OT: Laptop upgrade

Well it came with 8 when supplied but I believe the licence also covered its upgrade to 10.

I thought most hardware changes just required a call to Microsoft to re-authorise?

Tim

Thanks. I?ll try that.

Tim

Only if you can be sure that the replacement motherboard is correctly functional and that the thermal management of the case can cope with a faster processor and graphics chip. It might be more cost effective to take a look at refurb cast offs in CEX or Morgan in the post Xmas sales.

I suppose it depends how much you value your time and how much fiddling about you are prepared to do to make the thing work again. Dismantling laptops is fairly easy but putting them back together again and having them still work reliably afterwards is a little bit more tricky. If you are confident of your reassembly skills then go for it but if you need to ask which motherboard is compatible with your chassis...

FWIW I think it might be a bit too long in the tooth already.

CPU benchmark will give you a rough guide of where you are now and where you might end up with a better CPU. I try for 3x improvement every time. YMMV

This may help:

Linux Mint comes in various flavours. Linux Mint Mate (MahTay) is faster and more lightweight than Linux Mint Cinnamon.

Another Dave

That utterly mangles the real story.

but replacing it with the same thing isn't going to make it faster. the i7 board is £100+

that's a myth spread by windows haters.

most don't a MB swap might, mine didn't.

Well its not exactly a myth - the licencing terms for an OEM version of windows normally don't permit migrating to completely new hardware for reasons other than a motherboard swap under warranty.

Having said that, it can often be done - especially if win 10 was upgraded from a legitimately licenced version of 7 or 8.1.

Even if it had one, an easy swap is still typically out, since you would need a CPU that matches a now defunct socket in many cases.

Perhaps not, but sadly probably right.

Most of the boards I can see on aliexpress etc seem to be based around the same range of low end Pentium N class CPUs. They might be ok in a NAS or an embedded system, but are going to feel pretty dismal as a desktop platform.

A low end i3 even with SSD is usable for an entry level "work" machine (i.e. email, web, some document handling and not much else), but even that would be massively quicker than the CPUs on offer. e.g;

I think in the circumstances I would look for an ex corporate machine on ebay. I recently had a customers 2 year old i5 / SSD machine with damaged motherboard, and other issues that basically meant it was beyond economic repair. HP quoted a fixed price repair at £360, or I could buy one new for £560. In the end I got a slightly better spec refurb from ebay for them at £250 (and that was for a HP Probook 450 G3with i5-6200U, 8GB, 256GB SSD, Win10 Pro)

Its already got one, the N series pentiums are dual core.

seconded. Cinnamon has too much eye candy to be fast

Cheers John. I could see alternatives but not knowing much about them I couldn?t really get any sense of whether any of the affordable ones would be usefully quicker alternatives.

Well it?s not really my problem. My daughter is a big girl now and can afford to buy herself a new one if she really needs it. It was just an idea to see if there was a relatively cheap way to upgrade it before simply chucking it.

Tim

My B-series one is running Linux, which extended it's life for a year or two, but it's now becoming just too slow for a modern browser, for example.

I know nothing about that specific laptop, but before you do anything else, replace the processor heatsink grease. This can dry out and become less effective, causing the processor to automatically slow down so as not to overheat.

Cheers

I don?t think there?s a need. I?ve looked at CPU temp and it never seems to go over 40.

Tim

I've got a stiffie from acting like a well-hard keyboard warrior."

The irony is his ham radio call sign as moniker.

Now how did that DIY hobby end?