to buy another version of windows.

 

Will any laptop allow a ssd drive to be fitted ?

[chrisinth]

1 hour ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Thanks Jamjar, it's Acer Aspire E5 473G 59US, 4GB.

 

It came with Windows 10 which I presumed was genuine, I bought from lazada exactly 3 years ago, because of the problems with it, running slow, I copied everything from my hard drive, and tried to do a factory reset. It seemed to go through the motions but came with an error message 'could not reset' or similar. Then it would not start as boot error message.

 

Took it to my repair man and he said too many bad sectors on the hard drive. My dilemma was if I replace the hard drive, he was quoting 2,300 Baht, is there other problems with the machine so I would end up replacing it after another 6-12 months or so.

 

So I took the hard drive from my old Acer (which I'm using now), which is Windows Vista, easy to remove as the drive was in its own compartment, however, the one in my new laptop I had to remove all of the back and there are two 'straps' to undo, one in the middle and one stuck to the hard drive itself. So I replaced the drive but wasn't sure if these straps were connected properly. When I tried to start it I got the same error message about no boot. Replaced the drive back in to my old laptop (this one) and it works.

 

So.......is there another fault in my laptop that needs fixing plus I would need to buy another version of windows.

 

Will any laptop allow a ssd drive to be fitted ?

Moving 'loaded' (OS & application installed) HDDs from one computer to another, unless both the machines are the same or very similar, will, more times than not, fail to boot. Mainly due to different drivers/configurations between the two machines. Are both disks set for MDR/GPT for example. From what I read above, you moved a drive with Vista installed to one that had W10 installed; definite conflict straight off.

 

To prove it is the HDD that is faulty it would be best to install a freshly formatted drive, with a basic volume setup. Then try to install an operating system onto it to make the confuser do some work.

 

Obviously before doing that I would check the state of the disk you are replacing with a 3rd party software (HDD Health, Hard disk Sentinel, Checkdrive to name a few) to see if they can diagnose any major problems. Quick note on this, I have not used any of the named programs here, those are the result of my mate google doing a two second search after typing in 'free hard disk health software'. 

 

Good luck whichever way you go....................

Edited January 31, 2019 by chrisinth

[JamJar]

7 hours ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Thanks Jamjar, it's Acer Aspire E5 473G 59US, 4GB.

 

It came with Windows 10 which I presumed was genuine, I bought from lazada exactly 3 years ago, because of the problems with it, running slow, I copied everything from my hard drive, and tried to do a factory reset. It seemed to go through the motions but came with an error message 'could not reset' or similar. Then it would not start as boot error message.

 

Took it to my repair man and he said too many bad sectors on the hard drive. My dilemma was if I replace the hard drive, he was quoting 2,300 Baht, is there other problems with the machine so I would end up replacing it after another 6-12 months or so.

 

So I took the hard drive from my old Acer (which I'm using now), which is Windows Vista, easy to remove as the drive was in its own compartment, however, the one in my new laptop I had to remove all of the back and there are two 'straps' to undo, one in the middle and one stuck to the hard drive itself. So I replaced the drive but wasn't sure if these straps were connected properly. When I tried to start it I got the same error message about no boot. Replaced the drive back in to my old laptop (this one) and it works.

 

So.......is there another fault in my laptop that needs fixing plus I would need to buy another version of windows.

 

Will any laptop allow a ssd drive to be fitted ?

 

Acer Aspire E5 473G 59U5 A horrible design, though practically new. No problem with fitting a standard 2.5" SSD to it.

You missed out location(for the purpose of taking it to an ACER service centre). They should charge a lot less than your repairman. Perhaps 400 baht + VAT for labour, if you supply the part.

 

As Chris has suggested, your experiment cannot work. Your old HDD uses MBR/BIOS whereas the new laptop GPT/UEFI. 

 

So it's a matter of buying an SSD, fitting it and clean installing Windows 10 to it. Total cost as little as 750 baht. I would go for a Crucial BX500 as a minimum; https://www.invadeit.co.th/product/solid-state-drives-ssd/crucial/bx500-120gb-3d-nand-sata-2-5inch-internal-ssd-ct120bx500ssd1-p040111/

 

It's not the SSD that I would recommend. I would prefer the MX500. But it allows you to test an SSD on the device without spending too much and it's fine for your usage.

 

You won't need to re-purchase the OS, as Windows 10 Home will automatically activate if it was supplied with genuine Windows 10 Home in the first instance.

 

We'll talk you through the install if necessary.

 

Too new a laptop to scrap. Will fly with an SSD.

 

What's the model number of your old laptop? Time to fit an SSD to that too and upgrade to Windows 7 or 10 if you choose. Again just the cost of the SSD for the upgrade and perhaps a caddy such as this one; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-2-5-SATA-External-HDD-HD-Hard-Drive-Disk-Enclosure-Cover-Case-Black-TR/142858749120 in order to access your data on the old drive.

[wgdanson]

On 1/16/2019 at 1:46 PM, KneeDeep said:

 

16GB of RAM is totally unnecessary for the average user. Especially if you have an SSD fitted. I don't know why people make these random statements without qualification.

The amount of RAM and whether you have HDD or SSD are unconnected.

[JamJar]

46 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

The amount of RAM and whether you have HDD or SSD are unconnected.

 

Wrong. 

You only have to look at the video to which I have to linked to see quite how erroneous your statement.

 

[wgdanson]

On 1/30/2019 at 7:45 PM, YorkshireTyke said:

Interesting posts, thanks all. I need to replace my Acer as harddrive has bad sectors but been running slow and has mouse/trackpad problems for a while.

 

I would like SSD but as pointed out a bit pricey.

 

So, I have options of used Dell Latitudes 7250 or 7440, both 8Gb Ram and 256 SSD for around 12,000 Baht. Good value or too old?  Is a new cheaper of the  SSD drive laptops, around 20k, better value ?

 

My use is a couple of hours per day, internet, forums, reading newspapers, news and general browsing.

 

Any opinions to a complete novice appreciated. (I'd never heard of SSD until I started research when mine gave up the ghost last week).

Use your phone.

[wgdanson]

2 minutes ago, JamJar said:

 

Wrong. 

You only have to look at the video to which I have to linked to see quite how erroneous your statement.

 

Which link?

[JamJar]

17 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Use your phone.

 

Are you being silly?

[JamJar]

17 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Which link?

 

??

It's on this very same page. What are you doing??

 

 

[wgdanson]

2 minutes ago, JamJar said:

 

Are you being silly?

No, just trying to be helpful. I know many guys who use phone for what the OP said he needs.

[JamJar]

2 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

No, just trying to be helpful. I know many guys who use phone for what the OP said he needs.

 

Seriously....do you imagine that he is unable to decide that for himself? It's simply insulting.

I have a phone right next to me, but I'm using my laptop. How about you?

 

[Disaantri]

Don't forget it depends on how much data you want to store, then you need to decide how - cloud (annual subs) or hard disk (relatively cheap now in comparison to ssd) or keep as your usb backup. Acer do mixed ssd and 1Tb hdd ..... £320 in UK .... £ dropping further!!

Edited January 31, 2019 by Disaantri

[wgdanson]

5 minutes ago, JamJar said:

 

Seriously....do you imagine that he is unable to decide that for himself? It's simply insulting.

I have a phone right next to me, but I'm using my laptop. How about you?

 

On my i7 NUC connected to 60 inch Samsung TV.

 

Time to ..................upgrade to Windows 7 or 10. That's great bit of advice....W7????? 

Edited January 31, 2019 by wgdanson

[JamJar]

Just now, wgdanson said:

On my i7 NUC connected to 60 inch Samsung TV.

 

Time to fit an SSD to that too and upgrade to Windows 7 or 10. That's great bit of advice....W7????? 

 

Yes, Windows 7 or 10, according to the preference of the OP and the specification of the device, which we don't yet know. There may be incompatibilities and in addition, not everyone is keen on six monthly feature updates which may entail re-installing proprietary Drivers each time.

 

Why the childish behaviour? Have you viewed the video and swallowed your words?

 

 

[JamJar]

16 hours ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Thanks Jamjar, it's Acer Aspire E5 473G 59US, 4GB.

 

It came with Windows 10 which I presumed was genuine, I bought from lazada exactly 3 years ago, because of the problems with it, running slow, I copied everything from my hard drive, and tried to do a factory reset. It seemed to go through the motions but came with an error message 'could not reset' or similar. Then it would not start as boot error message.

 

Took it to my repair man and he said too many bad sectors on the hard drive. My dilemma was if I replace the hard drive, he was quoting 2,300 Baht, is there other problems with the machine so I would end up replacing it after another 6-12 months or so.

 

So I took the hard drive from my old Acer (which I'm using now), which is Windows Vista, easy to remove as the drive was in its own compartment, however, the one in my new laptop I had to remove all of the back and there are two 'straps' to undo, one in the middle and one stuck to the hard drive itself. So I replaced the drive but wasn't sure if these straps were connected properly. When I tried to start it I got the same error message about no boot. Replaced the drive back in to my old laptop (this one) and it works.

 

So.......is there another fault in my laptop that needs fixing plus I would need to buy another version of windows.

 

Will any laptop allow a ssd drive to be fitted ?

 

As to the Touchpad, have you tried this; 

 

[wgdanson]

10 hours ago, JamJar said:

 

Yes, Windows 7 or 10, according to the preference of the OP and the specification of the device, which we don't yet know. There may be incompatibilities and in addition, not everyone is keen on six monthly feature updates which may entail re-installing proprietary Drivers each time.

 

Why the childish behaviour? Have you viewed the video and swallowed your words?

 

 

Hello JamJar. I am sorry you think I am being childish, I am simply trying to help this guy. I cannot find any link to a video so I would really appreciate you posting it again so that I can upgrade my computer knowledge. Thanks.

[JamJar]

25 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

Hello JamJar. I am sorry you think I am being childish, I am simply trying to help this guy. I cannot find any link to a video so I would really appreciate you posting it again so that I can upgrade my computer knowledge. Thanks.

 

Not a problem. Perhaps all a misunderstanding.

 

I'll post both the video and a link to the video. So you are sure to see at least one of them;

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6zxoh3oK4

 

 

 

[YorkshireTyke]

Jamjar,

 

My old one is also Acer, 4736Z but I don't want to spend anything on it, I never use it, just kept as backup in the bottom of the wardrobe !

 

I live in Hua Hin.

 

My repair guy quoting over 2k was including the hard drive but I don't know which drive, I never went into details, I presume he would also install a copy of windows 10. I do have a Chuwi tablet with win 10 installed which I bought for my young son a couple of years ago, I don't know if that could be utilised ? For jobs of a few hours he does only charge 300-400 Baht, lots of guys here use him, he works from home which keeps his overheads down. So to buy a drive and have him fit it would probably only cost around 400 Baht.

 

My current Acer came from the supplier on Lazada with Win 10 which I presumed was genuine but my repair guy pointed out there is no windows sticker on the laptop, unlike my old one with a 'Windows Vista' sticker which is probably why my 'restore' never succeeded.

 

Thanks for the offer of the talk through the process but I guess the best option would be to let him install it for a few hundred baht although it's currently in a dismantled state so I could connect the drive myself but without windows I wouldn't be able to do anything.

 

I do have a disc with windows 7 professional on which I got from a Microsoft super user or some such title from my old employment around 7 or 8 years ago but I don't think I've ever used it.

 

If fitting a SSD I presume I only save the occasional spreadsheet to the drive and use a HDD connected via USB to save photos, music etc?

 

Thanks all for the input.

 

 

[wgdanson]

3 hours ago, JamJar said:

 

Not a problem. Perhaps all a misunderstanding.

 

I'll post both the video and a link to the video. So you are sure to see at least one of them;

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn6zxoh3oK4

 

 

 

Thanks. Not MUCH difference between 2GB & 8 GB RAM when SSD is fitted, 2.28 secs on Boot, 0.10 sec for P Shop, and 2 secs for 1GB transfer. The extra RAM only makes 0.19 secs difference to P Shop. when on HDD but boot and data transfer do take longer. 

Life's too short to worry about a few seconds here & there, but thanks for the info.

 

My i5 NUC with 256 Corsair SSD & 8 GB RAM takes 17 secs to boot W10.

[JamJar]

5 hours ago, wgdanson said:

Thanks. Not MUCH difference between 2GB & 8 GB RAM when SSD is fitted, 2.28 secs on Boot, 0.10 sec for P Shop, and 2 secs for 1GB transfer. The extra RAM only makes 0.19 secs difference to P Shop. when on HDD but boot and data transfer do take longer. 

Life's too short to worry about a few seconds here & there, but thanks for the info.

 

My i5 NUC with 256 Corsair SSD & 8 GB RAM takes 17 secs to boot W10.

 

So let's recap; 

 

Quote

I wrote;

 

16GB of RAM is totally unnecessary for the average user. Especially if you have an SSD fitted. I don't know why people make these random statements without qualification.

 

Quote

You wrote;

The amount of RAM and whether you have HDD or SSD are unconnected.

 

So hopefully now, by viewing the video and comparing the device with 2GB of RAM and SSD with the one with 8GB of RAM and HDD, you will note that fitting an SSD makes a much bigger difference than adding more RAM and delivers the kind of performance one should expect from a laptop.

So you should only splash out on RAM if you find that you are exceeding physical RAM in the first instance, as the performance benefit is negligible when you have an SSD fitted.

Further evidenced by comparing the device with 2GB of RAM in conjunction with SSD with the the device with 8GB of RAM in conjunction with SSD.

 

I'm sure that you now already understand this. I am just summarising for, informational purpose, for anyone who just looks at the last posts in a thread.

 

 

[wgdanson]

And if you do need more RAM, there is a way to use a USB stick. Never needed it.

[JamJar]

12 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

And if you do need more RAM, there is a way to use a USB stick. Never needed it.

 

"ReadyBoost" is not really a substitute for RAM. These things were only useful in the days of expensive RAM and mechanical storage.

Inexpensive 2.5" SSD changed the rules of the game and PCIe SSD even further.

 

[YorkshireTyke]

Jamjar,

 

I have looked at the Crucial brand SSD drives and BX500 120GB at 750 but I would rather pay 1180 for the BX500 240 GB which I presume is compatible. The MX500 250 GB is 1750 Baht, is it worth paying the extra ?

[JamJar]

21 hours ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Jamjar,

 

I have looked at the Crucial brand SSD drives and BX500 120GB at 750 but I would rather pay 1180 for the BX500 240 GB which I presume is compatible. The MX500 250 GB is 1750 Baht, is it worth paying the extra ?

 

Any SSD will make a huge difference to the performance of your laptop. The MX 500 is just better in every way. Also with the ability to encrypt the drive and with a longer warranty.

 

Put it into perspective. How much would a new laptop cost you? For the extra £15 I would not hestitate.

 

The BX500 is not much different from the other low end SSD, but will still make a significant difference to your device.

 

The problem for Crucial is that the MX500 is so good and inexpensive, that there really isn't a place for the BX500. They've had to strip out the components to be able to sell it at that price point. 

 

So MX500.

 

Put a 120GB BX500 into the Acer Aspire 4736Z or just throw it away. Otherwise what is the point of keeping it?

With the SSD and a clean install of 7 or 10, the performance will be transformed.

That way, when you need a back-up if the other machine is down for any reason, you'll have a device that will be a pleasure to utilise.

 

Once again I will ask...how much would you pay if you were buying a new laptop?

 

Instead of having two laptops for scrap, you'll have two fully functioning and useful devices for a total of 2500 baht(plus labour for the newer device).

 

Takes less than fives minutes to swap the drives on a Aspire 4736z ; 

 

[YorkshireTyke]

Yes, the 4736 is easy to change, it's the other one that is more difficult. Do the 'straps' have contacts on the end so need to be fitted firmly in place or are they just straps to hold it in place? As they don't have pins to insert it's difficult to tell if they are connected properly.

[Ks45672]

On 2/1/2019 at 10:26 PM, YorkshireTyke said:

Jamjar,

 

I have looked at the Crucial brand SSD drives and BX500 120GB at 750 but I would rather pay 1180 for the BX500 240 GB which I presume is compatible. The MX500 250 GB is 1750 Baht, is it worth paying the extra ?

Do yourself a favour and get the Samsung 860 

 

https://shopee.co.th/Samsung-250GB-SSD-860-EVO-SATA-III-2.5--i.97748341.1597783934

[JamJar]

39 minutes ago, Ks45672 said:

Do yourself a favour and get the Samsung 860 

 

https://shopee.co.th/Samsung-250GB-SSD-860-EVO-SATA-III-2.5--i.97748341.1597783934

 

 

The Samsung has the Samsung Magician software and a bigger TBW rating.

I use Samsung EVO drives in my devices. Though I also have Crucial BX300 in other devices.

So just go with a reliable vendor whichever you choose.

 

Performance wise they are much the same; https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-860-Evo-250GB-vs-Crucial-MX500-250GB/3949vs3951

Edited February 2, 2019 by JamJar