Slow / old laptop? How to upgrade for cheap

The speed of a computer can be boosted by upgrading its RAM and replacing a regular Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with a Solid State Drive (SSD). Just these two upgrades alone will breathe new life into your computer.

This can be done for around $100 for both if you can install yourself (it's pretty simple). No need to spend hundreds or thousands on a new computer!

Also, tune up your PC by defragmenting your drive & updating all software. Another useful tune-up tool is CCleaner.

P.S. There are a couple other factors that affect the performance of a laptop but they are either not upgradeable or too complicated for the average person to understand and tinker with. The above items are the best bang for your buck.

Source: I have an 8-year old Sony Vaio (i5 - 2.3 GHz). Came with 6 GB RAM (Upgraded to 8) & 500 GB HDD (replaced with 240 GB SSD, didnt need so much memory). Still going strong!