Is this worth it?

[The End]

My mate has offered me his old laptop for $300

It is an HP Probook 4530s. Specs are:
i5 2430m 2.4GHz
8GB RAM
HD 6490m

Vs. My laptop

Toshiba Satellite Pro L500
i5 m520 2.4GHz
4GB RAM
HD 4650


Is it worth upgrading to/is the increase in performance going to be noticeable in games such as BF3, BO2, LoL etc. I know I know...get a desktop for gaming. I'm a student and use my laptop for uni work and can't afford a desktop, so it's this or nothing.


Chur

[flyingcrocodile46]

Hardly any difference imo

Put the $300 toward ram upgrade and a solid state drive & use your old drive as an external drive. Much more bigger performance gains and super fast start ups. For gaming you really need a graphics card with lots of ram (laptop or desktop)

[mashman]

HP's suck ass imho and I'll never buy another. If you have a 64-bit O/S, then buy another 4GB RAM, if not, don't bother, go t pub and get thyself shit of the faced.

[The End]

The way I'm looking at it, is my laptop is near enough to 4 years old whereas my friends' is about 8 months old. There is an increase in performance, although not substantial an increase is an increase; and considering this is a $1200 laptop, getting it for $300 which should hopefully last me another 3 years will be a bargain.

[Sable]

You could most likely sell it for more than that on trademe so sure, it's worth it

[Akzle]

i would say no. toshiba wins over HP, IMO.

can't you just buy more RAM for your lappy? does it have slots? if no(and it's 2x2gb) , can you swap for 2x4GB?

personally, if you have 300$ and want to "upgrade" go and do it. (i'd say save your pennies/throw them at the one you've got/go buy beer and who gives a fuck?) i'll buy your old one. for five bucks and a bag of chips.

[unstuck]

and considering this is a $1200 laptop, getting it for $300 which should hopefully last me another 3 years will be a bargain.

Nah, its fucken hot, for that price. Unless he is a really good " friend".

[imdying]

I wouldn't bother, not enough extra poke.

It's probably not hot; it's actually overpriced for an ex lease unit with those specs.

[FJRider]

Save your money ... spend it on a bigger bike. Or fuel on your tour of the north island .... (better still ... your tour of the SOUTH island)

[\m/]

Save your money ... spend it on a bigger bike. Or fuel on your tour of the north island .... (better still ... your tour of the SOUTH island)

This is the only problem with being a motorcyclist and PC gamer, both hobbies aren't cheap.

As for the OP, I'd recommend a SSD and ram upgrade. You should be able to get 8gb of ram for about $100 and a 120gb SSD for $150.

[FJRider]

This is the only problem with being a motorcyclist and PC gamer, both hobbies aren't cheap.

As for the OP, I'd recommend a SSD and ram upgrade. You should be able to get 8gb of ram for about $100 and a 120gb SSD for $150.

Or ... the OP might ask himself ... how far would $300 take him on the scorpio ... ???

[The End]

The laptop is defintely not hot. It is just my mate trying to make a quick buck off an old work laptop he no longer needs.

Did this test on the laptops today and compared the results. His one scored significantly higher in the processor and RAM categories, as well as ~15% higher in the GPU category. I think that's enough for me. I can always flick on my one for a quick dollar or two to even some of it out.

Or ... the OP might ask himself ... how far would $300 take him on the scorpio ... ???

Got new lasertecs on the bike today, am very happy for $350 fitted, despite that being a significant chunk of your average students' bank account

[bogan]

Make sure to put those test results in context with other component swaps etc, though there's probably not a lot of point swapping bits in an old laptop, it is worth seeing what 300bucks would get you elsewhere. And scoring higher in Ram and Processor categories probably won't make any difference to gaming. Is 15% more fps worth $300? (less what you can sell you old one for)

[SMOKEU]

There was a huge jump between the 1st and 2nd generation i* chips, so you should find the performance difference more than justifies the price after you sell your current laptop.

[G4L4XY]

I'll buy it