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I have a Toshiba Satellite (L455D-S5976) with a 250G HD and 2G RAM. It is a few years old, but I have been pleased with it so far. I have gone through with regular housekeeping on a regular basis.

My problem is, with the age of the system, I am now noticing some sluggishness. I would like to upgrade the memory. What can I go up to with this system? Is there a way to upgrade the processor or maybe overclock it?

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  • crucial.com/upgrade/Toshiba-memory/Satellite+L450+Series/… you will be unable to upgrade the processor and overclocking requires a processor that supports doing so and I will guarantee the 2.1 GHz AMD Sempron does not.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 20, 2013 at 14:14
  • Since you are using a 32-bit operarting system you will only be able to upgrade to 4GB. Any other combination of memory is a waste of money unless you have access to a Windows 7 x64 installation media
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 20, 2013 at 14:27
  • One way to make an old laptop a lot faster is to replace the spinning disk with a SSD. These tend to be expensive though, but you can keep them after the system eventually gets replaced. Which leads to my own question: How much disk space do you need? If the disk is mostly empty then a SSD is a very good option. Of the 230GB are almost filled then they are probably to expensive.
    – Hennes
    Commented Sep 20, 2013 at 14:59

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Memory Upgrades:

You can use crucial.com and look your model number to find the speed and maximum amount of RAM that you can purchase for your laptop. You can use the service manual for your model to find that information as well, plus the steps for replacing the RAM modules.

Overclocking:

The number one factor in overclocking is heat, and given that laptops and heat have a complicated relationship, I wouldn't recommended it to anyone simply because the small gain you would get before burning the thing up wouldn't be worth it.

Your processor is unlikely to be able to be overclocked anyway. Replacing it is also just as unlikely.

My Personal Method for Speed:

One of the ways that I keep my computers fast is back up my documents to the cloud, portable-ize my software, and reinstall Windows when I start having significant enough speed problems.

The best way to make an old computer blazing fast:

Replace it, or only run MS-DOS.

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8GB is the max memory for your laptop. I prefer this website for my purchases maybe you can try it if you like or go with whatever site you have tried before (http://www.memorystock.com/memory/ToshibaSatelliteL455DS5976.html). Anyways, upgrading memory is the better way to boost the performance of your laptop. So by upgrading it to 8GB should work wonders for you and maybe add a SSD. Trying upgrading the RAM and maybe the SSD or else ditch the laptop and get a new maybe if your budget allows.

I do not recommend overclocking for laptop but you can try if you would like but your processor may not last that long and probably your laptop will be overheating if it is without adequate cooling. So, IMO don't overclock.

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The main thing on upgrading the memory is the OS. Is your Windows 32bit or 64bit? If it is 32bit it will not do any good whatsover to go over 8gb of ram. (Simply because a 32bit OS CANNOT utilize more than 8gb of ram). If it is 64bit, I suggest going with 16gb of ram (2 8gb sticks of ram). Regarding Crucial, their program is great at telling your HOW MUCH ram your system can hold, but there are better prices out there. Check newegg.com or a similar website with the specifics given by the Crucial program.

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  • Not my downvote, but.... 1) A 32 bit OS has a 4GB address space to use for IO, virtual adresses and memory. So You probably mean 4GiB, not 8. As anything above 512MB is pushing the limits of 32 bit installs because it uses that address space not just for memory. 2) 8gb is 8 gigaBIT, which is 1GB. I suspect you want the capital B. 3) You are ignoring a large part of the question. (e.g. OC, CPU swap, etc etc).
    – Hennes
    Commented Sep 20, 2013 at 14:57
  • My apologies, I did mean 4gb as the maximum limit if they have a 32 bit OS. It will be difficult to upgrade the CPU, if they are wanting to do the upgrade themselves. Usually memory, hard drives and OS's are all you can do without specialized ($$$) assistance.
    – user2795930
    Commented Sep 20, 2013 at 18:04

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