Breathing new life into an old netbook

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TinyTim

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#138456 5-Jan-2014 11:06

Similar situation as Timmay... have a 4yo netbook that is painfully slow, but instead of replacing it, I'm wondering about the option of breathing new life into it. It's still in great condition with excellent battery life.

Gets used mainly round the house by the kids; possibly also email and browsing.

SS hard drive seems like a possible upgrade. Any thoughts - would spending $160 on a 120GB SS drive give it a value-for-money boost, or is it past its use-by date (and therefore should be demoted to mail server/dev web server)?

MikeB4

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#961445 5-Jan-2014 11:47

load ChromeOS ?

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

TinyTim

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#961451 5-Jan-2014 12:06

KiwiNZ: load ChromeOS ?

Hmm... good suggestion, but I'm not quite ready to give up all my Windows apps just yet. (The kids spend as much time on Word and Powerpoint as they do on the browser, and I don't want to let them loose on my main laptop!.

Batman

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#961478 5-Jan-2014 12:38

if it is single core OR intel 3xx gma gpu i'd chuck it in the bin. END OF STORY. nothing is going to fix it being unusable not even for browsing (unless you visit mobile sites). not even an expensive SSD.

TinyTim

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#961486 5-Jan-2014 12:57

Yeah, Atom N450.

timmmay

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#961491 5-Jan-2014 13:07

I played with a little Atom with that sort of processor the other day, it wasn't actually as bad as I wanted. Sure it's CPU Benchmark score is 285 compared with like 8000 for my CPU, but worked.

Get a 60GB SSD, it'll be heaps unless you have lots of data storage needs. 120GB would be better if you want to move it to a better laptop in future.

macuser

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#961501 5-Jan-2014 13:31

Chrome os will be your only chance to save this...I just installed it on a device running N270, it's now a media PC attached to the TV with VGA cable and wireless KB/M. It's slow...but it's free.

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Batman

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#961505 5-Jan-2014 13:53

won't be free once you spend dosh on the SSD ... but then again you mght need to spend $ on SSD on another touch tablet you buy (eg surface RT) so my argument might not be valid.

i'd still chuck it. i chucked mine long ago - was so frustrated at how slow it was more than a year ago i couldn't even bear awarding the suffering to anohter human on trademe so i chucked it

charsleysa

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#961557 5-Jan-2014 16:13

My recommendation, chuck it or use it as a server.

If you read want to spend money on getting a SSD then you're not looking at too much of a dent in your wallet.

I would recommend this SSD from PBTech as it is at a fabulous price going under $0.90 per GB.
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1935571

Regards
Stefan Andres Charsley

TinyTim

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#961591 5-Jan-2014 17:53

charsleysa: My recommendation, chuck it or use it as a server.

If you read want to spend money on getting a SSD then you're not looking at too much of a dent in your wallet.

I would recommend this SSD from PBTech as it is at a fabulous price going under $0.90 per GB.
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1935571

Thanks for the thoughts so far, everyone.

Current plan depends on how much pocket money my wife gives me. I may look at a lightweight Linux, and if that doesn't help will look into the SSD option (plus NAS), and if that's still no good, will use it to replace the old mail/dev web server, and buy a new laptop for the kids to use (or should that be tablet...?).

Tonto1977

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#961651 5-Jan-2014 22:38

I've been using my Asus Atom N270 spec machine as my main machine for the last 6 months!:o Nothing big just web browsing and old PC games that will run pre-vista only.
Its actually perfect for these old games as the screen resolution is only 640x480 anyway.
I'm gonna grab something to edit my photos on soon so will relegate to server and cheap photo backup/viewer on the road (has a 160gb HD which was pretty good at the time). Low power and heat make ideal as a server front end and nice and small.

markymarknz

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#961661 5-Jan-2014 22:59

I would suggest Elementary OS. I have been using this Linux OS on my HP Mini 5101 for a few months now and it have given it new life.
It is quite a nice looking OS (a bit like Mac OSX) and runs really quickly.

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chevrolux

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#961663 5-Jan-2014 23:15

To keep things local I would go Debian. Extremely simple to install.

Has a great desktop enviroment. Much less taxing than the ubuntu desktop. You will have Open Office for any word processing. And then if you really need to run a windows program there is always Wine.