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Fairly new Toshiba laptop (C55Dt-A5231) lacking performance. Advice?
Hello everyone,
This is my first post in the forums although I have browsed around a bit. I am not 100% sure which subsection this post does belong in but I thought this was a decent guess.
Anyway, onto my quick questions / advice request:
I am a student that received a laptop because it was very much needed for college tasks and assignments. At the time I figured the one that I had chosen was a great option and would outperform any previous PC I had owned. The laptop's specs are:
PROCESSOR*
AMD Dual-Core E1-1200 Accelerated Processor
OPERATING SYSTEM*
Windows 8 (which I downgraded to Windows 7)
GRAPHICS ENGINE*
AMD Radeon™ HD 7310
Memory and Storage
MEMORY*
6GB DDR3 1600MHz memory
HARD DRIVE*
500GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial ATA)
OPTICAL DRIVE*
DVD-SuperMulti drive (+/-R double layer)
Toshiba Satellite C55Dt-A5231 Laptop
I have used PC's for the majority of my life so I wouldn't say that I am a complete newbie to them, but I am definitely lacking in-depth knowledge of how certain systems work, and what exactly each component of the PC does. I am currently majoring in Computer Engineering, and my curiousity for exploring any and all things computers has definitely been sparked, so I am constantly learning new things (homework or non-homework related) and using my computer for things I had not initially planned on. I have noticed, especially lately, that my computer seems to run very slow and 'feels' like it's doing a lot of work. I have a CPU usage monitor gadget installed on my desktop and notice it reaching 100% often, and witnessed both of my cores reaching 100% tonight when performing fairly basic tasks. SO, I am wanting to 'beef up' my computer if you will, and also want to learn the process of adding memory, possibly an SSD, etc because it's an experience I would enjoy. But, being that I do not have an extremely extensive knowledge base, I am wondering if investing the money into these upgrades is #1) worth the money to put into this computer, or if I should do something else with it (possibly build my own piece by piece as the money is available). Or if #2) I really need to even buy these things to improve my computer to the level I want. I have malware bytes pro, constantly run scans and keep running processes to a minimum in order to keep her as healthy as I know how to, but am still not seeing the performance I want. Thank you all for listening to me ramble on, and I would really appreciate the advice on what to do or where to start on my path for the knowledge and know-how.
Also, I apologize if this is not the correct subsection for such a posting.. It seemed the most appropriate when I looked at the other sections and I hope it's in the right place! Thank you again!
Jeremy