Question Can I upgrade a 12 year old HP AMD Phenom II x6 desktop computer?

[SCMorgan]

It has 8GB RAM upgradable to 16GB and 1TB HD. I do plan to upgrade the RAM to 16GB. But are there any other changes that can be made? Windows has informed me that the processor does not qualify for WIN 11. I have barely used it because I have always had laptops. I hate to see it go to waste.

 

[COLGeek]

Just keep running with Win 10. It will be fine for most basic uses. Adding a SSD for the OS (or simply replacing the HDD) would help tremendously with its responsiveness.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Agreed. Best upgrade for that pc is an ssd. It will feel about like a new system again. It will likely run better than when new.

 

[jasonf2]

As far as an upgrade path for Windows 11 you are stuck without replacing most of your hardware. Windows 11 has a bunch of security hardware requirements that pretty much shut down the upgrade path for anything more than a couple of years old. Even then alot of pretty modern processors that should have had more than enough processing power were closed out. Windows 11 doesn't give any real advantages on the older processors anyways other than the fact that support will extend well beyond win10. It's biggest performance gain is only applicable to the newest processors via an updated task scheduler system.

 

[SCMorgan]

As far as an upgrade path for Windows 11 you are stuck without replacing most of your hardware. Windows 11 has a bunch of security hardware requirements that pretty much shut down the upgrade path for anything more than a couple of years old. Even then alot of pretty modern processors that should have had more than enough processing power were closed out. Windows 11 doesn't give any real advantages on the older processors anyways other than the fact that support will extend well beyond win10. It's biggest performance gain is only applicable to the newest processors via an updated task scheduler system.

Just keep running with Win 10. It will be fine for most basic uses. Adding a SSD for the OS (or simply replacing the HDD) would help tremendously with its responsiveness.

Thank you, I will consider that.
I read where Windows 10 is good until 10/2025.

 

[hotaru.hino]

If you're not doing any gaming on it, you could also switch to Linux. Zorin OS is an easy distribution to get into (it's designed to make the transition from Windows as easy as possible). Linux Mint is also a good one.