[pengyou]

In 2003, I acquired a used pentium 2 dell notebook computer. Big and heavy, but it was a great computer. The only reason why I got rid of it was because of the weight. Per a number of reviews, it was one of Dell's most solid notebooks - maybe most solid in the industry. I would like to buy a couple of older notebooks to have as backups. Does anyone have any suggestions for other brands/models? That Dell will run xp...maybe 7....but I would probably put Linux on it - free and relatively virus free.

 

[ajole]

On a Pentium 2 with the max RAM available on an old laptop board like that, Linux is the only really viable option.

And even then, some of them will be too much of a load. Think less graphics, lighter footprint.

 

[pengyou]

On a Pentium 2 with the max RAM available on an old laptop board like that, Linux is the only really viable option.

And even then, some of them will be too much of a load. Think less graphics, lighter footprint.

Yes, that would be OK. Would be used mostly for watching DVD's and reading ebooks. Surfing the web might cause some issues but right now, I have an old dual core desktop with 2 gb of ram with Linux Mint and I have not found anything yet that I couldn't surf or do.

Here are the hardware requirements for windows 10:
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS

Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver

Display: 800 x 600

Might only "walk" on Win10...not run

 

[pengyou]

I have seen a lot of touch scren androids for sale for about $100. They are inexpensive to buy, cheaply made...should just count on 2-3 years of life out of one and then move on to another. The Dell I had, though, had a big beautiful screen

 

[Colty045]

What about a Raspberry Pi setup with an external drive?

 

[pengyou]

What about a Raspberry Pi setup with an external drive?

Thank you for your suggestion! I have no idea what the raspberry pi is capable of. I have always thought of it as being a toy, like the old Radio Shack electronics kits, only capable of blinking, binging, etc. Those and the arduiino. My surfing usually requires downloading - at least at this point. I don't know if the materials that I like to find will always be online.

 

[ralfy]

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Here are the hardware requirements for windows 10:
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS

Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver

Display: 800 x 600

Might only "walk" on Win10...not run

Those *minimum* requirements for Win10 are an embarrassment. Why MS would ever publish such rubbish irritates me. Our *base* workstations are Intel i3 with 4GB of RAM. That configuration is fine for the very basic setups in the warehouses for encoding where all is needed is a web browser. We've been moving away from the i3 to i5s for the standard desktop workstation configuration. 4GB is *ok*. 8 is much better.

 

[pengyou]

Those *minimum* requirements for Win10 are an embarrassment. Why MS would ever publish such rubbish irritates me. Our *base* workstations are Intel i3 with 4GB of RAM. That configuration is fine for the very basic setups in the warehouses for encoding where all is needed is a web browser. We've been moving away from the i3 to i5s for the standard desktop workstation configuration. 4GB is *ok*. 8 is much better.

Agreed. It is interesting. I had windows 7 of my i3 notebook...very sluggish...I installed win 10 on it and the performance improved noticeably, so I am not sure if there would be an difference between trying 7 and 10.

 

[Watchingtheweasels]

In 2003, I acquired a used pentium 2 dell notebook computer. Big and heavy, but it was a great computer. The only reason why I got rid of it was because of the weight. Per a number of reviews, it was one of Dell's most solid notebooks - maybe most solid in the industry. I would like to buy a couple of older notebooks to have as backups. Does anyone have any suggestions for other brands/models? That Dell will run xp...maybe 7....but I would probably put Linux on it - free and relatively virus free.

Any specific reason you want a machine that old? That’s really pushing the limits of usability even with Linux with a GUI.

 

[pengyou]

Any specific reason you want a machine that old? That’s really pushing the limits of usability even with Linux with a GUI.

Cheap....big screen...good keyboard....very durable. Ergonomically, it was the perfect design for typing and viewing. Yes, it is pushing the limits.

 

[ghost792]

Those *minimum* requirements for Win10 are an embarrassment. Why MS would ever publish such rubbish irritates me. Our *base* workstations are Intel i3 with 4GB of RAM. That configuration is fine for the very basic setups in the warehouses for encoding where all is needed is a web browser. We've been moving away from the i3 to i5s for the standard desktop workstation configuration. 4GB is *ok*. 8 is much better.

That's been our experience, too. We bought a brand new ThinkPad for a customer with an 8th gen Core i3 and 8GB of memory and the performance was horrible. I think it had a HDD and not an SSD, which also makes a difference. I just put in some 8th or 9th gen Core i5 desktops with HDDs, though and they are surprisingly quick.

Cheap....big screen...good keyboard....very durable. Ergonomically, it was the perfect design for typing and viewing. Yes, it is pushing the limits.

It's not worth buying something that old, which is likely going to have issues with failing components, when you can buy 4 or 5 year old Lenovo T series ThinkPads all day on eBay for $100-200.

 

[Tophatter52]

That's been our experience, too. We bought a brand new ThinkPad for a customer with an 8th gen Core i3 and 8GB of memory and the performance was horrible. I think it had a HDD and not an SSD, which also makes a difference. I just put in some 8th or 9th gen Core i5 desktops with HDDs, though and they are surprisingly quick.



It's not worth buying something that old, which is likely going to have issues with failing components, when you can buy 4 or 5 year old Lenovo T series ThinkPads all day on eBay for $100-200.

I'll 2nd what he said. I bought a used lenovo t540p for around 220 on ebay and I can honestly say for an older I7 I can't complain. it even has a M.2 slot on the bottom, though you can only use an sata based M.2 and not a nvme based one.

 

[pengyou]

I'll 2nd what he said. I bought a used lenovo t540p for around 220 on ebay and I can honestly say for an older I7 I can't complain. it even has a M.2 slot on the bottom, though you can only use an sata based M.2 and not a nvme based one.

Forgive my ignorance...but what is an M.2 slot?

 

[KLF]

It's a new connector type. Mostly used for ssd drives but also wifi and wwan cards can use same connector. It can be pcie, usb or sata connector depending how it is wired. Only one or all of them at the same time.

Makes sense to manufacture only one connector type and then let laptop maker decide what it is used for.

NVME (pcie) ssd drives are several times faster than fastest sata drives on the market. In reality you don't see that much of a difference than benchmarks show. Windows boots up in seconds and feels rather snappy.

 

[Tophatter52]

in case of the T540 you can only use a very small one but it's big enough for the OS and to keep any vital data safe. so even if you drop it as long as the computer doesn't break it will still load up.