Author Topic: My laptop is six years old this week (Read 3382 times)

Polar Bear · « **on:** 21 January, 2018, 09:46:33 pm »

In January 2012 I bought an Acer Aspire 7750g 17 inch laptop with an intel i5 quad core processor and 6 gb of ddr3 ram which I upgraded at the time to 8gb. It runs Windows 7 home Premium and has a 750gb hard drive.

The only fault that I've experienced is issues with the hard disk a couple of years back.

I was thinking that it must be time to replace this technological dinosaur given it's age but apart from the fan being on more than it was in the early days it still performs more than adequately for my needs. Most of the time it sits on my desktop with a separate keyboard, mouse and large screen attached thus it simply fulfills the role of a system box. It is also attached to the adsl box with a cat5e cable.

I'd quite like to get it dismantled and de-fluffed*, replace the hdd with an SSD and replace the DVD drive with a blu-ray jobbie. I'll treat it to a clean install of Windows**.

As I've all but stopped working the demands will be less and it will be more of a surfing and film watching machine with a bit of social media, emailing, the annual tax return, word processing and spreadsheet crunching. I think that it'll last another few years with the proposed work.

I'm looking for recommendations for a de-fluffer and specific recommendations for both the SSD and the blu-ray drives please. Other thoughts also most welcome.

* Quite a big job on this one - I've looked at the youtube vids and it's a full dismantle.

** I know what folk will say but I'm sticking with what I know thanks.

freeflow · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 January, 2018, 11:22:49 pm »

That's at least 100 in human equivalent years.....

fuaran · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 January, 2018, 11:56:16 pm »

My current PC is almost 6 years old. Still all working fine, don't think it has had much upgrades in that time.
Fast enough for most stuff, though can get bit sluggish if I have dozens of browser tabs open. And sometimes a bit slow for photo editing or video editing etc.

I could upgrade it, but I'm thinking it will be easiest to build a new one. Just trying to figure out what specifications. Not sure if you need any optical drives nowadays.

And it means I can give this one to my dad. He is using my previous PC, which is now becoming a bit slow and unstable.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 January, 2018, 12:27:43 am »

De fluff and new thermal paste.

T42 · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 January, 2018, 08:05:19 am »

Quote from: Gattopardo on 23 January, 2018, 12:27:43 am

De fluff and new thermal paste.

You wanta da fries with dat?

Hum. Just had a look at my Windows 7 directory: it was set up in July 2009. Still works well enough with Photoshop and a Win XP emulation running, although PS takes a while to start/exit.

Asterix, the former Gaul. · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 January, 2018, 08:31:15 am »

My Compaq CQ61 is over 6.

It's now on its 3rd battery (the last was ditched after Amazon told me it could explode. Thanks Amazon). I put an SSD in (bought from Kingston Drives - very good) and it works a lot quicker and the fan is less busy.

Unfortunately I also bought a more up-to-date HP machine with W10 included and it is a lot faster still. It has no optical drive but I have an external Liteon brand that works very well - for ripping CDs mostly as I need FLAC not MP3.

Really I ought to wipe the lot off the old machine, start over and hope that makes a worthwhile difference.

StuAff · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 January, 2018, 10:08:31 am »

Still using my Early 2009 MacBook (2 GHz Core 2 Duo). And this here Mac Pro, though I've had it since late 2013, is also 2009 (though somewhat heavily upgraded).

mrcharly-YHT · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 January, 2018, 10:16:20 am »

Why do you think it is a dinosaur?

I use a laptop that is older than yours - and probably for higher-demand programs.

Replace and upgrade when the machine can't keep up, not just because it is old.

freeflow · « **Reply #8 on:** 23 January, 2018, 10:53:13 am »

I must admit to having been an avid upgrader in the past but nowadays its hard to find the justification. My main PC is an i7-4770k which according to public benchmarks is still amongst the higher performing intel processors available for single threaded tasks. In the time I've been using it I have upgraded the graphics (twice) and the OS disc to ssd but even the newest coffee lake or ryzen processors would only give me a marginal gain in terms of processing speed for my mainly word processing (with lots of VBA macros) activities.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 January, 2018, 11:06:15 am »

Until there is another paradigm shift in what home computers are used for we reached the stage of "fast enough" quite a while ago. So long as you have enough RAM your golden.
Do you really care if that application loads in 1 second or 2 seconds ? If it was 1 minute instead of 2 minutes maybe but a seconds difference is not worth worrying about.

If your an avid gamer looking for the latest special effects then you might need to keep upgrading but thats about it and even then its more about upgrading graphic cards.

Polar Bear · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 January, 2018, 11:27:34 am »

I'm simplyy looking for reliability in the SSD to replace the HDD and practicality in installing a bluray drive replacing the dvd drive. A bit of a defluff and a fresh os install after six years seems prudent to maintain and prolong the life of a machine which was not bleeding edge when bought but, as I have indicated, still does a job for me.

Aunt Maud · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 January, 2018, 11:35:28 am »

My McBook Hair is from 2010 and chugs along nicely.

ian · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 January, 2018, 09:01:04 pm »

My Macbook Air is also early 2009 vintage and still chugs along nicely for most tasks (email, web, that kind of thing, obviously starts to grind with graphics and video, but I have newer computers). The only downside is the battery rarely manages 2.5 to 3 hours (which is pretty good considering the number of battery cycles it's been put through) and the trackpad isn't nearly as good as the recent haptic feedback ones. I don't think processors and RAM (because it's probably always going to have enough) really matter in 2018, average use is unlikely to tax them. I'm more interesting in things like the screen and keyboard and trackpad, which maketh a machine.

Polar Bear · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 January, 2018, 09:20:17 pm »

Genuinely pleased for you chaps but do you have any recommendations for defluffers, SSD's or internal blu-ray drives please?

Gattopardo · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 January, 2018, 09:28:05 pm »

De fluffing is just taking apart and cleaning. Takes me about an hour to do. I just use rs thermal paste.

SSD go for a decent brand from a reputable source. Western digital do some nice ones. Price wise I look on hotukdeals and see what is available.

Polar Bear · « **Reply #15 on:** 23 January, 2018, 09:33:46 pm »

I cannot do the de-fluff on this laptop myself. it requires a full disassemble due to it's 'build' which would be beyond my visual capabilities.

I get to suffer nor not being an apple fanboy I guess.

Ij read reviews and see Samsung, Kingston and WD getting reasonable write ups for SSD's but I would like to know if anybody has any personal experiences.

I don't think it will matter much what blu-ray drive I put in to be honest.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #16 on:** 23 January, 2018, 09:36:30 pm »

Can I ask where you are?

If near me I can defluff for you.

ian · « **Reply #17 on:** 23 January, 2018, 09:42:38 pm »

I've never needed to defluff a Macbook, nor felt the urge (the fan doesn't spin very often anyway). Fluffing of any variety is a specialist 'career,' of course.

Like hard disks, SSDs are a bit of a muchness these days and the chips come out of the same fabs, and they use the same range of controller chipsets. As usual, cheap-to-middle-of-the-range is the best bet. Apple I think use Samsung and Toshiba, I fitted on OCZ (which I think is Toshiba these days) in my old Mac Mini. There's no point getting anything cutting edge as the SATA buses on a six-year-old computer will be rate limiting.

Gattopardo · « **Reply #18 on:** 23 January, 2018, 11:18:56 pm »

Quote from: ian on 23 January, 2018, 09:42:38 pm

I've never needed to defluff a Macbook, nor felt the urge (the fan doesn't spin very often anyway). Fluffing of any variety is a specialist 'career,' of course.

Like hard disks, SSDs are a bit of a muchness these days and the chips come out of the same fabs, and they use the same range of controller chipsets. As usual, cheap-to-middle-of-the-range is the best bet. Apple I think use Samsung and Toshiba, I fitted on OCZ (which I think is Toshiba these days) in my old Mac Mini. There's no point getting anything cutting edge as the SATA buses on a six-year-old computer will be rate limiting.

I recently opened a 2006/7 mabook. It was quite full. Same as the IMAC.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #19 on:** 24 January, 2018, 05:28:27 am »

I've got at least one Kingston SSD around the place, which only got moved from being the system disk in Adam Boyle (the PC in the Great Hall) because it wasn't big enough. It's there and it works. That box and Slow Dempsey (the laptop) have now had Crucial SSDs in them for the last six months, also without issues. Not sure what make the system one is in Bruiser McHuge (the big bugger upstairs) is and ICBA to go and check. The old Kingston one (120 GB) is now in that machine as well, as is a 500 GB mSATA one I had lying around from an abandoned iPod upgrade project.

I do not think running out of disk space will happen any time soon

ETA: System disk in the big box is also Crucial; mSATA one a Sandisk. No issues with any of them thus far.

robgul · « **Reply #20 on:** 24 January, 2018, 10:29:43 am »

I didn't get sucked into the laptop scene - good old tower/desktop machine where you can open the bonnet and poke around with extra HDD, change cards etc

I'm now using a 2011 Lenovo machine which is still going strong albeit a little slow - and am in the process of moving s/w and stuff to a Lenovo I bought last December - the old Lenovo will be relegated for mainly playing with maps.

Two screens but just one wireless keyboard and mouse - with a nifty bit of MS s/w to join the two to both PCs/screens.

Rob

Gattopardo · « **Reply #21 on:** 24 January, 2018, 01:50:44 pm »

I want three screens.

Kim · « **Reply #22 on:** 24 January, 2018, 01:56:13 pm »

Quote from: robgul on 24 January, 2018, 10:29:43 am

Two screens but just one wireless keyboard and mouse - with a nifty bit of MS s/w to join the two to both PCs/screens.

"Oooh!" said Kim, realising that as a side-effect of the Lineage debacle, her tablet is now rooted and Synergy can be installed.

Vince · « **Reply #23 on:** 24 January, 2018, 07:08:26 pm »

Why not bring it to Long Itch for de-fluffing?

As to the CD drive, it may be that drives are specific to the model of laptop so it fits to the contours of the case, in which case an external Blue-ray drive would be the answer.

SSDs: I set myself a budget and go look on Amazon for something that fits in to that. I bought a 250 gb Samsung EVO 850 last May and a 120 gb SanDisk in August, not been disapointed with either of them.

SoreTween · « **Reply #24 on:** 24 January, 2018, 08:07:24 pm »

Another vote for Crucial SSD here. This 2008 Acer had an OCZ in it for a while but it died. It now has a Crucial.