I just wanted thank you for your replies regarding upgrading my computer. Just for general information, I did do it. It was a frustrating nightmare for the most part, but I am commenting with a new SSD and 10 more GB of RAM. The improvement in speed is...okay. Not what I expected. If I had to do it again I would pay somebody.
Thanks for the note. Congrats for the successful job, by the way.
At least the lesson learned was not a painful one.
My frustration:
I’m tech-oriented and have grown increasingly irritated at the limitations imposed by laptops, despite their claims. My wife recently suffered hardware failure on a >$2000 high end graphics laptop (we opted to send it in) and I’m currently using a >$1000 brand name one which regularly crashes simply browsing the internet on an extended screen (it’s merely months old). I shifted my gaming to consoles a number of years ago specifically to avoid the pitfalls of chasing computer hardware ($$).
IMHPO (in my humble, professional opinion) based upon experience in the past few years, the quality and pricing of consumer computer products appears to have shifted against us, rather than benefiting us with lower prices and higher quality.
As a tech professional - among other things - I will certainly NOT be sinking money into a laptop for any reason other than email, documents and internet access (and I will never buy anything with AMD chips ever again). My wife has learned an expensive lesson and, in all likelihood, I will be building her a high-end graphics PC (and will probably inherit her repaired laptop).
Personally, I am none too happy about having to build a computer again. I thought we were long past that. I don’t know if it’s chinese crap or what, but here we are.
As an aside, I personally do not recommend purchasing upgrades for a laptop that is over 3 years old if it is not a high-end one; it’s better to purchase new. And paying for repairs is a major judgment call.
Advice: Data is the commodity (computers are disposable and prone to failure). Invest in spare external hard drives (platters, NOT ssd) and back up regularly.