Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted (edited)

You may recall I put a fair bit of time into upgrading a 2007 era Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. I have a 2008  clone desktop system sitting in my basement workroom and I suppose I could go through a similar exercise with it if I wanted to. But so far I'm inclined to leave things be. Why?

Usage: The Dell was going to my grandkids as a school computer. The kids will want to do video chat, lessons, Google Docs, YouTube etc. It made sense to wring as much performance as I could out of this older desktop. The clone system plays music in my workroom, does it well. No need to get better at this point.

CPU: The Dell had a cheapo Pentium Dual Core CPU. For $5 and some thermal paste I could upgrade to a high end Core 2 Duo that roughly doubled the performance.  The clone has a perfectly capable Athlon X2 4600+ on board. I could go as high as a Phenom quad core but that would only help with multitasking (about a 25% increase at best.) Phenom processors are hard to find compared to a C2D.

Memory: The Dell had only 2 GB of RAM and it wasn't even dual channel. It was a no brainer to upgrade to 8 GB. The clone already has 6GB of dual channel RAM.

Storage: I had to remove the 160GB hard drive from the Dell, after wiping it. Since there was no storage it made sense to go with an SSD.  The clone has a functioning 320 GB HDD. So what if it takes a couple of minutes to boot. The mobo in the clone will support SATA3 so a future upgrade here wouldn't be out of the question.

PSU and Video: I didn't upgrade the Dell. The clone has better stuff already. Nuff said.

Wifi: The Dell had a broken G based PCI card. I replaced it with a USB N adapter. The clone also has a PCI based card but it's a well performing N based one.

 

That's why I think any substantial upgrade to the clone system (which currently rocks MX-Linux) would be overkill. If I have trouble with the HDD in future an SSD replacement might be a good idea. But for now I'll just Let It Ride.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmSXIOlN6mY

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tBk-e-5Jfs

 

 

 

Edited by raymac46
  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, raymac46 said:

You may recall I put a fair bit of time into upgrading a 2007 era Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. I have a 2008  clone desktop system sitting in my basement workroom and I suppose I could go through a similar exercise with it if I wanted to. But so far I'm inclined to leave things be. Why?

Usage: The Dell was going to my grandkids as a school computer. The kids will want to do video chat, lessons, Google Docs, YouTube etc. It made sense to wring as much performance as I could out of this older desktop. The clone system plays music in my workroom, does it well. No need to get better at this point.

CPU: The Dell had a cheapo Pentium Dual Core CPU. For $5 and some thermal paste I could upgrade to a high end Core 2 Duo that roughly doubled the performance.  The clone has a perfectly capable Athlon X2 4600+ on board. I could go as high as a Phenom quad core but that would only help with multitasking (about a 25% increase at best.) Phenom processors are hard to find compared to a C2D.

Memory: The Dell had only 2 GB of RAM and it wasn't even dual channel. It was a no brainer to upgrade to 8 GB. The clone already has 6GB of dual channel RAM.

Storage: I had to remove the 160GB hard drive from the Dell, after wiping it. Since there was no storage it made sense to go with an SSD.  The clone has a functioning 320 GB HDD. So what if it takes a couple of minutes to boot. The mobo in the clone will support SATA3 so a future upgrade here wouldn't be out of the question.

PSU and Video: I didn't upgrade the Dell. The clone has better stuff already. Nuff said.

Wifi: The Dell had a broken G based PCI card. I replaced it with a USB N adapter. The clone also has a PCI based card but it's a well performing N based one.

 

That's why I think any substantial upgrade to the clone system (which currently rocks MX-Linux) would be overkill. If I have trouble with the HDD in future an SSD replacement might be a good idea. But for now I'll just Let It Ride.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmSXIOlN6mY

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tBk-e-5Jfs

 

 

 

Just my two cents worth, but I tend to go with "the right tool for the job" principle.  Or "why send a man to do a boy's job".  If all the user is doing is "social media" stuff and an occasional word doc,  a lite Linux distro on an XP era box, should be sufficient.  OTOH, if you are running multiple VM sessions, compiling ROMs and playing state of the art games, then a box with an Intel i7 and 16gb of RAM probably isn't enough.😀

  • +1 1
Posted

I agree that neither of these Vista era machines would be suitable for VMs, video rendering or the latest games. However you can make a substantial difference in how they do the simpler tasks for not much money. Probably worth it for the kids machine as you want them to have a half decent experience.

I recently upgraded an older laptop for them, adding an SSD and additional 4GB of RAM. So now they have a couple of machines that should perform as well as a lower end Chromebook. Both machines can run Linux Mint very well.

Posted
Just now, raymac46 said:

I agree that neither of these Vista era machines would be suitable for VMs, video rendering or the latest games. However you can make a substantial difference in how they do the simpler tasks for not much money. Probably worth it for the kids machine as you want them to have a half decent experience.

I recently upgraded an older laptop for them, adding an SSD and additional 4GB of RAM. So now they have a couple of machines that should perform as well as a lower end Chromebook. Both machines can run Linux Mint very well.

I build Karaoke Machine laptops for a hobby.  I'm an 81 yr old retired computer consultant.  I watch eBay closely for good deals on non working, Win 7 era, highend HP and Dell laptops.  So long as they "boot to bios" and don't have damaged cases, I can usually "restore" them to at least grade B condition.  Typically, a dual core, 2ghz or better, CPU and 4gb RAM is sufficient to run Karaoke software.  In fact, I just ordered a Dell E6400 with no HDD, battery or AC for about $60 shipped.  The lid showed a lot of scratches, so I order a new one for under $10.  So long as they have a Win 7 COA, I can add an HDD and install Win 7 and then upgrade to the latest Win 10 for free.  I just sold one like that, with the 50,000 song library and Karaoke Machine software for $275.

  • Like 2
Posted

I'm a retired scientist but have about 50 years experience with computers of one sort or another.

I like to use Linux to fix up old machines for friends and family. Recently my son-in-law bought a new laptop to replace an HP 4730s Probook. The old machine still had some legs, so I upgraded the RAM, put in an SSD and installed Linux Mint for the kids. This lets dad keep his new machine and the kids don't have to wait 2 minutes for "their" laptop to boot.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...