As sealed units, laptops aren't easily upgraded. But that doesn't mean it isn't possible.
The most convenient thing about buying a laptop is that you don't have to put any of it together yourself. The components are chosen for you, assembled, then shipped off in a nice, compact package. But this initially attractive quality can soon become a problem if you decide you want your laptop to run a little faster, sound a little quieter or use less power.
Unlike desktop systems, it’s hard for users to get inside their laptops and upgrade them. In many cases, the only way to get any significant improvement is to replace them entirely. But don't worry: there are things you can do to upgrade your laptop. That's why we've put together this simple guide to improving your laptop's hardware.
Adding More Ram
Unless you spent a huge amount on your laptop, it's a safe bet that it'll benefit in some way from additional RAM. Any system with under 8GB of RAM should see large improvements from an upgrade, and anything under 16GB should still see some performance leap - though we're not sure any laptop needs more than that!
Luckily, expanding a laptop's memory is one of the easiest upgrades you can perform. It’s arguably a simpler process than the desktop equivalent, and that's already pretty easy!
Before you install new RAM, you should check that you have space for more modules or whether you'll have to replace existing ones, and check the type of RAM you already have (especially if you intend to keep it) to make sure that the new modules are compatible. Laptops use SODIMMS rather than standard DIMMs, so make sure you buy laptop-specific memory. SODIMMS are smaller and shorter than normal RAM, and they're usually inserted at an angle to minimise the thickness of the laptop itself. If you see a module that looks like it's been bent downwards, don't worry! It's supposed to look like that.
In most systems, all you have to do to examine a laptop's RAM is switch the machine off, find the relevant cover on the laptop's rear and remove it. It'll normally be screwed in, and the screw hole may be covered with a warranty sticker, but it will otherwise be easy to get at. The RAM modules will be instantly accessible, and depending on the number the system has, you can either replace or complement the existing memory with new sticks.
Note that unlike desktop systems, which usually have four memory banks, laptops often restrict themselves to two to save space. When you open your system, you may discover that both banks are full, in which case you'll need to buy replacement modules of a higher capacity. If there are any empty banks, check the type and capacity of the installed memory modules and buy a second identical one. You can buy one that's a different size or speed, but if you do this, remember that the fastest and largest module should go in Bank 0 so that it gets used first.
Once installed, additional RAM will have the overall effect of improving your system's responsiveness with regards to Windows and applications. Photo-editing and other media-manipulating software will see significant improvements, applications will see mild improvements, and games will see the least improvement.
The amount of improvement you see also depends on what capacity you're going from and to. If your laptop has less than 4GB and is running on a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or 8, an upgrade to 8GB should garner significant improvements, but if you're running 8GB and upgrade to 12GB or 16GB, the performance leap will be a lot less obvious.
But even so, upgrading RAM is always a cheap, reliable and simple way of improving a system's performance, so if there's any room at all for extra modules, it should be your first port of call. There are literally no disadvantages!
Improve The Storage
Laptops rarely have space to house more than one storage unit simultaneously, but installing a new drive in your laptop can allow you to increase the amount of storage you have - as long as you don't mind giving yourself a clean slate to work from!
Installing a new hard drive in a laptop is slightly trickier than installing new RAM, mainly because the drive might be harder to access. On most laptops, you'll probably find the drive housed within a removable mounting bracket, which you'll have to unscrew first before you can actually get at the hardware. But once you've exposed the drive, it's not that much different from installing a new hard drive in a desktop system. All you need is a screwdriver and the ability to unplug some cables!
If you don't want to lose your installation and start afresh, it's possible to clone the original drive before replacing it. Cloning a drive requires the use of an external drive enclosure or second PC, so you'll need additional hardware, although it’s worth pointing out that laptop hard drives work fine in a desktop system, so you may prefer to perform a fresh installation on your new drive and retrieve your files later.
Laptop hard drives can be replaced with a 2.5" drive of any type. High-capacity mechanical drives are popular due to their low cost, and you should be able to get a 1TB drive installed without spending a lot of money. If you already have a drive above 500GB, however, it may not be worth the expense. The biggest 2.5" hard drives currently top out at 2TB and cost about double the price of their 1TB equivalents. 1TB drives remain the best value, though - for £45-f 55 you can get a drive double the size of the cheapest 500GB drives, which are about £35 each.
But although new hard drives can be good for increasing capacity at a low price, they're unlikely to have much of an effect on the performance of your system, save for the general improvements you get from having a fresh installation of Windows on a mostly empty drive. If you want to see significant performance improvements across the board, you should install an SSD instead.
SSDs aren't good value for money if you're aim is to improve the capacity of your storage, but they offset this disadvantage by bringing about significant improvements in speed. Boot times in particular are normally limited by the speed of your system's hard drive more than the speed of your system's CPU, so the near-instant access times an SSD allows for will drastically reduce this by a fair percentage. A drop of 50% or higher would not be unreasonable to expect.
The problem is that the capacity isn't just expensive - it's also harder to come by. You can pick up a 1TB laptop hard drive anywhere, but a 1TB SSD is still considered a specialist piece of equipment and costs at least £350 - six times what the equivalent sized hard drive does. Meanwhile, 2TB SSDs are virtually unheard of and would be prohibitively expensive even if they did exist.
At present, the best-priced SSDs have a capacity around 250GB, and spending any more than that will result in you paying a significant premium. If you need extra space more than faster speeds, we'd advice against buying an SSD at this time, but we can't deny that the improvements you'll see - to boot times, and even to game and app performance - make them an attractive way to improve system speed when you don't have the option of adding a new processor.
Replace The Battery
Perhaps the most common complaint about aging laptops is how quickly the batteries run down. Batteries lose their ability to hold charge over time, and if you're finding that yours isn't as reliably portable as it used to be (or, worse, refuses to work at all without a mains connection!), then the fix is simple: replace the battery with a fresh one.
The physical act of replacing a battery is simple: look on the underside for the latch or lever that keeps the battery locked in place, and release it. Prise the battery out of its compartment, then simply insert the new one. Lock it back in place, and you're ready to go. For optimum results, make sure it's charged to 100% before you use it.
The harder part of this upgrade is actually choosing the battery that you buy. Battery statistics are unclear, and it can be tough to know which brands you can trust. Poorly made batteries aren't just a waste of money; they can be actively damaging to your hardware. In extreme cases they've even been known to explode!
An average big-brand battery is rated at 5200mAh and likely uses cells manufactured by Sony, Samsung or LG. Paying extra for name brands is essential for getting safe, high-quality hardware, though obviously it depends on whether you can find any that are compatible with your individual laptop. Cheaper and generic brands use cells that rate lower (around 4400mAh), and even if they're safe to use, they'll only have a lifespan of a year or so.
A big clue as to whether you're buying a good or bad battery is the price. Legitimate, high-quality batteries cost in the region of £100 apiece, whereas cheaper, low-quality ones sit at a fraction of that price: around £10-£30. Don't necessarily be fooled by good reviews on sites like Amazon; these batteries perform as normal for the first six months or so, but their performance drops off quickly.
The reason the prices of bad batteries can be set so low is because they have very low standards with regards to service lifespan, power capacity and safety performance. Furthermore, power cells degrade even when they aren't being used, so the cheapest batteries may be old stock being sold at as low a price as possible to recoup some of their cost. Buy a cheap battery, and it might be only weeks away from becoming impractically depleted.
In essence, if you're trying to replace your laptop battery, be prepared to pay for quality. If you don’t think your hardware will last more than a year, you can chance a lower-quality battery, but even then try to stick to the higher end of the price range. If you stay away from low-quality hardware, a battery upgrade can make your laptop feel like new. Buy cheap or second-hand batteries, and that's what your system will feel like too.
Improve Your Optical Drive
There's no escaping the truth that when it comes to laptops, the number of upgrades you can perform on them is severely limited. Unlike desktop systems, the internal components of laptops are often soldered onto the motherboard (primarily to prevent them becoming dislodged or loose), which means there's no way to replace them without replacing a large proportion of the hardware and casing too.
If your laptop has a standard optical drive in it, there's a chance that it can be upgraded, but broadly speaking it's difficult to actually improve on the drive you get. Slim DVD drives designed for laptops are largely the same speed as one another, so any removal options are mainly there to allow them to be replaced if they break. Modern laptops even omit optical drives entirely to conserve space and weight.
The one exception is that if you have a removable optical drive in your system, you can swap it out and fit an internal Blu-ray drive. Samsung, Pioneer and Panasonic all make Blu-ray drives designed to fit in laptops. Prices start at £30 and run up to £55, although this is likely more expensive than buying a USB Blu-ray drive or stand-alone Blu-ray player (both of which are more versatile). Still, if you like the compactness and convenience of an integrated optical drive and Blu-ray player, there are options available to you.
Remember that despite its large capacity, Blu-ray is primarily a read-only medium used for watching movies. If your laptop doesn't have a full HD screen, there's little reason to add a Blu-ray drive, because you won't be able to view the content at full resolution unless you plan to pipe it to a larger screen (such as a TV). If you do want to use Blu-ray discs as a storage medium, that is possible; an internal Blu-ray writer for a laptop will cost about £100, and Blu-ray discs can store 50GB each.
It's not the most economical way to get storage, though. £100 could buy you two 1TB external drives, which together would store as much as 40 Blu-ray discs. It might seem attractive to upgrade your laptop with a Blu-ray writer, but unless you handle large amounts of data on a regular basis, it might not be worth it. Check that the economics work out before you buy one!