If you have a laptop with Windows Vista or even XP sitting in the corner of your room slowly tiring and gathering dust then you might want to give it a makeover and breathe new life into the dusty old dog.
1. You can do the usual clean out of temp files, defrag and update your software etc. This might give you a boost but more often than not it is only a temporary fix and probably not worth it and pretty boring.
2. Consider reinstalling your OS or (in the case of Vista/XP) consider some alternative operating systems that are modern, supported and will no doubt speed up your machine. Take a look at this article for some suggestions,
DEATH-PROOF your old XP netbook: 5 OSes to bring it back to life ⢠The Register
3. Probably the cheapest upgrade to a computer for increased performance is to add extra memory. This is usually the easiest way to gain some extra oomph!
4. If you laptop has Vista or better then chances are that the laptop has a SATA hard drive. If it has then you can upgrade this to a modern SSD SATA drive. The only downside with this is that SSD drives are quite expensive in relation to normal SATA drives. SSD drives are somewhat smaller in their storage capacity but, assuming your current hard drive is fine you can add an SSD drive which you can (re)install your chosen OS to and use your current hard drive for file storage. But, how can my laptop take two hard drives?
You will need a CD/DVD to SATA drive converter caddy, see this video to see what I'm waffling on about,
Laptop hdd + ssd upgrade install Replace DVD with HDD module bay - YouTube
If you reinstall a Windows OS onto a SSD drive then you should go for a drive no less than 120GB but if you decide to go Linux for your OS then a 64GB drive would more than do as a minimum - remembering you still have your old laptop drive for data storage. I would estimate a cost of around $150 or less for the following
120GB SSD Drive $90
2-4GB $30-50
CD/DVD to SATA H/D $10
You can apply the same principle to a macbook too for extra oomph!
With the CD/DVD caddy, make sure it will fit your laptop model - just check with someone like Newegg to see if there is one for yours. With the SSD drive, I've just heard that the manufacturer of OCZ SSD drives has just gone bankrupt so expect some deals to come along possibly - I have used OCZ drives and they are 100%.
The result is a laptop which will be on par with a cheap to mid price laptop just out the high street store. Hope this helps a few tired laptops gain a bit more life
1. You can do the usual clean out of temp files, defrag and update your software etc. This might give you a boost but more often than not it is only a temporary fix and probably not worth it and pretty boring.
2. Consider reinstalling your OS or (in the case of Vista/XP) consider some alternative operating systems that are modern, supported and will no doubt speed up your machine. Take a look at this article for some suggestions,
DEATH-PROOF your old XP netbook: 5 OSes to bring it back to life ⢠The Register
3. Probably the cheapest upgrade to a computer for increased performance is to add extra memory. This is usually the easiest way to gain some extra oomph!
4. If you laptop has Vista or better then chances are that the laptop has a SATA hard drive. If it has then you can upgrade this to a modern SSD SATA drive. The only downside with this is that SSD drives are quite expensive in relation to normal SATA drives. SSD drives are somewhat smaller in their storage capacity but, assuming your current hard drive is fine you can add an SSD drive which you can (re)install your chosen OS to and use your current hard drive for file storage. But, how can my laptop take two hard drives?
You will need a CD/DVD to SATA drive converter caddy, see this video to see what I'm waffling on about,
Laptop hdd + ssd upgrade install Replace DVD with HDD module bay - YouTube
If you reinstall a Windows OS onto a SSD drive then you should go for a drive no less than 120GB but if you decide to go Linux for your OS then a 64GB drive would more than do as a minimum - remembering you still have your old laptop drive for data storage. I would estimate a cost of around $150 or less for the following
120GB SSD Drive $90
2-4GB $30-50
CD/DVD to SATA H/D $10
You can apply the same principle to a macbook too for extra oomph!
With the CD/DVD caddy, make sure it will fit your laptop model - just check with someone like Newegg to see if there is one for yours. With the SSD drive, I've just heard that the manufacturer of OCZ SSD drives has just gone bankrupt so expect some deals to come along possibly - I have used OCZ drives and they are 100%.
The result is a laptop which will be on par with a cheap to mid price laptop just out the high street store. Hope this helps a few tired laptops gain a bit more life
