Solution for 6th gen i3 4gig laptop on Windows 10?

[Sashank99]

I have an exam coming up and I use a 6th gen or laptop with 4gig ram and 1tb HDD not even 7200rpm. As windows 10 was the os it came with I used it, despite its heavy load on the hardware. But as I kept using it sometimes it would frustrate me in the middle of work for how long it takes to open up .jpegs or .PDFs. Don't even mention chrome's performance. I knew that the problem was mostly down to my HDD, but my current lack of resources (both time and funds) stopped me from getting a ssd. 

So obviously I dual booted Linux. First lubuntu, then Ubuntu. I thought at least Ubuntu wouldn't let me down with driver issues and reliability, but alas it did. So I considered windows 7, but as windows 10 is preloaded and came with a key I didn't meddle with it. But now it's making me angry with all of this friction and my sanity is being challenged. 

 

Please help.

[kb5zue]

At this point in time, sounds like you have it loaded down with a lot of unnecessary stuff.  Might want to consider backing up your files and do a clean, fresh install of Windows.

[Cyracus]

without spending money, defragging the drive may give small improvements, but a 5400rpm hard drive is always gonna be slow, make sure there's as little bloatware as possible because 4gb ram doesn't stretch very far these days, and page file swapping on a 5400 rpm drive is horribly slow. I'd suggest getting a ssd, and an extra 4gb ram in there if possible in that order, the ssd will be much snappier, and page file on an ssd isn't so dreadful (there are some good 500gb ssds in the $60-70 range if you can scrape that up) 

[manikyath]

5400rpm drive is most likely the very notable bottleneck here.. beyond that the thing checks out fine enough for office work.

[Sashank99]

1 hour ago, kb5zue said:

At this point in time, sounds like you have it loaded down with a lot of unnecessary stuff.  Might want to consider backing up your files and do a clean, fresh install of Windows.

Thought of doing that, but I don't have any unnecessary files and C is free with about 800gigs. Hardly any softwares also.

[Sashank99]

47 minutes ago, manikyath said:

5400rpm drive is most likely the very notable bottleneck here.. beyond that the thing checks out fine enough for office work.

I know but simple office work is getting frustrating. I should mention that it is not lagging or anything, just file swapping and responsiveness is not swift enough.

[Sashank99]

1 hour ago, Cyracus said:

without spending money, defragging the drive may give small improvements, but a 5400rpm hard drive is always gonna be slow, make sure there's as little bloatware as possible because 4gb ram doesn't stretch very far these days, and page file swapping on a 5400 rpm drive is horribly slow. I'd suggest getting a ssd, and an extra 4gb ram in there if possible in that order, the ssd will be much snappier, and page file on an ssd isn't so dreadful (there are some good 500gb ssds in the $60-70 range if you can scrape that up) 

That is the last resort. But can you suggest any tweaks for Windows or suggest a Linux distribution that is stable and lightweight enough? How about Neverware's cloudready or Hackintosh? Really what I am looking for is a method to get by in this hardware for a few weeks.

[Cyracus]

3 minutes ago, Sashank99 said:

That is the last resort. But can you suggest any tweaks for Windows or suggest a Linux distribution that is stable and lightweight enough? How about Neverware's cloudready or Hackintosh? Really what I am looking for is a method to get by in this hardware for a few weeks.

My apologies, I don't have a solution for you. You might look for a busted laptop with compatible ram for cheap/free, at least relieve that problem, that's the best I can come up with.

[Underi]

I have a laptop with 7th gen i3 with only Ubuntu installed and it's working perfectly for me. I use it for school work, so mostly LibreOffice and a little bit of CAD and I haven't seen any issues. I've added an extra 4GB of ram and a 30€ M.2 SSD which the OS is installed on, but it only makes it slightly faster. Currently sitting at 3GB RAM usage with multiple tabs on firefox, steam, thunderbird and discord open. If you want programs to open fast etc. you really need an SSD and maybe a bit more RAM. 120GB drives should be pretty cheap by now and they work fine, especially if you have that 1TB HDD alongside with it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-SU800-M-2-128GB-ASU800NS38-128GT-C/dp/B01M9K0N8I/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=m.2+ssd+120gb&qid=1550917143&s=gateway&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-120GB-Solid-SA400S37-120G/dp/B01N6JQS8C/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=sata+ssd+120gb&qid=1550917162&s=gateway&sr=8-3

[Sashank99]

1 hour ago, Underi said:

I have a laptop with 7th gen i3 with only Ubuntu installed and it's working perfectly for me. I use it for school work, so mostly LibreOffice and a little bit of CAD and I haven't seen any issues. I've added an extra 4GB of ram and a 30€ M.2 SSD which the OS is installed on, but it only makes it slightly faster. Currently sitting at 3GB RAM usage with multiple tabs on firefox, steam, thunderbird and discord open. If you want programs to open fast etc. you really need an SSD and maybe a bit more RAM. 120GB drives should be pretty cheap by now and they work fine, especially if you have that 1TB HDD alongside with it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-SU800-M-2-128GB-ASU800NS38-128GT-C/dp/B01M9K0N8I/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=m.2+ssd+120gb&qid=1550917143&s=gateway&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-120GB-Solid-SA400S37-120G/dp/B01N6JQS8C/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=sata+ssd+120gb&qid=1550917162&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Its very relieving to hear that for someone ubuntu is working fine for daily usage. From my experience, I first used lubuntu which gave me driver issues, so I thought Ubuntu would solve that problem but one day when the keyboard stopped, I just had it. I deleted everything and removed the dual boot. But hearing from you using only ubuntu not only I am considering reinstalling it again but I want to clap for your bravery. Thanks for the help.

[homeap5]

Want it faster? Uninstall AV software.