AOKost

@haghighi Thank you so much for your help and suggestions! It has been a few years since I installed Ubuntu, and I have been thinking about going back to Windows as I'm not a great Linux user, and for sure not a "power user" lol It sounds to me like a HD upgrade to a SSD and a fresh OS install will do a world of wonder. I already have the 8 gigs of Ram from the factory, so I doubt it'll do me any good to try to replace or upgrade.

I have an "old" Inspiron-5749 with an i7, and it's starting to 'slow down'. The screen is still in great condition, even if some of the rest of the computer has seen better days. For example, it takes me, on a fresh reboot, ~12 - 15 minutes to load Stellaris (a game), let alone load a game to start playing... Granted, I am using quite a few mods... What I'm hoping to glean from this discussion is if it's possible, and worth while to even try to upgrade anything about this laptop. I know that I can change out the Ram, and HD, and a new motherboard will likely run about $150 US, not including new Ram and potential new HD. I'd also like to get a new keyboard, but that can definitely wait.