[ale] upgrading desktop

[Bob]

Hi Steve,


On 2020-07-30 5:31 p.m., Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:16:13 -0400
> Bob via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>>
>> 1)  Memory.  Currently, there are  two 4 GB ddr3 1600 memory modules
>> in the two memory slots.
> 
> 8GB is enough in 2020, and installing 16 would require you remove
> (waste) the 8GB you have now. The computer's 8 years old: You can't
> make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I'd recommend against a memory
> upgrade unless it were less than $100 and sure to work.

You, Jim, and J.D. all agree on that, so I won't waste my money getting 
more memory.


> 
> 
>>
>> 2)  ssd.  This seems more complicated.
>>
>> There are 4 empty pci express slots---one is x16 and the others x1.
>> I do not believe that the motherboard supports pcie ssd.  The
>> motherboard does not have mSATA or m.2 slots.  So pcie ssd seems to
>> be impossible. (I don't know what I'd ever use these slots for.)
>>
>> The chipset on the motherboard only supports SATA at 3.0 gb/s.
> 
> That's a shame, as it might bottleneck your speedy new SSD. I'd
> recommend you get a dirt cheap (under $50) 256GB SSD, plug it into your
> 3gb/s SATA, and see if it improves speeds. If not, later, at your
> leisure, you can purchase a gb/s pcie SATA slot.

I think I'd have to get a new motherboard.

> 
>> There
>> are 3 SATA ports and one e-SATA port.  (There has been no update to
>> the bios/uefi firmware.)
>>
>> One SATA port is connected to the optical drive, and the other two
>> SATA ports are connected to the two 1TB HDDs Both drives have plenty
>> of free space.
> 
> "Plenty" is a relative term. If you can move the data from one to the
> other, and have the moved-to drive still have "plenty" of room, do that
> and then plug in the SSD into the evacuated SATA port.

I think I should be able to do that.

> 
> If putting all the data on one "spinning rust" drives makes things
> tight, I'd recommend buying a big, honking, high quality drive like the
> following:
> 
> https://www.newegg.com/gold-wd6002fryz-6tb/p/N82E16822235058
> 
> You can justify that $230 you spend because you can use this drive in
> your next computer, and probably the one after that. It's 7200 RPM for
> faster access. You can get a 4TB version for $140 if that's more suited
> to your budget. Please remember that with either of these drives,
> you'll need to format it GUID in order to get full space. I'm pretty
> sure an 8 year old computer can deal with GUID formatted disks, but
> make sure.
> 
> Don't worry about whether your computer can handle the UEFI boot that
> goes hand in hand with GUID formatting, because your boot drive will be
> the SSD, partitioned as the root drive (/). You can mount /home and
> other things that do heavy writing from the huge spinning rust drive.

I am currently using UEFI boot, so I'm assuming that shouldn't be a problem.


> 
> An 8 year old computer with 8GB of RAM should be very efficient for you
> the next one to four years if you use a lightweight window manager
> (OpenBox, IceWM, WindowMaker, jwm and the like) and go light on your
> use of piggy browsers like Firefox and Chromium.

I have to get better about keeping the number of tabs down in the broswer.

I'll keep the current window manager for one reason.  My mom is using 
linux mint with the cinnamon desktop.  On the rare occasions when she 
calls with a problem with her computer, it's a lot easier to help if I'm 
using the same system here.


> 
> Don't forget to use fstrim on your SSD (fstrim /) at least once a week
> to keep the SSD running smoothly.

Will do.

> 
> The desktop on which I'm writing this is similar to yours: 6 years old,
> dual core, 16GB RAM, root partition on the SSD with almost everything
> else mounted from spinning rust, an OpenBox window manager enhanced
> with Suckless Tools dmenu software (Free Software). If it weren't for
> today's bloaty browsers, I could keep using this computer for another 5
> to 10 years before noticing that it slows me down. I think the real
> trick is to close browser tabs the second you're done with them: Don't
> let them accumulate.

I need to get better about having fewer tabs open in the browser.

Thanks!

--Bob

> 
> SteveT
> 
> Steve Litt
> May 2020 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques
>       of the Successful Technologist
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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