Can This USB Stick Resurrect Your Old PC?

[Emily Young]

Prairie IT claims their Xtra-PC is the solution to making old and slow PCs run like new again - But could it really work?

 

 

Buy an Xtra-PC Turbo 32:
On Amazon: https://geni.us/rGvrd
From Xtra-PC: https://lmg.gg/8KVwv

 

Buy an Xtra-PC Pro:
On Amazon: https://geni.us/rslztg
From Xtra-PC: https://lmg.gg/8KVwv

[LukeSavenije]

 

[Fasauceome]

Took you guys long enough

 

 

[TempestCatto]

So it's just a live Linux USB. Like I used to use on my old schools shitty macbooks. Man. I built mine for like, 10 bucks. Plus it doesn't even do anything to your computer, like deleting bloatware or something. What a sham.

 

Also those "was" prices are a sham too. It's a marketing ploy to make you think you're getting a deal, when you're really not. It's been a thing since the dawn of the first retail stores.

[kuhnertdm]

TL;DW: It's a lightweight brand-skinned Lubuntu install on a USB stick, designed to be as dead simple and grandma-friendly as possible. Uses the USB drive as the hard drive. More expensive version has more storage capacity, USB3 (which may or may not be relevant if the PC is that old), and built-in software to pull files off of the original hard drive onto the USB drive (works surprisingly well). You could potentially get a better result by making your own bootable Linux USB (and they do that in the video). This would also be waaaay cheaper ($10 vs $80 for the more expensive version of this product). Of course, this takes more time to do than just buying this product that works out of the box.

 

The benefit is that you're using a much more lightweight OS, so you have less bloat that causes slowdown. You are still primarily limited by the hardware of the PC.

[TempestCatto]

3 minutes ago, kuhnertdm said:

TL;DW: It's a lightweight brand-skinned Lubuntu install on a USB stick, designed to be as dead simple and grandma-friendly as possible. Uses the USB drive as the hard drive. More expensive version has more storage capacity, USB3 (which may or may not be relevant if the PC is that old), and built-in software to pull files off of the original hard drive onto the USB drive (works surprisingly well). You could potentially get a better result by making your own bootable Linux USB (and they do that in the video). This would also be waaaay cheaper ($10 vs $80 for the more expensive version of this product). Of course, this takes more time to do than just buying this product that works out of the box.

 

The benefit is that you're using a much more lightweight OS, so you have less bloat that causes slowdown. You are still primarily limited by the hardware of the PC.

Damn bro. May as well let Linus retire and forget even making videos anymore. Just post a status update everyday and booom. Instant profit.

 

I kid.

 

But I don't think it's so hard to setup a live USB though. I mean, it took me longer to be driven to Walmart and back then it did for me to make it. I also don't know how much I'd trust my own grandparents, as much as I love them, with an OS like Linux. 

[Budjet Tech]

it should take less then an 1 h to make a bootable usb, and manjaro is not good for beginners.

[Emily Young]

8 minutes ago, Budjet Tech said:

it should take less then an 1 h to make a bootable usb, and manjaro is not good for beginners.

I'm not sure I agree with Manjaro not being good for beginners based on my experiences with it so far, but the reason why it took so long was because I actually installed it to the USB stick, rather than running a live environment. Just creating a bootable USB would have resulted in losing any changes made to the live environment. You can make one with persistence using Linux Live USB, but that's limited to 4 GB, and furthermore doesn't enable core system updates. The environment Xtra-PC was running was set up the same way I set up Manjaro.

[aezakmi]

now that's a real scam

[kuhnertdm]

54 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

Damn bro. May as well let Linus retire and forget even making videos anymore. Just post a status update everyday and booom. Instant profit.

Nah, can't get the ad reads in that way

[TempestCatto]

1 minute ago, kuhnertdm said:

Nah, can't get the ad reads in that way

I always hit "L" to skip the 10 second ad reads. Plus, you'd just have ads on the site anyway.

[TechyBen]

59 minutes ago, GabenJr said:

I'm not sure I agree with Manjaro not being good for beginners based on my experiences with it so far, but the reason why it took so long was because I actually installed it to the USB stick, rather than running a live environment. Just creating a bootable USB would have resulted in losing any changes made to the live environment. You can make one with persistence using Linux Live USB, but that's limited to 4 GB, and furthermore doesn't enable core system updates. The environment Xtra-PC was running was set up the same way I set up Manjaro.

Oh. Interesting. I tried a persistent USB boot drive, but as you said, hit the same limits you did. Not tried a proper install. Back in the day I was wondering about super super small builds, using USB 3.0 stick storage only. XD But now drives are that small anyhow.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

charging money for linux... a lot of money in fact. what an awful product. i can't believe Linus actually thought that price was ok. 

 

look if you don't know how to make a bootable usb or dvd that's fine. just buy a normal install disk and ask someone knowledgable about linux to install it or look up a guide (cough like my guides cough)

 

like seriously, you can get an install disk for ubuntu for much less than that stupid usb stick. 

(the page looks a bit weird because i had dark reader on but you get the point)

[rcorkum]

linus are so so wrong on this. where to start? hard to make a linux usb stick

 

yumi

rufus

unetbootin

there are more distro's out and modified distro's than you can shake a stick at check out distrowatch.

 

and to pay for linux? it used to cost in the day we were on dialup 1200 or so and you paid for the media or shipping but it's so fast now.

 

selling this is a bloody sin in my book.

 

if anyone in my city needed help like this I'd wave my normal 25 I'll look at it fee. I implemented that to stop friends and family (don't drink or smoke) mooching. mind you if I can repair it in say 30 or so once I look at it that fee is including fixing it. that way my time doesn't get wasted (have a lot of repeat customers or did till my health sort of stopped me.

 

but to me this is just gouging so anyone know a source of really cheap say 16 or 32 gig sticks. we should do this on reddit/r/linux or such and just work it as a crowd and sell the damn thing for cost.

[an actual squirrel]

I have some experience using a really old pc for basic browsing. What I found was that the edge browser, on windows 10, actually has really good hardware acceleration with nvidia dx10 cards, and the experience isn't too bad. Whereas with chrome, it is horrendous.

 

[Razor Blade]

I have not personally seen the ads for the featured product. However from description in the video, it is just a predatory product designed to take advantage of the tech illiterate. Because for the cost of a USB stick, you too can have an "Xtra-PC"

 

My question is though... what if Grandma isn't able to boot from USB without a boot priority change? Maybe she could just google it and a Microsoft certified tech could remote into her PC to remove the hackers causing the problem for a lifetime subscription fee of $599?

 

I am incredibly curious exactly how that little USB stick is configured... Does it have a Cron job to auto update? Does Grandma have root privileges? Can the Grandson/Granddaughter configure the USB stick so as not to grant Grandma ultimate power to destroy her computer again?

 

Properly locked down, Linux is GREAT for Grandma. Even if it were Debin based... I would much rather get the call of "I can't install this because it keeps asking for a password"

 

than the call "I already paid the man from Microsoft but now my computer is asking for a password when I turn it on"

[KeKi]

8 hours ago, GabenJr said:

Prairie IT claims their Xtra-PC is the solution to making old and slow PCs run like new again - But could it really work?

 

 

Buy an Xtra-PC Turbo 32:
On Amazon: https://geni.us/rGvrd
From Xtra-PC: https://lmg.gg/8KVwv

 

Buy an Xtra-PC Pro:
On Amazon: https://geni.us/rslztg
From Xtra-PC: https://lmg.gg/8KVwv

First, booting any os on a usb stick of course going to be slow.

Second, creating bootable take way less time aside from the download time which depends on your internet speed.

Third, linux free of charge and you can use lubuntu for a fast perfomance and easy to use ui like windows.

[Guest]

@drinklime uncle have you bought a couple of these a few days ago I told you should wait until Christmas for a new computer

[ahuckphin]

The real solution is with Windows 8.1 

[Loote]

From my experience with USB Drives, you're going to lose that data sooner than later, which is why I would not recommend this idea.

The price is for their tweaks to the OS, which could be fair if they went further with it. There would be recommended settings for browsers, media players etc. depending on your PC's power, but there's no one size fits all. If they had a growing base of configs, for example youtube plays 720p mp4 instead of stuttering vp9 1080p, that's a tweak I'd pay for not doing myself, however, looking at the 'discounts' at their site, I am certain you get nothing of that sort.

 

This would do wonders for someone with 2nd gen i-7 and a bitcoin miner though ;] If this had and option to replace your current OS(migrating data, with SMART control and quick disk test at least before that), now that's quite useful.

[Glorious]

For me, the Linux OS that has actually made a very slow computer run fast again was Slitaz Linux. The last time I used it the ISO file was only 50mb in size and it could run YouTube no problem. 

[CodeNova]

So... what if grandmas PC doesn't support USB booting?

 

[Master Delta Chief]

This isn't worth the money for those who are tech illiterate. Not only is it overpriced, but it doesn't technically make your computer speed-up like before (as it's kinda mentioned in the vid), in fact I would say in certain circumstances it would be slower due to the speed that the usb-stick supports. The only proper way to revive your old computer (something that has been mentioned so many times by now), is to use an SSD and if possible, upgrade the rest of the computer.

 

Of course those who are tech illiterate can't do this, so they'd have to either ask a friend, family member or another known individual to sort that out. At the end, for the long term, it's worth much more to do an upgrade rather than the simple usb-stick that's being sold by them.

[Glorious]

3 hours ago, CodeNova said:

So... what if grandmas PC doesn't support USB booting?

 

Get a new grandma. Simple. 

[CodeNova]

1 minute ago, Glorious said:

Get a new grandma. Simple. 

I can't, they are out of stock (GRANDMA'S R US)