brand new HP i5, 4GB/1TB actually being slower than old, halfbroken mac

[Credius]

So first of all, 

I used to run everything for about six years on an older generation macbook air 13 i5 with 4gb ram and 128 gb ssd and due to it missing a key and having a broken trackpad, I thought I'd buy myself a reasonably cheap new laptop which would accomodate me for the things I needed a laptop for (sure, I already knew I was going to upgrade it anyway, since that was the mac's major flaw, no way to upgrade). However, though really happy when I first got my purchased brand spanking new HP laptop, the problems already started from the get go.

Pros compared to 6y old mac:

- Faster booting time, like WAY faster thank god (had a windows 7 hybrid on that mac and no mac OS anymore, which obviously wasn't the best idea)

Cons:

-Like literally everything 😞

No matter what browser I use, be it chrome, edge, mozilla, etc... they are cumbersome, slow, laggy and constantly prone to glitching and freezing.

Games that were no problem on an older mac with worse graphic card, worse sound card, etc actually constantly glitch and freeze on this HP.

And lastly, why does it seem that in comparison to a worn down 6y old mac, this brand new HP somehow manages to have worse wifi connection despite more modern, fully updated drivers, connection, router, etc?

Disclaimer: I did like my Mac, but it was the only one I had, my first Laptop was an old HP pavilion which was a simple 4GB dual core back in the day...but somehow it performed better and less janky and clunky than this HP I got now. 

Now here's my question:

What do I need to do?

Upgrade it, boost the RAM, completely reset it, remove the windows for an older system... I am really kind of miffed now.

[banhien]

@Credius 

Firstly you can't compare orange with apple (lower case a). But you can compare your new machine which has slow 1 TB 5400 rpm SATA and your old machine which has 128 gb ssd.  That is a big difference during boot time and other apps which requires read/write data a lot.

Now, to speed up your machine, there are few options

(a) Change storage of your new machine by adding (if practical) M.2 SSD or replace slow 2.5" HDD with faster 2.5" SSD.

(b) Upgrade RAM from 4GB to at least 8GB.

You may have to do BOTH a and b to be able to get to a faster machine. What is your plan and budget ? How much did you pay for your old Apple ? In many cases, more $$$$ are better.

Regards.

[Credius]

Well, the old Mac did cost me 1229 euro, so it wasn't a bad investment in the long run (I actually still keep it as reserve for whenever I'd need it) and with this HP only costing 579 euro, I was already prepped for some "additions" which in general is the fun and joy of a PC compared to a Mac, the optimalization to meet one's needs rather than being stuck to what the corporates give you by default xD

The 8GB shouldn't be a problem as I already managed to order myself two RAM cards of 4GB each for a measly 25 euro in total (thank the lord for overstock xD)

In general my budget shouldn't overreach though, given I'm not aiming to make this into a full on gaming laptop, just something that could at the very least outperform my old laptop. I'd say somewhere between 250 and 350 euro (about 300-400 USD) is what I'm aiming for as maximum extension of my budget, but that's purely in parts, since I do have some good old pals who just love tinkering.