Slow Computer......

[rolibr24]

We just got new laptops at work and I took one home hoping to make it work for minimal work for the kids to use for school work. (Internet, email, document writing etc....)

It is a Dell Inspiron 5566.
8gb ram
i5-7200u @2.5GHz x 4
1 TB HDD

Our IT guy wiped everything off this computer.
We are Linux users and I just finished installing Linux on it, which also wiped everything off of it, but it is still quite slow. Is there anything I am able to do to make it any faster? (Would a new HDD work, or adding more ram to it?

 

[IAmATeaf]

Is the hard drive an SSD? If not then slapping one in should see the overall performance improve in leaps and bounds.

Nothing in my house has an ordinary mechanical drive as the boot drive, everything has an SSD.

 

[TonyR]

+1^^.
This past weekend I put a new Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD into a local realtor's Walmart HP 22-c0063w All-in-One PC. It's a lower-tier Celeron CPU with only 4GB of RAM and it was VERY slow, especially on boot up. I used Macrium Reflect 8 to clone the 1TB spinner onto the half-as-big Samsung, no sweat.

The #$%^ things goes from a 2-3 minute boot up to waiting for you in less than 20 seconds. She was very pleased and frankly I was somewhat surprised. I've done about 12 of these HDD's to Samsung SSD's and it's even better than more RAM....all have been very worth the expense to the customers.

EDIT: laptops benefit especially because of improved battery life, less CPU throttling due to lower internal temps and improved mechanical shock resistance.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

SSD's really changed the speed of all things pc.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

+1 on the SSD recommendations.

Also, inspect the currently installed RAM module specs, then cross-reference with the max RAM spec for the system. I have often found systems will ship with lesser specs (2100MHz) vs the max capability (2300MHz) of the mainboard. FYI, I chose random speeds for this example. Also, looks like that model supports dual channel RAM, confirm the current RAM modules (if their are two) are rated as dual channel

 

[fenderman]

As noted is all in the SSD. You will not see detectable speed increases by messing with the ram speed or channels. A 30-40 dollar ssd will make that machine scream.

 

[rolibr24]

Awesome, Thanks. I'll order one today.

 

[wittaj]

+1^^.
This past weekend I put a new Samsung 870 EVO 500GB SSD into a local realtor's Walmart HP 22-c0063w All-in-One PC. It's a lower-tier Celeron CPU with only 4GB of RAM and it was VERY slow, especially on boot up. I used Macrium Reflect 8 to clone the 1TB spinner onto the half-as-big Samsung, no sweat.

The #$%^ things goes from a 2-3 minute boot up to waiting for you in less than 20 seconds. She was very pleased and frankly I was somewhat surprised. I've done about 12 of these HDD's to Samsung SSD's and it's even better than more RAM....all have been very worth the expense to the customers.

EDIT: laptops benefit especially because of improved battery life, less CPU throttling due to lower internal temps and improved mechanical shock resistance.

I did this just today with an old HP laptop that was just too slow for anything.

It was originally Win7 that got updated to Win10 way back when and brought it to its knees.

The SSDs are so cheap now I thought hey let me try it on this old thing and if it doesn't provide the results, I can then use it for a clone for the BI computer.

Took about an hour for the clone to happen and 10 minutes for me to turn it off and unscrew the bottom and replace the drive and put back together.

Holy sh!t what an improvement.

Boot up so incredibly fast. As fast or faster than my newer machines. Everything else is fast too.

And this was with just a cheap $15 SSD. I could imagine what a Samsung would do.

I'm gonna give new life to my other old laptops that are HDD by doing the same thing.

 

[TonyR]

^^^^ THIS !!!!

 

[VorlonFrog]

I've been putting Samsung EVO SSDs into everything the last few years. 1 TB for less than $100? Great price. 500 GB for lots less? Yup, definitely.

If it's a recently-manufactured laptop, check to determine if it has an m.2 PCIe slot, and whether it's NVME-capable. m.2 sticks are super simple to install, and even faster than SATA SSD drives. If it accepts NVME, get that version. Again, Samsung EVO 970 m.2 sticks are priced very nicely.

As a further example, I didn't have any SSDs laying around, so I dropped an older WD Blue 1TB drive into a Lenovo micro system yesterday. OH MY GOSH, was it incredibly, outlandishly, unbearably SLOW.

 

[TonyR]

I've been putting Samsung EVO SSDs into everything the last few years. 1 TB for less than $100? Great price. 500 GB for lots less? Yup, definitely.

If it's a recently-manufactured laptop, check to determine if it has an m.2 PCIe slot, and whether it's NVME-capable. m.2 sticks are super simple to install, and even faster than SATA SSD drives. If it accepts NVME, get that version. Again, Samsung EVO 970 m.2 sticks are priced very nicely.

And 5 year warranties on the Samsung 2.5 inchers, likely same for the other form factors as well.
I've done 13 of the 860's and 870's and one WD Blue 500GB SSD 2.5" the last 2 years...all still smokin' along.
I log into Samsung and register each one of the SSD's.

...I dropped an older WD Blue 1TB drive into a Lenovo micro system yesterday. OH MY GOSH, was it incredibly, outlandishly, unbearably SLOW.

That's the EXACT drive I swapped out of that HP All-in-One New Years weekend........went from sloth to cheetah!

 

[wittaj]

So the old HP was easy - flip it over and two screws to a plate exactly where the drive is.

This Lenovo not so much. I have hated this thing from the beginning LOL. Shift keys are the size of regular keys so I am always typing something wrong thinking I am hitting the shift keys.

And it is slow as crap. Nobody will use it even for basic web browsing.

So I thought hey let me throw a sub $20 SSD in it and see what happens.

Flip it over and it has 12 screws and it is the whole entire bottom coming off.

Take those out and not budging. Had to YT lol. Oh gotta take the disc drive out as there are screws under than holding the bottom on.

Still couldn't get it completely off, but enough I could get screwbit in and get the HDD out.

What went from a 7 minute startup to less than 10 seconds. More what I was expecting from an i3 6th gen laptop variant.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

I just bought my 14 year old daughter a refurbished HP x360 1030 Elite Pro laptop. It has a i7, 8th gen, 16 gb of ram and a 512 m.2 drive. Can't wait to see that this thing will do. Might have to upgrade the m.2...will see first. How laptops have improved....