The good thing about "old" computers is that memory gets cheaper, and adding memory gives the computer a new lease of life. I have added 500MB, 1GB, and 4GB memory to my old laptops for a very reasonable price after about 6-8 years. As I recall, I paid about £10-15 each time, for memory that was originally perhaps 4-5 times that price. I have also upgraded the memory on an old tower PC for less than a couple of pounds, but in that case, the computer was more like 10-12 years old, and the memory card a salvage item from eBay.
Extra memory will make a computer run much better if it is using a high percentage of that memory, because the computer starts to use swap (Linux) or virtual memory (Windows), writing memory to hard disk to free RAM space. This makes switching applications or browser tabs or opening menus slow, as these things have been swapped from RAM to HD as RAM becomes full. (I don't know if the same thing applies to SSDs, because I don't have one.) It won't make a computer faster at gaming or video editing, but with web pages and web browsers using more and more memory, it will make using the internet (especially with multiple tabs open) a much better experience.
Indeed, I upgraded the memory on my newest laptop for just this reason. It would work perfectly well with 4GB of RAM - without a web browser open! With 8GB, web browsing is perfectly fluid, even with dozens of tabs open, as I documented here.
I had not upgraded this machine, a Lenovo all-in-one C20 previously because it only has one memory slot, which would have meant buying a expensive 8GB memory card, rather than, as with my laptop, adding a cheaper 4GB card to a spare slot.
Recently though, the Lenovo has been having issues, with the HD churning when switching applications (a good sign that the computer is having to move memory between swap and RAM), and the main menu taking 15 seconds to appear.
Investigating memory usage showed 86% of RAM in use, with 1.7GB of swap memory in use.
Whatever the cause, I found a refurbished 8GB card from a well-known memory supplier for £14.94 with a lifetime guarantee, and couldn't resist. This was not a dusty old card from a salvage machine, but as sellers of refurbished hardware like to say "cosmetically indistinguishable from new". An unwanted return? Anyway, a bargain, and here is memory usage after fitting.
This is with multiple active tabs open in Firefox. Switching between tabs is instant, the main menu appears in a fraction of a second again, and there is still room to open other applications. Result!
With a browser open, 8GB of memory seems to be the minimum for a usable system these days, as was the case with my laptop. For older machines, a memory upgrade becomes an affordable option, but how was the actual procedure? Pretty awful, it has to be said. This machine is not designed to be easily opened.
The key is to pull back the rubber feet on the legs to remove two screws. I would never have noticed these without finding a guide on the internet. There is another screw under a removable panel behind the stand hinge. After removing these, insert a blunt screwdriver in to the legs and start cracking off the screen. Slide the screwdriver along the gap until resistance is felt, then twist to pop the next catch along. Level of difficulty: high. Chance of damaging case or screen: high. Do I wish I'd bought a tower? Yes.
When the screen is detached, the card slot is easily accessible on the mother board. Don't forget to earth yourself before touching memory cards.
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