raymac46 Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Another of the older ladies I helped with Linux has passed away. Jean was 93. She took easily to a Linux PC - I fixed up a couple of junkers for her. Mostly she used it for writing email and Facebook so Linux Mint was perfect for her. Her last machine was an old Dell that originally belonged to Lillian. Jean's brother is my neighbor. He has offered the old machine back to me. I don't know the exact specs but I think it's an Inspiron 530 from 2007 or so. I'll likely take it to wipe the hard drive and recycle, or maybe I'll just see what I can do to upgrade it for old times sake. The best I can do is a C2D dual core, 8 GB of DDR2, and a cheap SSD. It might make a good testbed for light distros like Sparky Linux. RIP Jean - a lovely lady. Retired Methodist minister. 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 I used to help a lady named Jean, back when I still did Windows (late 90's to mid-2000's). Jean passed a few years ago, but through her I met Betty. Some years later, that friendship with Betty evolved into a committed relationship. In the fullness of time, Betty and I were married. Friends for 15 years, married another wonderful 15 years. You just never know... I still have Betty's Gateway (510?), an early 2000's PC, and it still works. It's a little too slow to bother with, but I keep it out of sentimentality. What little computer work I do these days is mainly on my fleet of Dell Precision T3400's. I have around a half dozen of that type. Dated, but with various upgrades in processors, cooling, RAM, drives, etc. they meet my simple needs. I have Mint on every one of them. Clutter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 (edited) Generally I have a ten year rule when it comes to upgrades on any machine - Linux or not. This Dell Inspiron would probably be around 12 years old. I haven't received it yet so I can't say. I would only keep this unit for sentimental reasons as two of my favorite people used it at one time. Even the newest and most powerful C2D processor is pretty hopeless, although it is a 64 bit unit and so the latest Linux distro would work with it. Memory cannot exceed 8 GB and the power supply is such that you cannot add in a graphics card that needs a secondary PCIe cable. It would run an SSD if SATA2 is your bag. For simple email and light web surfing and office use it would be OK I think. Edited July 20, 2020 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted July 20, 2020 Share Posted July 20, 2020 Your rule of thumb makes sense! But- for sentimental reasons, I still have my first PC with Windows 95 on it. It's a glommed together mid tower with a 486-66 in it... Clutter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 Although I like to keep antique hardware around I don't keep and run obsolete software. I got into Linux because of the necessity to replace old versions of Windows 95 and Windows Me. My first Linux laptop was a 1998 Compaq that ran Windows 95 (the O/S was corrupt when I got it.) Linux makes it pretty convenient to keep old hardware going, but even that has limits. For instance I do not try to restore or use anything with a 32 bit processor today. Even a 64 bit that doesn't at least have multithreading is a frustrating experience. You don't need bleeding edge to have a decent experience though. The laptop I'm typing this on is close to six years old, but it has a quad-core APU from AMD and a solid state drive I put in not too long ago. Quad cores from 2012-2015 are probably the sweet spot in used stuff today. They are new enough to give snappy performance, and old enough that all the kernel drivers are going to work just fine. ray@mx-laptop-basement:~ $ inxi -Fxz System: Host: mx-laptop-basement Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: MX-19.2_x64 patito feo February 15 2020 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) Machine: Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20377 v: Lenovo Flex 2-15D serial: <filter> Mobo: LENOVO model: Lenovo Flex 2-15D v: 31900058 WIN serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO v: 9FCN27WW date: 06/11/2015 Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 20.4 Wh condition: 21.1/30.1 Wh (70%) model: SANYO L13S4A61 status: Unknown CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: AMD A8-6410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Puma rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 15970 Speed: 1432 MHz min/max: 1000/2000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1189 2: 1098 3: 1280 4: 1066 Graphics: Device-1: AMD Mullins [Radeon R4/R5 Graphics] vendor: Lenovo driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz OpenGL: renderer: AMD MULLINS (DRM 2.50.0 4.19.0-6-amd64 LLVM 7.0.1) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes Audio: Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.1 Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:14.2 Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 1000 bus ID: 01:00.0 IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lenovo driver: ath9k v: kernel port: 1000 bus ID: 03:00.0 IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 1-1.2:6 Drives: Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 87.37 GiB (18.8%) ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WDS500G2B0A size: 465.76 GiB Partition: ID-1: / size: 455.21 GiB used: 87.37 GiB (19.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 47.4 C mobo: 31.0 C gpu: radeon temp: 46 C Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A Info: Processes: 211 Uptime: 20m Memory: 6.74 GiB used: 1.00 GiB (14.8%) Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 inxi: 3.0.36 ray@mx-laptop-basement:~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 LOL my friend just emailed me. Jean's executor wants a value for the old computer for probate purposes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 35€ on a German eBay site https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-inspiron-530/k0&prev=search&pto=aue That's worth $53.85 In Canadian currency. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 21, 2020 Author Share Posted July 21, 2020 I told him around $50 but it cost me nothing a few years ago. For it to be rehomed these days it would need to have its cpu upgraded to the most powerful Core 2 Duo, 8 GB of DDR2 RAM and probably an SSD. Even with used parts that will cost more than it's worth. Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted July 24, 2020 Share Posted July 24, 2020 (edited) Agree- 32 bit hardware isn't worth working with any longer. Furthermore, there are now so many great bargains and giveaways in the 64 bit realm. That completely seals the deal for me! Clutter Edited July 24, 2020 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 24, 2020 Author Share Posted July 24, 2020 Yes I can put in a much better CPU and 8 GB of DDR2 RAM for about $25. Add a cheap SSD and the machine will be good to test out light distros like LXQt based Debian or Sparky Linux. Working on old junk like this gives me experience in building and fixing PCs which always comes in handy. I doubt I'll worry about a discrete graphics card given this junker will never play games other than solitaire. The hopelessly obsolete Intel integrated graphics can handle that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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