An old Acer ultrabook - worth servicing?

[just_dave]

Hi,

I don't have a laptop for school stuff and I needed one, my dad gave me his old Acer Aspire S3 951 2465G34iss but it needs some service, is it worth it?. The laptop is in a very good outside condition, but that's where it ends. The battery is dead (20-30 min on a MS Teams call tops) and it is super slow. My idea was to buy a new battery (50 euro), 250 gb SSD (40 euro) and swap the RAM (I have an 8GB stick at home), also convert the power port to USB-C charging.

The specs are:

*Model: S3-951-2464G34iss
Intel® Core™ i5-2467M (3M Cache, 1.60 GHz)
13.3" HD (1366 x 768) LED displej - CrystalBrite
Intel® UM67 Express Chipset
 Intel® HD Graphics 3000
802.11b/g/Draft-N WLAN, Bluetooth® 4.0
1.3MP HD CrystalEye, 2-in-1 card (SD™, MMC), 2x USB 2.0, 1xHDMI , 1x jack
36.4 Wh 3280 mAh 3-cell Li-polymer,
 

Is it good enough for some basic Python programming, Office and content consumption?

I also considered buying a new Wifi card that supports 5 GHz networking

Thanks!

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

11 minutes ago, just_dave said:

-snip-

For basic content consumption and Python programming, that machine will do rather well after the upgrades you've mentioned. So I would say, why not. Anything you'll find on the used market for that price would be relatively similar (minus the SSD). I would be hesitant to swap out the WiFi card since I know some manufacturers love to lock out cards that are not factory. Lenovo used to do this where if you replaced the stock WiFi card, it would not even allow you to boot into any device. Though I am surprised something that new is still using Draft-N WiFi... 

[just_dave]

1 hour ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

For basic content consumption and Python programming, that machine will do rather well after the upgrades you've mentioned. So I would say, why not. Anything you'll find on the used market for that price would be relatively similar (minus the SSD). I would be hesitant to swap out the WiFi card since I know some manufacturers love to lock out cards that are not factory. Lenovo used to do this where if you replaced the stock WiFi card, it would not even allow you to boot into any device. Though I am surprised something that new is still using Draft-N WiFi... 

I'll check if it supports new wifi cards, thanks for the info, didn't know they lock them out.

If I do a fresh install of windows on the SSD from my Window 10 installation USB, will the old Windows 7 key still work? There is Windows 10 installed on it right now, but I would to do a clean install.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 hour ago, just_dave said:

I'll check if it supports new wifi cards, thanks for the info, didn't know they lock them out.

If I do a fresh install of windows on the SSD from my Window 10 installation USB, will the old Windows 7 key still work? There is Windows 10 installed on it right now, but I would to do a clean install.

Yep it'll still activate without a hitch using the Windows 7 key!

[just_dave]

9 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Yep it'll still activate without a hitch using the Windows 7 key!

Damn, so I just learned that the RAM is soldered on the mainboard and cannot be upgraded. Is the machine still worth it? Currently takes about 10 open tabs and MS Teams to fill the 4 gigs to 90%, which is basically unusable.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

14 hours ago, just_dave said:

Damn, so I just learned that the RAM is soldered on the mainboard and cannot be upgraded. Is the machine still worth it? Currently takes about 10 open tabs and MS Teams to fill the 4 gigs to 90%, which is basically unusable.

I would try a new SSD first and then decide. You might be able to get away with 4GB if you tailor your expectations. I'm currently running my laptop all day for school work and it's also chugging every so often with 8GB. Granted I am running both the built in 1080P display and an external 1440P monitor in extended mode so it is taking a bit of memory for VRAM alone. The thing is that Windows often preloads frequently used applications in spare memory so it's really hard to tell whether you're hitting your maximum by just those applications alone, or if it's taken up by the stuff Windows is keeping on standby for you.