Upgrading a laptop for programming or buying a new one?

Question

laptops

I now have an HP Elitebook 8540w laptop, 8 RAM, disk 512. At the moment, due to the "swap", it has become impossible to program normally :) (VS 2019 + VS Code, several Chrome tabs, containers + kubernetes are planned, etc.) . Does it make sense to upgrade it by delivering memory up to 16 and installing an SSD? Or will everything "rest" then in the Core i5 M540? The upgrade option is tempting, because if you buy a new laptop with satisfying characteristics and personal preferences, then the upgrade will cost 10+ times cheaper than the new one. Maybe someone has a similar upgrade experience? I use Windows 10 Pro, I know that Linux is lighter and less demanding on resources, but for the transition and mastering the intricacies (a few years ago I killed quite a lot of time with it, although I know that now there are many "simple"

Answer 1

Anyway, upgrade your laptop.
8 gigs is quite acceptable (minimum value), 16
SSDs are recommended to try to pick up an M2 drive with a higher read / write speed - this is 100% straight.
It makes no sense to use Win10 Pro, I myself am studying to be a programmer, I have a home (x64), 8 gigs and ssd 512, but not M2. But compilation of WPF projects and not only goes with a bang.

Answer 2

Thanks everyone for the advice! Now I read the manual more carefully (I missed the notes) and realized that upgrading the 2 x 8192 memory in a 2-core model is impossible .. It turns out that the upgrade consists only in replacing the disk. Which, with 8 memory, will probably race more intensively ... In general, it’s like that ... while I’m in doubt whether it’s worth messing with this laptop - I’ve repeatedly worn it for maintenance of the cooling system (because it turned off several times), after a short time it heats up , bastard, damn ... it seems that even a few years ago the cooling system was improved somehow ... It was so long ago that I don’t remember the details :) Plus, the battery is dead, it’s time to repack a second time. The old enthusiasm is gone :)

Answer 3

Since this is a very old laptop, you can upgrade it to a used thinkpad from ebay - and it will come out inexpensively, and there will be an increase. It is a pity that they did not do this 5-6 years ago, because. The second generation of Core differs very noticeably from the first, and one could try to live on SandyBridge, but not the first generation.
An upgrade to some thread T430 + 16Gb RAM + fast SSD can cost 30 thousand rubles (if you search well).
Well, or just buy something new - it will be 80 thousand, but there will already be an NVMe SSD, and at least 4 cores (and 2 + HyperThreading, as in older ones).