Upgrade old laptop or bin?

OnlyTheBestWillDo

Deleted_User said:

Probably one thing that nobody has mentioned is the battery on a laptop of that age, it will not be in good condition unless recently replaced and ok you can probably get a replacement for £15 off eBay but with the other upgrades mentioned above it is quickly adding up to a lot for nothing.

Just my opinion but I'd put the laptop on eBay and you could get £50 for it plus saving the £30 on all the above upgrade costs and that is proper money saving advice.

£80 in the pocket or towards a £200 2nd hand iPad Air 2 for example which sounds like it suits the parents more than a laptop and will easily outperform that laptop for internet use.

Now you are suggesting that instead of spending £17.50 to get a device that will be totally fine for Internet usage; you advocate listing it on eBay for a figure that will likely not ever materialise then to spend £200 on a second hand iPad that might outperform the laptop.
But who said anything about performance? Have you run tests between an iPad Air 2 and similar laptop with SSD? I can have up to one hundred tabs open at any one time whilst using my very old laptop as a music entertainment centre. Have you ever had one hundred tabs open on an iPad? 
They can try the laptop with a £17.50 upgrade and if it is not up to speed for them(which is unlikely) then they can put it on eBay blah blah blah.
But it, in my opinion, is totally ridiculous to not even try to upgrade it to see if it is adequate to the task before moving on to the next option.
Money Saving Expert; not money wasting expert

OnlyTheBestWillDo

Deleted_User said:

Probably one thing that nobody has mentioned is the battery on a laptop of that age, it will not be in good condition unless recently replaced and ok you can probably get a replacement for £15 off eBay but with the other upgrades mentioned above it is quickly adding up to a lot for nothing.

Just my opinion but I'd put the laptop on eBay and you could get £50 for it plus saving the £30 on all the above upgrade costs and that is proper money saving advice.

£80 in the pocket or towards a £200 2nd hand iPad Air 2 for example which sounds like it suits the parents more than a laptop and will easily outperform that laptop for internet use.

Seriously brings a smile to my face. All of it. How long will it take to sell the laptop? So how long must they wait for this £50 to appear in their pocket(it won't) before adding another £150 to it to find and buy this £200 AirPad 2?
Whereas laptop with SSD could be ready for use tomorrow. Done and dusted. Overthinking a simple sequence of events and making up unrealistic and complicated scenarios that are never going to happen.
Laptop with SSD is infinitely more sellable. So a no lose situation if selling is an viable option.

OP is talking about fixing or binning? So it's clear that messing around on eBay is not a considered option. Taking unnecessary journeys to the Post Office during a pandemic for a few pounds?
So it's either spend the £17.50 to see if the laptop is up to the task(it will be) or scrap it and spend possibly hundreds on a device that might be a little faster...
On a moneysaving expert site they are being advised to skip the moneysaving option and instead to jump right into spending more than ten times more...on a completely made up basis that it will be "'slow". No. It will be adequate to the tasks described. For a mere £17.50 it makes sense to have it as a back up in any event.

Anyway, brought a smile to my face. Good morning!

[Deleted User]

@OnlyTheBestWillDo

I offered an alternative option, you have set out your option in 10 previous comments for the OP to evaluate and I've added 1 other way to look at things - not everything in this world has 1 solution.

I looked at the problem from a different angle and offered a different solution. Value for money is more important than absolute spending for me.

1. OP's suggests friend parents currently using an iPad and may enjoy the benefits of the light weight portability of such a solution - certainly for my parents a 450g iPad vs a 6 times heavier house brick of a 2.7kg laptop is a no brainer for portability and ease of use.

2. I linked to an example of the same laptop model that sold on eBay by 7 day auction for £51 a couple of weeks ago. It would take less time to list, pack and post on eBay than upgrading the laptop. You can sell on eBay without going to the post office.

3. The Apple A8X CPU in the iPad Air 2 is 4 times more powerful on benchmarks than the Pentium 6200 and combined with the lightweight iOS compared to Win 10 it will be buttery smooth and responsive.

4. A beautiful hi-res bright 2048x1536 retina screen is well worth the spend compared to the outdated 1366x768 screen for web browsing.

5. Awful 802.11n / WiFi 4 on the laptop that will not have the range and speed of the iPad and will slow other clients down on the network when using the 12 year old protocol.

6. One option the OP was considering was binning the laptop leaving the issue of a dying iPad that still needs replacing - my option meets halfway between that option and upgrading the laptop.

I actually agreed with @prowla on the first page who is quite right in saying the laptop is now obsolete. It is no longer supported by Dell and won't get firmware / chipset / driver updates which is a security risk.

One of the great things about this forum is many different people can come and offer their differing opinions for the OP to evaluate. If your option is the best for them then they will take it. There is no need for 12 posts saying the same thing where you are determined to ridicule or quash any other opinion than your own. 

OnlyTheBestWillDo

Deleted_User said:

@OnlyTheBestWillDo

I offered an alternative option, you have set out your option in 10 previous comments for the OP to evaluate and I've added 1 other way to look at things - not everything in this world has 1 solution.

I looked at the problem from a different angle and offered a different solution. Value for money is more important than absolute spending for me.

1. OP's suggests friend parents currently using an iPad and may enjoy the benefits of the light weight portability of such a solution - certainly for my parents a 450g iPad vs a 6 times heavier house brick of a 2.7kg laptop is a no brainer for portability and ease of use.

2. I linked to an example of the same laptop model that sold on eBay by 7 day auction for £51 a couple of weeks ago. It would take less time to list, pack and post on eBay than upgrading the laptop. You can sell on eBay without going to the post office.

3. The Apple A8X CPU in the iPad Air 2 is 4 times more powerful on benchmarks than the Pentium 6200 and combined with the lightweight iOS compared to Win 10 it will be buttery smooth and responsive.

4. A beautiful hi-res bright 2048x1536 retina screen is well worth the spend compared to the outdated 1366x768 screen for web browsing.

5. Awful 802.11n / WiFi 4 on the laptop that will not have the range and speed of the iPad and will slow other clients down on the network when using the 12 year old protocol.

6. One option the OP was considering was binning the laptop leaving the issue of a dying iPad that still needs replacing - my option meets halfway between that option and upgrading the laptop.

I actually agreed with @prowla on the first page who is quite right in saying the laptop is now obsolete. It is no longer supported by Dell and won't get firmware / chipset / driver updates which is a security risk.

One of the great things about this forum is many different people can come and offer their differing opinions for the OP to evaluate. If your option is the best for them then they will take it. There is no need for 12 posts saying the same thing where you are determined to ridicule or quash any other opinion than your own. 

It's also one of the worst things about the forum. That people get distracted by what seems like complete madness. You are trying to tell that upgrading the device will take longer than selling an item on eBay!!
Taking photographs, writing descriptions, finding out even how to list an item correctly and after going through all of that palaver, actually waiting for it to be sold and then packaging it up to send it then go to the post office to send it....
Whereas it takes an hour to swap the drive and to install Windows 10. . Again, thank for even more amusement this morning. Can really only shake my head at this.

Of course you can spend your way out of any problem.
The salient point is that I am actually using a similar laptop right now. So clearly not obsolete. Reality trumps theory..
I give practical advice; not advice based on projections of theories.

The laptop is perfectly adequate to the task. If they profess the want for another iPad then they can talk about getting another iPad.

The title of this thread is upgrade or bin. I suggest upgrade on the basis of actually using an older and slightly lower spec laptop at this very moment. Playing lossless music and running three different Browsers whilst replying to you. Buttery smooth? Nice sales pitch

A £5 WiFi adaptor can bring bring in WiFi 5 or 6 if such a thing is required. That still brings the total spend to £22.50.

Of course you can think of a million reasons to spend more and get a better product. Not a difficult thing to do.

But I am sure the OP appreciates your input. Whether he will advise the laptop owner to go through the palaver of listing, describing, posting etc, you can find out for yourself by asking him..

The only point that matters is if the laptop is adequate for simple Browsing tasks  The answer is a resounding yes, because I am actually utilising a similar device.
If it were too slow I would have mentioned it. But then I am not trying to compare it to the latest or most powerful.
If they wanted that then they would not have had an iPad in the first place.

The question is simply is it worth spending £17.50 on and I say yes. Buying a second hand iPad etc is another thing altogether. If they decide for that then you can further advise on where to buy etc
That's what good about this forum. Many eyes. But not all of the advice is sensible unfortunately.


I should add the disclaimer that the OP and I have refurbed a few devices together; so I have some idea. But it's not up to him as it's not his laptop.

They either would like a laptop or they would not. We'll find out. Take it easy. It's okay to have a debate, to separate the wheat from the chaff. 
The OP can consider the results and relate them. 
Once again, thank you for bringing a smile to my face this morning.

GDB2222

OnlyTheBestWillDo said:

GDB2222 said:

I have a similar Dell laptop, but with a N2830 processor, which is a fair bit slower. 

I don’t use it as a machine for every day use, and it would drive me mad if I had to, as it is very leisurely. Plus, the screen resolution is poor.  I take it with me on holiday, for any emergency word processing.

I fitted an SSD, but that made surprisingly little difference.

I suggest the op just upgrades to W10, and passes it on to the parents for occasional use. 

Did you run a clean install to the SSD or clone? Fitting an SSD always makes a difference.
When you actually question the people who makes such statements you realise that they actually had totally unrealistic expectations. They also discount such things as how quickly the device is up and running because before they would go to make a cup of tea when they had a normal hard drive fitted. 

Now you've decided that the parents should use it only occasionally and should not bother to fit an SSD?

What if they want to use it more often, for simple tasks that would benefit from having an SSD fitted? What is your alternative idea? That they shouldn't bother to spend £17.50 and instead buy a more expensive device when they don't even need one?
The P6200 is not the N2830. So why are you advising the OP to not upgrade on the basis of your inferior processor??

I have experience of using a P6200 in a Toshiba laptop with a Toshiba SSD. So I know exactly the performance and the difference in performance. I am also using, right now, a processor similar to yours with a SSD for day to day tasks. Not occasionally, but regularly.

Not opinions or wild guesses, but accomplished facts.

"Did you run a clean install to the SSD or clone?" - Clean. That's normally preferable.

"Fitting an SSD always makes a difference." - It was transformational on my old desktop. I was using my 2007 C2D PC until last year. On this laptop, it made rather little difference. 

To be frank, I think you are taking this discussion a bit seriously. 

getmore4less

Some debates here seem to always end in my way or no way when there are options.

Some better than others some costing more than others.

Gone tomorrow comes to mind

poppellerant

prowla said:

The computer was purchased in January 2011 and has a spec:

• Inspiron N5010 : RETAIL ONLY Intel Pentium Dual Core P6200 ( 2.13GHz, 3M)
• Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
• Hard Drive : 320GB Serial ATA (5400RPM)
• Wireless : Dell Wireless 1501 (802.11g/n) Mini Card ROW
• Camera : Integrated 1.3 Mega Pixel Camera
• Display : 15.6in High Definition (1366X768) WLED
• Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including software

Based on that, it's pretty much obsolete.

Upgrading (with an SSD and Windows 10) would require some work and expense and still result in a slow system.

The screen is not what most folks would call "high definition" these days.

It's more a system for an enthusiast to muck about with upgrading than to give to some folks to use pain-free.

I have to disagree with what you've said.  I was donated a laptop with a similar spec and purely for my own entertainment I decided to upgrade it - total cost to me was below £5.00.

First of all I removed the existing 320GB hard drive and replaced it with a 120GB SSD that I had spare.  This gave me the biggest improvement from any of the chosen upgrades.  Of course, this was to be expected and why I made it the first upgrade and why I rubbish your "still result in a slow system" comment - in fact, I experienced the exact opposite of what you said.

I upgraded the P6200 processor to a i3-380M.  I would argue that this might be the most pointless upgrade option for the OP, as the performance gain is quite simply negligible - something I was acutely aware of before purchasing.  But, as I said earlier, this was for my own entertainment.

I then upgraded the RAM from 3GB to 4GB, as this was the only stick of DDR3 RAM I happened to have laying around.  This did provide some speed improvements, especially when I had multiple programs open at once.  Upgrading to 8GB would likely provide the OP with further benefit by future-proofing the laptop.

My advice to the OP would be to upgrade the laptop to 8GB of RAM and install a 120GB SSD - or larger, if the situation dictates as such.  Install Windows 10 and remove the pre-installed bloat (apps) using a simple PowerShell command or two.  Then enjoy.

Don't bother replacing the battery, just use it while plugged into the charger.  Ironically, the battery in my donated laptop, which is easily 10 years, still lasts around 3-4 hours off a full charge.  That's not bad in my books.

OnlyTheBestWillDo

For me it's an almost no-brainer. £30 for a laptop with an adequate CPU, 8GB of RAM and a solid state drive. You simply cannot buy similar at that price.

So it's worth it as a back up even if they decide to get another device. On the other hand, they will easily recoup the outlay if they decide to list it, since it will have a better spec than the other 5010 on-line and therefore will be more attractive to buyers on a budget.

Further to the suggestion in the post above: https://wpd.app will take care of some of the unnecessary bloat and tracking devices.

It's a perfectly usable laptop. I don't know why some are trying to suggest otherwise.

It can run Windows 10 with ease with an SSD; so cannot be considered obsolete.

OnlyTheBestWillDo

GDB2222 said:

OnlyTheBestWillDo said:

GDB2222 said:

I have a similar Dell laptop, but with a N2830 processor, which is a fair bit slower. 

I don’t use it as a machine for every day use, and it would drive me mad if I had to, as it is very leisurely. Plus, the screen resolution is poor.  I take it with me on holiday, for any emergency word processing.

I fitted an SSD, but that made surprisingly little difference.

I suggest the op just upgrades to W10, and passes it on to the parents for occasional use. 

Did you run a clean install to the SSD or clone? Fitting an SSD always makes a difference.
When you actually question the people who makes such statements you realise that they actually had totally unrealistic expectations. They also discount such things as how quickly the device is up and running because before they would go to make a cup of tea when they had a normal hard drive fitted. 

Now you've decided that the parents should use it only occasionally and should not bother to fit an SSD?

What if they want to use it more often, for simple tasks that would benefit from having an SSD fitted? What is your alternative idea? That they shouldn't bother to spend £17.50 and instead buy a more expensive device when they don't even need one?
The P6200 is not the N2830. So why are you advising the OP to not upgrade on the basis of your inferior processor??

I have experience of using a P6200 in a Toshiba laptop with a Toshiba SSD. So I know exactly the performance and the difference in performance. I am also using, right now, a processor similar to yours with a SSD for day to day tasks. Not occasionally, but regularly.

Not opinions or wild guesses, but accomplished facts.

"Did you run a clean install to the SSD or clone?" - Clean. That's normally preferable.

"Fitting an SSD always makes a difference." - It was transformational on my old desktop. I was using my 2007 C2D PC until last year. On this laptop, it made rather little difference. 

To be frank, I think you are taking this discussion a bit seriously. 

Do you mean when I wrote "thank you for bringing a smile to my face"? Very serious indeed.

I was particularly serious when I read how someone magicked up an extra £30 by suggesting that as if you don't spend it on upgrading the DELL then it actually becomes a positive number which you can then add to the budget. Meaning £50 + £30 that you haven't spent meaning you now have £80 in your pocket and only need £120 more for an iPad. I loved  that became very serious after I read that and was able to compose myself, after roaring with laughter. 
Very serious I am

Norman_Castle

poppellerant said:

First of all I removed the existing 320GB hard drive and replaced it with a 120GB SSD that I had spare.  This gave me the biggest improvement from any of the chosen upgrades. 

Presumably you put a new os on the SSD. For a fair comparison you'd have to put the same fresh os install onto the HDD.