New Laptop

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newatc
newatc Posts: 845 Forumite
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in Techie Stuff
My 8 year old Dell running on Windows 7 with 8mb of ram on 7th gen I5 chiphas died.
The Dell had massive amount of bloatware which I blamed for slow start up but the performance was then fine for a reasonably light user (no games) with the exception that I could have several windows (up to 8) open at one time.

To avoid the bloatware I'm planning to purchase a build to order laptop with 8th generation I5 Intel chip with SSD and traditional hard drive. My only question is whether I should keep with 8mb or go up to 16gb. Will the better speed and SSD more than compensate for Windows 10 impact is I suppose the question I am asking.
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  • dipsomaniac
    dipsomaniac Posts: 6,739 Forumite
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    i am running a i5 with 8gb ram, ssd, win10 and had 20 windows open this morning with no issues.

    when you say it has died do you mean just slow. if so, have you tried doing a fresh install of os?
    "The Holy Writ of Gloucester Rugby Club demands: first, that the forwards shall win the ball; second, that the forwards shall keep the ball; and third, the backs shall buy the beer." - Doug Ibbotson
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
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    What do you mean by your laptop has died? As above, the specs are pretty good so if there's nothing terminal you could possibly resurrect it with a new SSD and a fresh, clean install of windows.
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    newatc wrote: »
    My 8 year old Dell running on Windows 7 with 8mb of ram on 7th gen I5 chiphas died.
    The Dell had massive amount of bloatware which I blamed for slow start up but the performance was then fine for a reasonably light user (no games) with the exception that I could have several windows (up to 8) open at one time.

    To avoid the bloatware I'm planning to purchase a build to order laptop with 8th generation I5 Intel chip with SSD and traditional hard drive. My only question is whether I should keep with 8mb or go up to 16gb. Will the better speed and SSD more than compensate for Windows 10 impact is I suppose the question I am asking.

    A bit confused here. You upgraded the CPU in your laptop, but didn't know how to run a clean install.
    Perhaps you meant to write 2nd Gen, which would make it seven years old.
    No need to change RAM, SSD will make all of the difference.
  • neilmcl
    neilmcl Posts: 19,460 Forumite
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    EveryWhere wrote: »
    A bit confused here. You upgraded the CPU in your laptop, but didn't know how to run a clean install.
    Perhaps you meant to write 2nd Gen, which would make it seven years old.
    No need to change RAM, SSD will make all of the difference.
    Where did it say he upgraded the CPU?
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    neilmcl wrote: »
    Where did it say he upgraded the CPU?

    An eight year old laptop with a 7th Gen i5(from 2017).....
  • System
    System Posts: 178,094 Community Admin
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    It was slow to start up because it had a mechanical hard drive. Don't go for a normal drive, stick with SSD. Windows 10 uses less resources than Windows 7.
  • grumpycrab
    grumpycrab Posts: 4,989 Forumite
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    neilmcl wrote: »
    Where did it say he upgraded the CPU?
    EveryWhere wrote: »
    An eight year old laptop with a 7th Gen i5(from 2017).....
    Where did he say it was a laptop? :T
    If you put your general location in your Profile, somebody here may be able to come and help you.
  • Frozen_up_north
    Frozen_up_north Posts: 2,420 Forumite
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    Someone on this forum thinks an SSD cures all known illness... even fixing a dead laptop.

    I wouldn't bother looking to have both an SSD and a spinning rust disk in a laptop. Normally a laptop is looked at as a slim lightweight device with a long run time on battery, there is no need to bulk it up with a second drive. An SSD is quite cheap, even compared to a few months ago, and doesn't need to be a huge capacity, as you can supplement it with an external drive. A 250GB to 275GB is probably large enough for most purposes.

    With regard to unwanted clutter on a new "off the shelf" laptop, try https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
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    grumpycrab wrote: »
    Where did he say it was a laptop? :T

    Guess ;)

    Where did it state "he"? ;)
  • toshi
    toshi Posts: 308 Forumite
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    edited 6 August 2018 at 6:01PM
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    neilmcl wrote: »
    What do you mean by your laptop has died? As above, the specs are pretty good so if there's nothing terminal you could possibly resurrect it with a new SSD and a fresh, clean install of windows.

    I agree 100 %. Unless the is actually dead, (well I would try to repair it ) just replace the sluggish hard disk with an SSD, then install the fresh windows 10 with the existing Windows 7 license keys, Yes you will get a free windows 10 upgrade. (It worked this for me a couple month ago)

    Summery
    1) Get an SSD
    I would recommend Crucial MX500 (5 year warranty)
    2) replace the existing hard disk with the SSD
    3) Download the latest Windows 10 ISO image, and make an USB boot
    4) Install Windows 10 to the SSD computer
    5) copy the data from the existing hard disk to the new SSD.


    Welcome to the 2018 Computer. (Yes, with the SSD, your 8 Years old Computer will be 2018 computer! :j

    Happy SSD computing :)
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