SSD for my aging laptop, or "build" a new laptop with SSD? (1st-time builder)

What size of laptop are you looking for?

Mine is a 15.6", and like like to stay the same size, or go down to a 14". The 17's are a little to bulky - I'm a law student and am switching classrooms and moving around quite a bit during the day.

I've done some research since my post and it seems that laptop "builds" are rare. It's probably tough to change the components and still get everything to fit in the small space.

Would a better route be to purchase a used laptop & make an SSD upgrade?

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
-James

generally speaking you wont be "building" a laptop. at most typically you only upgrade ram or the hdd. laptop components are often paired together to work properly. even if you could upgrade components driver support would be almost nil.

a ssd would boost performance in your older laptop but not as noticible as in a new sata 3 laptop. you could always upgrade now and buy a laptop in the future using the same ssd drive in the new laptop. for non demanding tasks your old laptop is likely fine.

if you want to upgrade to a new laptop i would suggest a 1080p screen, i7 (or i5), graphics card instead of integrated (if you use any demanding tasks or games), 6gb ram hdmi output and sata 3 with a normal hdd (typically 5400rpm). i would then buy a samsung 830 250gb (not 840 256gb) or similar ssd which will lower your boot times down to around 9 seconds and speed up performance noticibly.

i have an asus k53s which doesnt have a 1080p screen but is much more usable with a 830 instead of the old 5400rpm drive it comes with (5400 drives use less power which is why they are used instead of 7200.2 or 10k drives). my laptop is definitely more powerful then some other models but still is nowhere near desktop specs. i'd recommend something along the same lines as what i have but with a better (1080p) screen if you can afford it.

I've done extensive research on finding barebones laptops that are up on current CPU's and GPU's. I've also looked at building my own and here is what I would recommend. Check out http://tinyurl.com/abgmxvy. The specs listed are slightly off. The base build is found here with the exact specs http://tinyurl.com/d4sxojh. It is the GTX 650M model (005). As far as the parts that you would want to put in. I suggest the ones listed below, the ones I want when I build mine. =)

Intel Core i7 Mobile Processor I7-3630QM 2.4GHz - http://tinyurl.com/9wg3sw3
G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 - http://amzn.to/12DUtSR
Seagate Momentus XT ST95005620AS 500GB 7200 (This is a HDD and SSD hybrid drive, a lot of storage and almost as fast as an SSD but MUCH cheaper) - http://amzn.to/UA0End
CENTRINO ADVANCED-N 6235 DUAL BAND 2X2 BLUETOOTH (I went with an upgraded wifi card) - http://amzn.to/XJjft3

My numbers put this build at under $900 which for this powerful of a laptop is a great value. Building your own laptop doesn't save quite as much as building your own desktop/tower PC but it does save a couple to a few hundred bucks.

I'd recommend a new laptop unless your budget doesn't allow for it. You can continue to upgrade your old one but eventually it's like putting 20" chrome spinners on an old rusty Yugo.

for office work you dont need the latests and greatest per se.

a speedy processor (i5 or i7), 6gb of ram, ssd drive and a fair gpu (or even integrated) is more than enough.

a faster cpu is going to improve system speed and can help if you use any demanding apps (as a lawyer student you shouldnt have many of these).

more ram is not going to do all that much unless you have demanding tasks (again, for a lawyer probably not an issue)

a gpu over integrated solution is going to give you better gaming performance and video performance (but again, you get the point). i would suggest this though but its really optional at best for a working laptop.

an ssd is going to give you the largest boost in performance. a 5400rpm drive can take 20-30 seconds to fully start up. an ssd drive can be up and running in less than 10. it takes me longer to start the wifi up on my phone (which i link the pc to) then to start, log in and get on the internet on my pc.

Valid point, I neglected to read the sentence about you not being much of a gamer. In that case, the rest still remains a suggestion but you could go with this laptop that is actually a 14" model with integrated graphics. http://tinyurl.com/apenq9g You can just buy it as is with nothing in it. It will still be a huge jump from what you already have and last you several years.

Again, I recommend the Momentus XT over the SSD. An SSD doesn't offer much storage space and is much more expensive. You don't lose much of the access time using the hybrid drive.