InMooseWeTrust
Jack of All Trades
- 803
- Posts
- 16
- Years
- Age 31
- Lansdale, Pennsylvania, USA
- Seen Apr 3, 2023
I have a Dell Inspiron 15R that I got on Best Buy (US chain retailer for electronics) in early 2011. It's been two years, and this laptop still runs just as well as it did back then (I'm a good tweaker). However, I've managed to burn a hard drive by torrenting irresponsibly, among doing other things.
Specs (for nerdz):
I've cut down on my torrenting a lot, and it's definitely down to where I go through less than 20GB a week. To boost performance, I just ordered a 120GB Solid State Drive and plan on using that in my laptop. I also plan on buying two RAM cards for 8 GB each. Maybe after a year and a half, I'll get either i5 or i7 as my processor.
This laptop is pretty awesome for what it does, and I feel like I'm going to use it for many years to come. Plus, 64 bit machines have upper limits of capability that go way beyond their shelf life.
Don't worry, I've done all my homework and I know very well how to optimize a computer for SSD.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on what else I should do to beef this thing up for another 2 years? Right now, besides the hard drive the biggest bottleneck is the graphics card (and not by a whole lot). I don't play any graphics-intensive games so I'm fine with that. Surface stuff like the keyboard have worn down, but can be easily replaced. My laptop heats up a lot, so any recommendations for heat sinks/fans?
I'm also pondering whether I should underclock my processor. The only time I need that much capability is for some video editing, which I can leave to render overnight.
POLL:What OS should I install with the new SSD?
I could stay with Windows 7, which would be safe because I've been using it for two and a half years, and it's so awesome.
I could be adventrous and go with Windows Server 2008 R2, which is essentially the same as Windows 7 but has a lot of features. It's also a far ligher and more efficient OS than 7, even when you enable normal Windows 7 things like Aero.
I've tried Windows 8 and I honestly find it terrible. I would need to install some software to hack/tweak 8 so it works a lot more like 7. I really don't see much point in installing it, but if you guys are convincing, who knows?
Regardless of what I install, I will use some kind of Virtual Machine to boot either 98SE or XP for retro games (of which I have many). I don't think I'll be using a Linux distro, but that's a completely separate subject anyway.
Specs (for nerdz):
Spoiler:
Intel i3 dual core @240GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320GB 5400 RPM HDD, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit tweaked, whatever graphics card it came with, a new Chinese battery that lasts forever, etc.
I've cut down on my torrenting a lot, and it's definitely down to where I go through less than 20GB a week. To boost performance, I just ordered a 120GB Solid State Drive and plan on using that in my laptop. I also plan on buying two RAM cards for 8 GB each. Maybe after a year and a half, I'll get either i5 or i7 as my processor.
This laptop is pretty awesome for what it does, and I feel like I'm going to use it for many years to come. Plus, 64 bit machines have upper limits of capability that go way beyond their shelf life.
Don't worry, I've done all my homework and I know very well how to optimize a computer for SSD.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on what else I should do to beef this thing up for another 2 years? Right now, besides the hard drive the biggest bottleneck is the graphics card (and not by a whole lot). I don't play any graphics-intensive games so I'm fine with that. Surface stuff like the keyboard have worn down, but can be easily replaced. My laptop heats up a lot, so any recommendations for heat sinks/fans?
I'm also pondering whether I should underclock my processor. The only time I need that much capability is for some video editing, which I can leave to render overnight.
POLL:What OS should I install with the new SSD?
I could stay with Windows 7, which would be safe because I've been using it for two and a half years, and it's so awesome.
I could be adventrous and go with Windows Server 2008 R2, which is essentially the same as Windows 7 but has a lot of features. It's also a far ligher and more efficient OS than 7, even when you enable normal Windows 7 things like Aero.
I've tried Windows 8 and I honestly find it terrible. I would need to install some software to hack/tweak 8 so it works a lot more like 7. I really don't see much point in installing it, but if you guys are convincing, who knows?
Regardless of what I install, I will use some kind of Virtual Machine to boot either 98SE or XP for retro games (of which I have many). I don't think I'll be using a Linux distro, but that's a completely separate subject anyway.