Giving new life to an old laptop?

[spyder]

One of my relatives has a acer laptop with windows 7 on it. The machine can be updated to windows 10 but the laptop is very slow hence see no real benefit of the upgrade. They said they want to buy a tablet instead however I mentioned if they simply replace the hdd with an ssd, it will be up to speed again, do you members think it's a worthwhile investment? A side note; it can barely hold any charge because battery has degraded over time.

What would your option be? Ssd and new battery or a new tablet (hybrid laptop)

[Samppa221]

"f they simply replace the hdd with an sad"  

 

Sad ;(

[spyder]

"f they simply replace the hdd with an sad"

Sad ;(

Lol I just typed this on my phone and was editing the post for spelling mistakes.

[Levent]

SSD+ Windows7 will perform better (embracing shitstorm)

[ZetZet]

WIndows 10 will definitely run better on slow hardware, ssd also is a huge upgrade.

[RollinLower]

if the battery was still functioning to it's spec, i would have gone with the SSD. trough since this isn't the case i would just get a new machine. if they want to spend money on a hybrid, i think they should.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

my decision would be, sell the laptop ( try ripping som1 off with it, haha ) buy a better laptop and put a new ssd in the new laptop

[jameshumphries47]

One of my relatives has a acer laptop with windows 7 on it. The machine can be updated to windows 10 but the laptop is very slow hence see no real benefit of the upgrade. They said they want to buy a tablet instead however I mentioned if they simply replace the hdd with an ssd, it will be up to speed again, do you members think it's a worthwhile investment? A side note; it can barely hold any charge because battery has degraded over time.

What would your option be? Ssd and new battery or a new tablet (hybrid laptop)

my opinion get them a atblet, replace battery! perform a factory reset on it, and install windows 10, maybe by an ssd if need be but i don think it would need one! 

[ZoZubin]

Where do they use the laptop for? if they only use it to read emails and browse the web, I would suggest getting a light Linux distribution like Ubuntu 14.04 that is what I do to make old hardware useful again.

[Tim Drake]

Windows 10 + SSD + New RAM = Super fast

 

But if the battery is dying, investigate how much a new battery for it and such would be. If it is 10/10 not worth then just get a new laptop imo

[spyder]

SSD+ Windows7 will perform better (embracing shitstorm)

I was thinking that myself.

 

WIndows 10 will definitely run better on slow hardware, ssd also is a huge upgrade.

Apparently a hit and miss without an SSD, some reported their laptop was worse. 

 

if the battery was still functioning to it's spec, i would have gone with the SSD. trough since this isn't the case i would just get a new machine. if they want to spend money on a hybrid, i think they should.

I guess it depends what the price of the battery would come down to. 

 

my decision would be, sell the laptop ( try ripping som1 off with it, haha ) buy a better laptop and put a new ssd in the new laptop

Probably wouldn't get much even though it has an i5 (the predecessor to sandy bridge (nehalem or westmere not sure) and 4gb ram, 250gb HDD.  

 

my opinion get them a atblet, replace battery! perform a factory reset on it, and install windows 10, maybe by an ssd if need be but i don think it would need one! 

SSD would be nice, since Windows 10 would boot up very fast but I doubt the laptop supports fast boot (Pre windows 8) 

 

Where do they use the laptop for? if they only use it to read emails and browse the web, I would suggest getting a light Linux distribution like Ubuntu 14.04 that is what I do to make old hardware useful again.

E-mails, MS Office, surfing the web, however I do think they are hesitant to use a totally different OS. 

 

Windows 10 + SSD + New RAM = Super fast

 

But if the battery is dying, investigate how much a new battery for it and such would be. If it is 10/10 not worth then just get a new laptop imo

It gets harder to find older product parts, I am looking into it. 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

choosing a new laptop is always fun choose a new design, new panel (tn-ips) and what not

[ZoZubin]

I was thinking that myself.

 

Apparently a hit and miss without an SSD, some reported their laptop was worse. 

 

I guess it depends what the price of the battery would come down to. 

 

Probably wouldn't get much even though it has an i5 (the predecessor to sandy bridge (nehalem or westmere not sure) and 4gb ram, 250gb HDD.  

 

SSD would be nice, since Windows 10 would boot up very fast but I doubt the laptop supports fast boot (Pre windows 8) 

 

E-mails, MS Office, surfing the web, however I do think they are hesitant to use a totally different OS. 

 

It gets harder to find older product parts, I am looking into it. 

 

For basic tasks. Getting used to a simple version of Linux is not that hard as people think. I got my grandma to use Linux on her cheap netbook. She knows where chrome is and that works (pretty much) the same as on Windows. So I would still try to convince him to try Linux. (you can always reinstall Windows if he's not able to get used to it)

[ZetZet]

Apparently a hit and miss without an SSD, some reported their laptop was worse. 

It's hit or miss between 8.1 and 10, 7 runs worse than both on low end hardware.