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Ages ago I purchased a Lenovo e545 which was never fit for the purpose of running windows as it is so slow it hangs constantly. Now I’d like to use it as a NAS controller is there anything I can do cheaply and easily e.g. New processor or memory to make it work or best to Chuck it in the bin?
If the bin what cheap basic desktop recommended? (I have a monitor already). I say desktop as I assume this will be cheaper than a laptop option but not too fussed.
Watching as in the same boat with a crappy old Dell optiplex. Also have a monitor, keyboard etc but would be happy with a laptop. Kids want something capable of playing Minecraft, otherwise just want something reliable and not too slow
Check the specs. Windows 10 generally runs nicely with 8 GB RAM and an SSD. A normal hard disk will slow it down massively on start up and loading programs. Upgrading to an SSD isn't very expensive and will make a huge improvement.
Download the latest release of Windows 10 and make a bootable USB drive. You can do that from this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d
If it's still running Win7 or 8, do an upgrade installation first. This will register the hardware and you won't need to enter a serial number. After that, you can reinstall Win10 without needing to enter a serial number.
Once you've done that and checked that you have drivers for Win10, do a fresh installation. This will remove any crapware that Lenovo installed. With an SSD and a fresh Win10 installation, it will almost certainly be massively faster.
Also, vacuum out any dust and crud from the fans. If they're blocked up with dust, the processor will be constantly being throttled to stop it cooking itself.
Check the specs. Windows 10 generally runs nicely with 8 GB RAM and an SSD. A normal hard disk will slow it down massively on start up and loading programs. Upgrading to an SSD isn’t very expensive and will make a huge improvement.
Just done that to an unusable 5yr old Dell for a friend's mum and the machine is now just fine. 120eur for a 1TB ssd, crazy price.
What model Optiplex? I got a used 3040 with an i3-6100 a couple of years ago mainly for work stuff and chucking a cheap (I already had it kicking round from another computer, pre-covid) GT 1030 DDR5 woke it up to the point it'll still play new-ish games at a decent clip.
Thanks thols I have a AMD A8-5500M and 4GB ram. So sounds like I need to change the ram and the hhd. Before I do is the cpu worth throwing money at?
Apologies for the hijack @muddyjames
@kayla1 - it's a 380 but I upgraded the RAM from 4gb to 8gb a few years ago, recall that is the limit for it
Similarly to the OP I was also looking at a CPU upgrade a few years back but decided I didn't want to throw good money after bad. Also running Opera but that often throws up compatibility issues with some Microsoft docs so guess I also need to buy an Office package?
As you can probably tell I don't know too much about computers, is the graphics card likely to be up to much? I'm happy to spend a few quid to avoid more landfill but want to understand what I need to buy to make it worthwhile, think I need;
SSD
Windows 10
Office 365
Possibly;
CPU upgrade?
Graphics card upgrade?
Just done that to an unusable 5yr old Dell for a friend’s mum and the machine is now just fine. 120eur for a 1TB ssd, crazy price.
No need for that size of ssd on that machine. I have that for gaming but the OS is on an older 256gb ssd. 128 is my normal go-to though its sometimes not much difference in price, keep the old drive for storage and you're sorted.
I have a AMD A8-5500M and 4GB ram. So sounds like I need to change the ram and the hhd. Before I do is the cpu worth throwing money at?
If it's just being used to run a NAS, I think it will be fine (assuming it's just serving media files to something else, not having to transcode them). I'm not much up on AMD chips, but a quick Google suggests it's similar in performance to an Intel Core i3-2310M. That's a fairly old CPU, but should still run Win10 perfectly well with an SSD and enough RAM.
SSDs aren't massively expensive so I would try putting one in and seeing how it runs, before deciding on upgrading RAM. Just make sure you double check the connection type you need before you buy, there are different interfaces that are not compatible.
The first result I came up with on Amazon was £66.99 for a 500 GB Samsung SSD. With a bit of searching, you'll probably be able to do better than a first random hit.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Factor-Intelligent-Magician-Software/dp/B08PC43D78/
Sorry for the hijack OP!
I had a quick search for 380s on ebay and it looks like they're a Pentium dual core with no graphics card- does that sound about right?
If it’s still running Win7 or 8, do an upgrade installation first. This will register the hardware and you won’t need to enter a serial number.
This isn't necessary. If you're running W8.1 it's already activated, you can just flatten it and install W10. If you're still on W7 and have the key - likely an OEM sticker on the box - then again you can flatten it and just use the W7 key to install W10.
At 4GB I'd fit the SSD before throwing money at RAM. 8GB is obviously better but for a glorified file server you might not need it.
The upgrade installation lets you check that you have drivers for all the hardware, you can roll it back if you run into problems. If you have the Win7 serial number, you can install with that but you need to check that you have that before you start. If you don't have it, you have to do an upgrade first.
No need for that size of ssd on that machine. I have that for gaming but the OS is on an older 256gb ssd
You are completely correct, but because of the partitions the smallest I could easily copy the existing system onto was a 512 without significant messing around and a 1TB was only 20eur more and I could then sling both drives into by drive cloner and be done an hour later with no work, stress or risk of messing up. I'm lazy 🙂
Its a laptop you can't change the CPU and ram isn't cheap. I wouldn't waste money on it.
Having worked with Lenovo machines (laptops) they are hard to upgrade due to most parts being hard soldered on. Working on an HP was in comparison a dream.
If you want to run it as a NAS then a Linux variant would be a much better OS and run fine on any old thing.
FreeNAS (now TrueNAS) and Unraid are or used to be the main ones.
I have a 256gb USB drive. presumably the connection will be too slow to bother to try and use that as my drive to boot/run the os from.
You are completely correct, but because of the partitions the smallest I could easily copy the existing system onto was a 512 without significant messing around and a 1TB was only 20eur more and I could then sling both drives into by drive cloner and be done an hour later with no work, stress or risk of messing up. I’m lazy 🙂
Valid reason if you need to clone but with a fresh install and a small amount of effort you can get by with a 120GB drive. Of course if you're lazy then we won't over stress the E word 😉
The first result I came up with on Amazon was £66.99 for a 500 GB Samsung SSD. With a bit of searching, you’ll probably be able to do better than a first random hit.
Pcpartpicker is far more useful
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/#t=0&f=3&sort=price&page=1
Cheapest 120 is £17, you can filter to higher capacities if you like. I've done well with Crucial BX and Kingston A400 in the past, I usually go with something with a solid reputation. Samsung are excellent but more performance oriented and spendy than is necessary here.
Older laptops can be sped up very easily with a bit of work. Lenovos are great machines so i would put some time and money into this.
Crucial MX500 250GB ~£28
Extra 4gb stick of ddr3 sodimm ram, used on ebay ~£8 ....you can have up to 16GB, so two 8gb sticks if you want to go all out.
You can remove your dvd drive because no one uses that anymore and buy a hdd caddy that fits where the dvd tray went. They use the same connectors and will allow you to use the old HDD as file storage. ~£6
And finally a tube of thermal paste to refresh the old stuff as it will be useless now. ARCTIC MX-4 ~£5 Just watch videos on how to apply it.
Laptop will be perfect for browsing
Alternatively buy something like a dell latitude with a 7th gen intel for about £200 on ebay. Be mint.
If you want to run it as a NAS then a Linux variant would be a much better OS and run fine on any old thing.
FreeNAS (now TrueNAS) and Unraid are or used to be the main ones.
I’m no PC expert but I watched a YouTube video on this sort of thing and it looked pretty easy.
If running Linux how do you handle security from the www?
I suspect windows probably less secure but has nice little pop up bubbles telling you how it is keeping the baddies out!
No blue iris for Linux. Time for a new machine I think.
Valid reason if you need to clone but with a fresh install and a small amount of effort you can get by with a 120GB drive. Of course if you’re lazy then we won’t over stress the E word 😉
Not my machine. I've got everything backed up and would have just flattened it - much faster, much nicer. This was someone with installed programs, no idea of install codes and no backups. Been there, not doing that again
Oh.
Well that's not laziness, that's just wearing a seat belt and nomex suit as you hurtle full speed into a dumpster fire.
😀
And finally a tube of thermal paste to refresh the old stuff as it will be useless now.
Only relevant if there is a removable heatsink, but I was shocked at how big a difference this made to my desktop machine. Dropped the CPU temps by about 30 degrees.
You'd be surprised. Pretty much every laptop has a copper heatpipe attached onto a fan which is screwed onto the cpu. Very easy to unscrew and replace in most cases. In the OP's case I believe the cpu is located under an access panel. I've done it with every laptop I have owned, makes a big differenece and is ofen overlooked.
makes a big differenece and is ofen overlooked.
yes, I was staggered at the difference it made to my desktop. I'd seen this advice for 20 years and ignored it thinking it would just be a minor thing. Seeing the effect with my own eyes was an ..... ummm... eye opener.
Does refreshing the goo help with an overunning fan problem?
Does refreshing the goo help with an overunning fan problem?
It helped massively for mine.
If the CPU is too hot, its fan will run high.
It the thermal paste is shot then the CPU will run hot.
Several other things will also cause the fan to run hot. Blocked air intakes / outlets is another prime culprit.
Hoovering a box out is one of my first job when sorting out someone's pc. Only ever messed with the goo when building though. Didn't think it would fail over time. Got a small screen i3 8gb laptop that I ssd'd with Linux recently for garage duty. It's running on the hot side so I'll get a tube of goo for it. Definitely not the software as a fresh install off mint has it running cool with no fan. Start to do anything meaningful and the heat never drops below 50odd.
Laptop tend to run hotter than their dekstop counterparts. 50c doesn't sound bad under load at all. Never harms to put some fresh thermal paste on though.
Depends entirely on the CPU but yeah, that sounds a reasonable figure.
Thermal paste dries out. You definitely want to replace it when changing CPUs. As ongoing maintenance not so much, but I'd do it if I suspected an overheating issue.
As in it never drops back below something like 52 after tasks have finished. I've nothing open and just sitting at the desktop. I'd expect low 40s in that situation.
No blue iris for Linux. Time for a new machine I think.
Should be a suitable alternative if that's your main use case.
Internet security will be handled by the OS just the same. Windows doesn't generally make for a very good NAS but W10 may have suitable mods available to make it more suitable.
If buying a new machine why not get a dedicated NAS - Synology has its own CCTV solution.