Breathing life into old laptop

[trillin]

I have an Old HP laptop that has been sitting in my closet for years and I would like to get it set up to my TV just to watch movies and maybe the odd steam link game, Just wondering what the best OS might be, I was thinking about tossing Chrome OS Flex onto it but maybe I'm just as well off to keep Windows 10 on it, any insight is appreciated

 

Product number	W7B95UA
Product name	HP Notebook - 15-ay019ca (ENERGY STAR)
Microprocessor	Intel® Celeron® N3060 (1.6 GHz, up to 2.48 GHz, 2 MB cache, 2 cores)
Memory, standard	8 GB DDR3L-1600 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB)
Video graphics	Intel® HD Graphics 400
Hard drive	500 GB 5400 rpm SATA

[xhackforeverxdx]

I mean before u think about a os u really should replace that old slow af hdd but even then that old dualcore prob wont make u very happy 

[trillin]

I'm not looking to spend any money on it and its not the easiest design to get inside of

[xhackforeverxdx]

Just now, trillin said:

I'm not looking to spend any money on it and its not the easiest design to get inside of

Then it prob aint worth putting time into it a 5400 rpm hdd + that cpu wont make u happy no matter the os even for very simple stuff 

[Needfuldoer]

If you think of it as an oversized Raspberry Pi, it would make a great emulation machine. Just replace that spinning drive with a used SATA SSD. (Which wouldn't be a complete waste, because you can always use that SSD in something else once you get bored of the media center laptop.)

[trillin]

Even just for like netflix disney+ or youtube?

[jaslion]

I'd say let this one be.

 

It's too old for streaming and steam link is gonna hit it hard as this gpu doesn't support h265 encoding.

[trillin]

any recommendations on what to do with it?

 

[aisle9]

9 minutes ago, trillin said:

any recommendations on what to do with it?

 

Single-channel memory on an N3060 is going to be like sucking on a lollipop made of super glue, razor blades and live yellow jackets. No bueno. I think you'd have issues streaming anything above 720p.

 

I hate to say this about any old laptop, but I think your best bet might be to sell it and put the money towards a Fire Stick or Roku instead. Someone out there will be crazy enough to buy it from you.

[OhYou_]

57 minutes ago, trillin said:

Even just for like netflix disney+ or youtube?

youtube 1080p should be fine. A decent chunk of 4k are only offered in av1 which is nogo on that thing due to software decoding.
 cant speak for the others but if they can use h264 then you are fine.
I'd just use ubuntu with kde plasma, lightweight OSes are a meme. 

 

who actually cares about hard drive speed. its a htpc now, literally disable sleep mode and boot times/load times are now irrelevant.it uses piss energy so leaving it running 24/7 is no problem.
the hardware is capable of having all the streaming services loaded up in memory in separate windows waiting for you to switch in and click on something to watch. 
 I dailied a 1st gen dex samsung for years to watch youtube and it's about 3x slower than that laptop. 

 

you will probably have a bad experience gamestreaming.

[trillin]

7 minutes ago, OhYou_ said:

youtube 1080p should be fine. A decent chunk of 4k are only offered in av1 which is nogo on that thing due to software decoding.
 cant speak for the others but if they can use h264 then you are fine.
I'd just use ubuntu with kde plasma, lightweight OSes are a meme. 

 

who actually cares about hard drive speed. its a htpc now, literally disable sleep mode and boot times/load times are now irrelevant.it uses piss energy so leaving it running 24/7 is no problem.
the hardware is capable of having all the streaming services loaded up in memory in separate windows waiting for you to switch in and click on something to watch. 
 I dailied a 1st gen dex samsung for years to watch youtube and it's about 3x slower than that laptop. 

 

you will probably have a bad experience gamestreaming.

Yeah i knew the game streaming would be a longshot so no real loss there but ubuntu should do me well enough to do like youtube and netflix and such? I dont have 4k tv anyway just mostly wanna adblock youtube more than anything

[OhYou_]

Just now, trillin said:

Yeah i knew the game streaming would be a longshot so no real loss there but ubuntu should do me well enough to do like youtube and netflix and such? I dont have 4k tv anyway just mostly wanna adblock youtube more than anything

it should absolutely do youtube 1080 for now at least. You may want to throw on h264ify just because
netflix has switched to vp9 i guess which i think you may be software rendering that one. 
thats going to be a try it and see but i think it may just be enough to pull it off.

[jaslion]

59 minutes ago, trillin said:

Yeah i knew the game streaming would be a longshot so no real loss there but ubuntu should do me well enough to do like youtube and netflix and such? I dont have 4k tv anyway just mostly wanna adblock youtube more than anything

Can you try if it can even do 720p 60fps youtube?

 

This chips gpu is old enough to no longer support the codec and then the cpu has to do the work and well it's basically a older pentium 4. Those did NOT like youtube at 720p much.

[RollyShed]

First fit a 250GB SSD, possibly a bit less than $30 in USA.

 

To dismantle it -

 

It looks like 12 screws -

 

Unless it is this one with some under the keyboard -

 

Then install Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop.

 

There is plenty of memory in it so will be good to go.