Can this Dell be saved? How can I keep it alive with upgrades?

[DaveM88]

I currently use my laptop as a desktop.
Dell Inspiron N4010
8gb RAM, Intel Pentium P6100 @ 2.00Ghz
USB 2.0 << my biggest problem.

BUT, apparently, my mother has this desktop and she doesn't need it anymore.

DELL Inspiron 570
AMD Sempron 140 Single-Core 2.7GHz; 2GB RAM, 500GB HD

So ... if I were to upgrade that desktop. What can be upgraded? SSD drive? More Ram? USB 3.0? please advise. Having bought an SSD, USB3 card and multiple usb 3 HDs, I'd rather put that into an old system than buy a new one.

I also was looking at a recent Dell deal where I can get for $471 the following
XPS 8900
Intel Core 6th Generation i5-6400 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.3 GHz)
1 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
8GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 4GB GDDR3
for just $471

Thoughts?

What I do on my computer?

1) Lots of web browsing with many, many tabs open (RAM killer)
2) Light Adobe software usage
3) Downloading and transferring large files to USB 3.0 flash and HD drives.
4) Some programs that would benefit from fast processor.

 

[Archaic59]

The old one is not worth spending any money on, period. The newer Dell is not a bad deal if it comes with windows installed. The GPU is a bit weak but you didn't list gaming as any priority so it's no big deal.

 

[DaveM88]

The old one is not worth spending any money on, period. The newer Dell is not a bad deal if it comes with windows installed. The GPU is a bit weak but you didn't list gaming as any priority so it's no big deal.

I appreciate your input.

Compared to my current laptop, will USB 3,0 be the biggest improvement or will the new system be faster in other things I am doing? I can always add my SSD drive to it but what else other than programs opening faster and sintalls finishing faster will I notice.

my laptop now
Dell Inspiron N4010
8gb RAM, Intel Pentium P6100 @ 2.00Ghz
USB 2.0 << my biggest problem

 

[Archaic59]

Everything (except gaming fps) will improve with an SSD. All programs and apps will load, save and operate faster. System boot is very fast too. I use only SSD's now myself and will not use a hard drive again. The new Skylake CPU's are fast and the i5 is the best way to go. USB 3 is faster but remember it is only as fast as the source you're downloading/transferring from. It can't transfer the info any faster than it's delivered if you take my meaning.

 

[DaveM88]

Everything (except gaming fps) will improve with an SSD. All programs and apps will load, save and operate faster. System boot is very fast too. I use only SSD's now myself and will not use a hard drive again. The new Skylake CPU's are fast and the i5 is the best way to go. USB 3 is faster but remember it is only as fast as the source you're downloading/transferring from. It can't transfer the info any faster than it's delivered if you take my meaning.

So ... if the only 3 things that really bother me
1) Slow USB 2.0
2) Slow DVDFab program
3) A little slow on Adobe products

for those 3 improvements I'd be spending $500. Trying to think if it's worth it for me.

By the way, my other route is what my friend is trying to sell to me
$700 = Macbook Air 13, i7-3667u, 3.2ghz, 8GB Ram, 128gb SSD

At least there I'll have a functioning laptop? That I can resell later on? Any thoughts? How much slower will it be compared to the desktop? I mean USB3.0 is there and SSD is there as well. So maybe laptop?

 

[Archaic59]

The Macbook is good quality and will be quick but has limited storage. If you can live with that then it may be a good way to go. Is the SSD the only storage on the Macbook?

 

[DaveM88]

The Macbook is good quality and will be quick but has limited storage. If you can live with that then it may be a good way to go. Is the SSD the only storage on the Macbook?

I have a 4TB WD USB 3.0 external hard drive that I can add to it. Issue solved?
thanks

 

[Archaic59]

Yes but you still don't want the SSD full or performance will take a dive. If it's 128GB I'd stop at 90GB.

 

[DaveM88]

Yes but you still don't want the SSD full or performance will take a dive. If it's 128GB I'd stop at 90GB.

Sure, I understand. Question is ... what's the cheapest way for me to get USB 3.0 and have a computer no slower than my current laptop.

my laptop now
Dell Inspiron N4010
8gb RAM, Intel Pentium P6100 @ 2.00Ghz
USB 2.0 << my biggest problem

 

[Archaic59]

After considering a new ultra low budget desktop, a refurbished desktop, a refurbished laptop I think, in my opinion, that a brand new, low budget laptop may be the best solution. It will have everything needed including a warranty. If you shop around you should be able to get an Intel cpu, possibly a core i5 with integrated graphics, for a good price. Any laptop with a discreet GPU will jump in price a lot. Perhaps a laptop that has been on market for a year or so and is soon to be discontinued, could be had fore a good price. I checked into upgrading your old laptop but that seems to be a dead end. I don't feel like I've been much help but if you have any more questions please ask.

 

[DaveM88]

After considering a new ultra low budget desktop, a refurbished desktop, a refurbished laptop I think, in my opinion, that a brand new, low budget laptop may be the best solution. It will have everything needed including a warranty. If you shop around you should be able to get an Intel cpu, possibly a core i5 with integrated graphics, for a good price. Any laptop with a discreet GPU will jump in price a lot. Perhaps a laptop that has been on market for a year or so and is soon to be discontinued, could be had fore a good price. I checked into upgrading your old laptop but that seems to be a dead end. I don't feel like I've been much help but if you have any more questions please ask.

I really appreciate your comments.
For me now the thinking is ... I have USB3 card that I can place into any USB2 desktop. I have an SSD drive that I can place into a desktop. I just need a desktop that can handle 8gb ram. That's where my old desktop falls short. Other than that, everything else in terms of speed was fine for me. So, can my mother's desktop work out in this situation>?

she has
DELL Inspiron 570
AMD Sempron 140 Single-Core 2.7GHz; 2GB RAM, 500GB HD

if I can upgrade it to 8gb ram and add SSD drive to it and if it's USB2 I can replace it with USB3 card ... will it be a faster system compared to my current laptop.

Dell Inspiron N4010
8gb RAM, Intel Pentium P6100 @ 2.00Ghz
USB 2.0 << my biggest problem.

 

[Archaic59]

• 
  ■According to what I've found, the 570 has a memory capacity of 8GB with a max of 2GB per module with 4 slots total, but you must have 64bit operating system for that. If you have 32bit windows it's limited to 4GB total. Memory used is DDR3 1066MHz. Non ECC. While you can find memory that fits, new modules may not play well with existing modules. There's no guarantee and an upgrade may require completely replacing existing modules.
  
  ■It has a single PCIe X1 slot (the short slot) with 1000 MB/s (bi-directional) Bus speed, that should handle a USB 3.0 expansion card no problem.
  ■The board should have 4 SATA ports, with 2 of them being in use currently, so you should be able to add an SSD. I didn't see a specification listing if they were SATA II or III.
  ■Proprietary systems can be finicky and uncooperative when it comes to upgrades, so I can't guarantee it will accept your new parts. Hopefully you have a 64bit version of windows 7 installed on this Dell. I hope this helps some. I left links to references I used for you.

ref- http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-570/manuals
ref- http://tinyurl.com/jqdb9gv
ref- http://tinyurl.com/jl4566w
ref- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0

 

[DaveM88]

Alright ... I'll finally make up my mind and this is going to be my last question that I hope will point me into the right direction as I have no one else to ask.

I don't do any sort of crazy tasks that require latest and greatest. I feel sad (cheap) spending $500 or even $300 just because I am longing for a USB 3.0

I have a desktop that is Dell Inspiron 530. I already placed a SSD drive on it (95% full ... this may be one of my problems in speed) and upgraded to USB 3.0. I also only have 4gb RAM on it. System is running on 32bit.

Can I upgrade that desktop to 8gb RAM and 64bit? Because right now, probably because it's on the 32 bit system, it doesn't even utilize those 4 gb ram I have in it. Only uses 3.2gb or something.

Thanks!

 

[Archaic59]

It appears a 530 user was able to install win 8 64 bit-

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3524/t/19472565

Trying to find memory capacity for the G33M03 mainboard. So far all I found is that it uses DDR2.

ref- http://tinyurl.com/zfzz6b7

 

[DaveM88]

Should I just get this?

$199

Inspiron 3847, Windows 7 Professional English 64bit (Includes Windows 10 Pro License)
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i3-4170 Processor (3M Cache, 3.70 GHz)
4GB Single Channel DDR3 1600MHz (4GBx1) - I'll upgrade to 16gb
500GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive - don't care about this. I have external HD and SSD drive
Intel® HD Graphics

OR

$499 (hate to pay so much only because I am missing USB 3, BUT, maybe for faster program running, launching, and faster Adobe lightroom usage...)

DELL XPS 8900 i5-6400 8GB RAM 1TB HDD DVD-RW NVIDIA GT 730 WINDOWS 10
Intel 6th Generation Core i5-6400 Processor 2.7GHz/4 Cores/4 Threads/Max Turbo 3.3GHz
8GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz RAM
1TB SATA 7200rpm Hard Drive

 

[Archaic59]

• 
  ■The Haswell i3-4170 is a d@mn good little cpu and has single core performance that tops a huge number of processors. 4GB memory will hold it back some.
  ■The Skylake i5-6400 is new. It would likely be the best for a pc that will move forward with you to take advantage of future tech upgrades.
  ■Best deal is the i3 you listed. It's a steal with a windows license included.

 

[DaveM88]

• 
  ■The Haswell i3-4170 is a d@mn good little cpu and has single core performance that tops a huge number of processors. 4GB memory will hold it back some.
  ■The Skylake i5-6400 is new. It would likely be the best for a pc that will move forward with you to take advantage of future tech upgrades.
  ■Best deal is the i3 you listed. It's a steal with a windows license included.

I can always upgrade 4gb to 16gb on that machine right?

My biggest pain point is USB 3.0 as well as somewhat slow photo viewing/lightroom. So, will the new system get rid of all the lag? Especially if I install a 1tb SD drive like this one
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1460813502&sr=1-1&keywords=ssd+drive&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A6158693011%2Cp_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A6797519011


My biggest pain point is
1) Slow USB 2.0
2) Viewing photos (avg 15mb size)
3) Somewhat slow Adobe lightroom
4) Want DVDFab to work faster
5) Usually have 20+ Chrome browser tabs open (after I upgraded my laptop to 8gb ram, seems like almost not a problem)

and I rarely restart my computer.

So, if this $199 PC solves my above mentioned problems, I am a happy camper.

 

[Archaic59]

The SSD will help load/save files much faster and the Samsung EVO is one of the best. The USB 3.0 will only be held back by the speed of the source drive the data is coming from as I said before. Yes, you can upgrade the memory.

 

[DaveM88]

and if I decided to go with XPS8900 .... should I go for i7 or i5? based on my needs? I do plan to use SSD drive and keep whatever drive it comes with inside the machine for backup files.

 

[Archaic59]

and if I decided to go with XPS8900 .... should I go for i7 or i5? based on my needs? I do plan to use SSD drive and keep whatever drive it comes with inside the machine for backup files.

Review your specific software to see if it can take advantage of Intel hyper threading. If so then the i7 will be faster. In either case, the i5 will still work well even if it takes a few seconds longer for calculations. You'll want the operating system on the SSD and important programs. Use the hard drive for lesser apps and bulk storage.