Computer upgrade

[TominMO]

Back in 2014 I bought a house brand (Powerspec) low-end Ubuntu 12.04 OS computer from Micro Center. Celeron CPU, 2 GB of memory and a 500 GB HDD. I immediately upgraded to 14.04. A year later I upgraded it with a new mobo, went to 4 GB memory and an Intel i3 CPU. Then in 2021 I went to 16 GB of memory. The original computer ran fine, but hey, we are men and so we need more power.

So yesterday I switched to an 500 GB SSD and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Wow! The OS has definitely evolved, and the SSD is like lightning compared to the HDD that I had been using all along. Totally stoked! Onboard graphics is good enough for 1080, otherwise I would toss a low-end graphics card in there too. I had been thinking of yet another mobo etc upgrade, but it is so fast now that this would be pointless.

[JerryHawk250]

The SSD alone will wake up any old computer. All my computers and computers I build have SSD. Best upgrade you can do for old computers.

[TommyD]

I've been running Peppermint 10 on an 18 year old Acer lap top and Linux Mint on a 20 year old Dell Desk top. My Dell still out performs my wife's 2 year old business computer running Windows 11.


I haven't installed any SSD's yet but know I should!

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

The SSD alone will wake up any old computer. All my computers and computers I build have SSD. Best upgrade you can do for old computers.

Originally Posted by TommyD

I've been running Peppermint 10 on an 18 year old Acer lap top and Linux Mint on a 20 year old Dell Desk top. My Dell still out performs my wife's 2 year old business computer running Windows 11.

I haven't installed any SSD's yet but know I should!

I also have two old Dells to fool around with, built in 2008 and 2009. SSDs would really wake 'em up--if I can even connect them. Not sure what capabilities the motherboards have. I think 4 GB of memory are plenty for Linux systems, for normal users. I'm not doing any graphics-intensive or CPU-intensive stuff, just the usual browsing and email. I like having overhead though, on general principles, to minimize any file-swapping to the disk, which slows the process down. I might try to do some upgrading, then donate them somewhere local.

The only prob with the 22.04 OS is that it does not support my 3 YO low-end HP printer. The solution is to buy another printer, but instead what I am doing is keeping both drives up. If I have to print something, which is very rare, I can save to a USB drive, reboot into the older 14.04 OS on the HDD which does support my printer, and print it off. Clunky but it works.

[cheesy]

Most of this went way over my head but I'm following.

My old Dell I use for work has become a doddering old fool. I'd taken it to the Geek Squad and an SSD was recommended but I was told that the AMD processor would be a problem later and to just get a new laptop. I left with my old fart.

I've read into replacing the HDD with an SSD and figure I can handle the upgrade myself if I can fix an Ipod. I'm just wondering if I was fed a line of BS regarding the processor.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Most of this went way over my head but I'm following.

My old Dell I use for work has become a doddering old fool. I'd taken it to the Geek Squad and an SSD was recommended but I was told that the AMD processor would be a problem later and to just get a new laptop. I left with my old fart.

I've read into replacing the HDD with an SSD and figure I can handle the upgrade myself if I can fix an Ipod. I'm just wondering if I was fed a line of BS regarding the processor.

The AMD processors will be fine if you're just using for word processing or internet. The SSD swap is easy and should come with software for cloning the existing drive.

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Most of this went way over my head but I'm following.

My old Dell I use for work has become a doddering old fool. I'd taken it to the Geek Squad and an SSD was recommended but I was told that the AMD processor would be a problem later and to just get a new laptop. I left with my old fart.

I've read into replacing the HDD with an SSD and figure I can handle the upgrade myself if I can fix an Ipod. I'm just wondering if I was fed a line of BS regarding the processor.

Yeah, I think they were trying to upsell you. I'd go ahead with the SSD, whether they do it or you do it.

If you are using Windows, are you aware you can help out the hard drive's performance by just doing a Defrag on the drive? That won't give you SSD speeds, but will mitigate the slowness a bit. Still I'd have them transfer your OS and all programs/files to an SSD. Make sure you back up all your data to a USB drive before taking it in or trying it yourself.

Here's an article on speeding up HDDs: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/2-effe...mance-windows/

[TommyD]

Originally Posted by TominMO

The only prob with the 22.04 OS is that it does not support my 3 YO low-end HP printer. The solution is to buy another printer, but instead what I am doing is keeping both drives up. If I have to print something, which is very rare, I can save to a USB drive, reboot into the older 14.04 OS on the HDD which does support my printer, and print it off. Clunky but it works.

Linux Peppermint works very well on older computers and tends to contain drivers to support older printers as well.

[TominMO]

My first laptop was a Dell. It was the first widescreen Dell to come out, with a 15.6" screen. Everyone oohed and aahed. It cost $2500 back in 2002. Now it's a doorstop. The cheapest refurbished Dell laptop at Micro Center, well under $400, will run circles around the old Dell.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by TominMO

Yeah, I think they were trying to upsell you. I'd go ahead with the SSD, whether they do it or you do it.

If you are using Windows, are you aware you can help out the hard drive's performance by just doing a Defrag on the drive? That won't give you SSD speeds, but will mitigate the slowness a bit. Still I'd have them transfer your OS and all programs/files to an SSD. Make sure you back up all your data to a USB drive before taking it in or trying it yourself.

Here's an article on speeding up HDDs: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/2-effe...mance-windows/

Oh, I agree with the upsell. They didn't have anything that met the specs on the old fart and I was not interested in what they did have.

The Defrag has been done several times. It was an almost weekly thing in the old Windows 95 days. It usually works for a few days then back to SOS. I've tried a couple of the other things on the list but it wouldn't hurt to try again.

I don't do a hell of a lot with the laptop except as a reference library. I have more manuals on it than the servers in Beaufort have. Beaufort and the mothership also track the company owned laptops and can access them remotely, which is why I use my own. I have about 95% of what's on the HDD backed up on a remote 1TB SDD. What's not backed up I can access from both MS and Google.

I'm looking at both the Samsung 870 EVO and Crucial MX500 SDDs for the upgrade. I've already read about the process and it does not seem like rocket surgery.

Thanks for the info.

[buzz]

I know i'm dumb but what is a ssd? Me on a 50.00 uesd hp laptop.very happy have it over a year, and works great. Thanks

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by buzz

I know i'm dumb but what is a ssd? Me on a 50.00 uesd hp laptop.very happy have it over a year, and works great. Thanks

Solid State Drive. It's like a flash memory drive. No moving parts.

[WeebleWobble]

Originally Posted by buzz

I know i'm dumb but what is a ssd? Me on a 50.00 uesd hp laptop.very happy have it over a year, and works great. Thanks

I didn't know either. I'm doing good just to log in! Took me half the morning to figure out how to post pictures!

[TominMO]

Upgraded my 2008 Dell to Ubuntu 22.04. This is a very slow computer with a slower processor than my 2014 Powersport in its original config. And 2 GB memory (sloooow memory). I have it set to dual boot; I have to choose Windows XP or Ubuntu 14.04. I'm keeping the XP side, just because, and only upgrading the Ubuntu partition.

Mighty sequoias sprouted and grew to full adulthood.
Civilizations rose and fell.
Finally it was ready.
But at least now I have a backup 'puter using the same OS that's in my DD.

Now on to the 2009 Dell.

[TominMO]

Upgraded the 2009 to Ubuntu 22.04 from 20.04. It is a much better computer than my 2008 Dell Inspiron 530. The '09 is a Dell XPS 8300 with an 8-core Intel i7 proc, 8 GB memory and a 1TB HD. (XPS was the high-end line of Dells and Inspirons were the good-enough line.) Useta belong to my ex, and she bought high-end. She gave it to me when she upgraded a few years ago. I tend to buy bang-for-buck, i.e. about 1/2 - 3/4 of state of the art. It works much better than the Inspiron. Upgrading still took quite a while due to the HDD read/write speeds, so it's gonna get an SSD. Takes a short while to load a program from the HD, but the next time you reload it from cache memory it is quite fast.

I'm thinking this 2009 i7 is roughly equivalent to my DD's 2015 i3. Especially for a light OS like any Linux distro. And 8 GB of memory is plenty for Linux. So functionally it is probably indetectable from my DD's speed, once I stick an SSD in there. This computer even has the proper SATA power connector that the SSD needs, so I don't need an adaptor from the 4-pin one. The 1TB HD would still make a great data storage drive.