Time to upgrade PC - but how? Chromebook? Linux Mint? ChromeOS Flex?

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leemillerau

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#302602 5-Dec-2022 13:26

Hi all

I'm in a state of indecision and looking for some advice or options I haven't thought of.

Starting point - my current PC is a HP Prodesk 600, i3-4130, Windows 10, bought second hand in 2015 (after helpful advice from Geekzone forum members!). Major uses - browsing on Chrome (currently 30 tabs open) and text editing of largish files (200-300 pages) in Word and Lyx. Problem is that more and more frequently it is freezing in mid-use and I need to reboot. Also has difficulties in holding wifi connection which other devices in the house don't have. And it isn't able to upgrade to Windows 11.

So time for a change.

Option 1. Initial thought was to get a laptop and set up a workstation with new wireless keyboard/mouse and new monitor. A bit more thinking and it turns out that my current low-spec Chromebook (Acer Spin 11) will do everything I need with a USB-C hub and a Microsoft 365 subscription. I would need to run Crostini (= Chromebook Linux) as I use Calibre a lot. Positives - all my work is always on the one device. Negatives - cleaning up old PC and then throwing it out. Also some cost in changeover but any budget up to about $2k is actually not a problem

Option 2. Install Linux Mint or ChromeOS Flex (if it can also run Crostini) on current PC. Positives - don't have to throw anything out but can do some minor upgrades to get rid of extraneous cables. Negatives - no experience with Linux - don't mind a bit of learning and tinkering with settings, but have other things in life to do rather than trying to finetune an OS.

Any suggestions, thoughts, other options that I should think about? Basically anything that might help me decide what to do.

Thanks

Lee

gzt

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#3006102 5-Dec-2022 21:03

Wifi might be easy to fix with a cheap USB dongle on a USB extension cable. Personally I prefer reliable Ethernet whenever possible.

toejam316

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#3006129 5-Dec-2022 23:19

Any reason you wouldn't do both?

Go ahead with option 1, while putting Linux Mint on your old PC to wipe the old drives and have a play, without worrying about breaking your important device.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

leemillerau

37 posts

Geek

#3007722 9-Dec-2022 13:53

Thanks for the replies which helped to clarify my thinking a lot.

Briefly tried out both ChromeOS Flex and Linux Mint booted from a flash drive - both work OK although it looks as though I can't run Crostini/Linux in ChromeOS Flex on the hardware I have. That's still to be confirmed as definite, but it is a major negative as I use Calibre as my e-book manager and that needs either Linux or Windows as it does not work in ChromeOS.

So next step which I can do without going beyond the point of no return is to install Linux Mint as a dual boot with Windows 10 and then run a more systematic test to confirm that everything works and that I can live with it. That still leaves me able to use all the MS office suite in Windows when I need to.

roobarb

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#3007725 9-Dec-2022 14:08

leemillerau: any budget up to about $2k is actually not a problem

Mac Book Air?

Bee

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#3007829 9-Dec-2022 17:26

It seems to me, you could just go into PB Tech or NL or HN and get the best laptop under $2k with windows 11 and be done with it. Is there more to the story that I'm missing?

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allan

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#3007914 9-Dec-2022 20:34

If you do commit to a new "front-end" machine, you could look at Linux on the old PC and stick a Calibre server on there. I recently switched to using Calibre in a Docker container on a Synology NAS (although have partly taken that approach because my Kindle USB connector has gone faulty and while it still charges, no USB syncing) and it's revolutionised how we are dealing with books with both a web server and using it as a wireless content server to CC Demo/Calibre Companion to read books on a mobile device.

gzt

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#3007921 9-Dec-2022 20:51

One benefit of upgrade is power efficiency with newer hardware. In summer less heat. Bear in mind something like Calibre server can run on raspberry pi even.

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leemillerau

37 posts

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#3024620 20-Jan-2023 09:36

Thanks to every one for your thoughts and advice. In the end I had too much trouble throwing out a working machine so I have installed a dual boot version of Linux Mint and couldn't be happier. I am using Linux Mint 80% of the time at the moment but still need Windows for work related stuff involving Word and Dropbox.

xpd

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#3024710 20-Jan-2023 10:45

With old Probooks, the thing I find that brings them back to life is a SSD with fresh Windows install, and 16GB RAM. My wifes one is ancient and was about to be thrown out until I did those things, now its like new :)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#3024881 20-Jan-2023 16:15

xpd:

With old Probooks, the thing I find that brings them back to life is a SSD with fresh Windows install, and 16GB RAM. My wifes one is ancient and was about to be thrown out until I did those things, now its like new :)

I've got an EliteDesk 800 G2 with i7-6700 CPU that I slapped 32GB of RAM into as well as an NVMe drive, and the thing absolutely flies compared to running from a HDD! Bootup from cold to Windows 11 desktop is a matter of seconds. The bottleneck is me having to put the password in!

Seriously, any SSD over a HDD will be a night and day difference to its performance. It's always the first thing to replace on older hardware to make them usable.

leemillerau

37 posts

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#3025691 23-Jan-2023 10:07

Thanks for the advice about SSD and RAM - actually did both those when I bought the PC secondhand a few years ago now. Can't upgrade to Windows 11 as the motherboard doesn't support TPM and I've always wanted to have a go at Linux anyway but didn't really have the necessary reason to until now.

Gurezaemon

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#3025696 23-Jan-2023 10:22

Maybe someone would know - I have a Lenovo E470 with a SSD drive in it, and it's still usable, but it's showing its age even after a fresh install.

1) Would it be possible to replace the regular 2.5-inch format SSD with a similarly sized NVME (that I already have) with an adapter such as this? TBH, I'm a bit hazy about how the protocols work.

2) Would there be much benefit to doing this?

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xpd

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#3025702 23-Jan-2023 10:51

Probably not much point because the interface on the motherboard will still just be SATA2/3, so limits the speed of the NVME.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#3025773 23-Jan-2023 14:23

Gurezaemon:

Maybe someone would know - I have a Lenovo E470 with a SSD drive in it, and it's still usable, but it's showing its age even after a fresh install.

1) Would it be possible to replace the regular 2.5-inch format SSD with a similarly sized NVME (that I already have) with an adapter such as this? TBH, I'm a bit hazy about how the protocols work.

2) Would there be much benefit to doing this?

No - that's not actually a SATA 2.5" drive; it's the server U.2 form factor, which is used to put big NVMe (PCIe) drives in servers, rather than screwing down a bunch of M.2s to the motherboard which isn't hot swappable or easy to use.

A regular 2.5" SATA SSD is your best option, or a SATA M.2 in a converter case - that's the same speed SATA drive, just on a different PCB.

The speed differences between SATA and NVMe are usually not worth worrying about.

Gurezaemon

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#3025776 23-Jan-2023 14:36

xpd:

Probably not much point because the interface on the motherboard will still just be SATA2/3, so limits the speed of the NVME.

SomeoneSomewhere:

No - that's not actually a SATA 2.5" drive; it's the server U.2 form factor, which is used to put big NVMe (PCIe) drives in servers, rather than screwing down a bunch of M.2s to the motherboard which isn't hot swappable or easy to use.

A regular 2.5" SATA SSD is your best option, or a SATA M.2 in a converter case - that's the same speed SATA drive, just on a different PCB.

The speed differences between SATA and NVMe are usually not worth worrying about.

Aah. That makes sense then. Probably not worth spending the time faffing around with imaging the drive, then.

Thanks for the input 😀

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