Upgrading Dell Vostro 1000, does it worth it?

[troyer1234567]

hi
as u can see from the title i have a 15 year-old laptop which is Dell Vostro 1000
it has 1GB of RAM , i think its DDR2
and the cpu is AMD Sempron 3600+ 2GHz 1 core
i wanna know , does it worth to upgrade? i mean upgrading ram to 2 gb (or 4, i think it doesnt support 4 gb of ram) and installing a SSD instead of HDD.
my usage is surfing the internet using google chrome and using microsoft office for my documents (i'm a dentistry student)
i'm also interested in JAVA and want to learn that m i dont know which softwares i have to install which is related to JAVA and learning o practicing JAVA so consider that please while u answering.
thank u so much for your answer

 

[Eximo]

All you need to get started with Java is a text editor and the java development kit. That will run on pretty much anything.

If the cost is low enough, I don't see why you couldn't get more memory. SSD is a good idea as well, just to be sure the hard drive just doesn't up and die on you.

Still, even the cheapest entry level laptop is much, much faster than this system at this point. If you can afford to buy a new one, it is a good time to find a model still on the shelves. Prices are only going to go up over the next few years.

I will look into appropriate parts and a cost alternative.

 

[Eximo]

You are correct. 2x1GB is the maximum size.

https://www.newegg.com/crucial-2gb-200-pin-ddr2-so-dimm/p/N82E16820148086

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/...notebook/vostro-1000_service manual_en-us.pdf

As for the drive, any 2.5" SATA SSD will do, however, your older machine had a thicker standard for the hard drive, so you should locate a drive with 9.5mm adapters, up from 7mm.

https://www.newegg.com/crucial-m500...crucial-_-20-148-693-_-Product&quicklink=true

There are other options of course, practically any 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMMs should work, as well as any 2.5" SSD, though you might have to put some foam to pad out a thinner drive.

That or a cheap replacement, refurb:

https://www.newegg.com/dell-lattitude-e6420/p/1TS-000A-00CU3?quicklink=true

Brand new:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-...did=&affiliates_ad_id=566719&campaign_id=9383

 

[Alabalcho]

Java SDK needs a lot of resources. I saw somewhere an ad for $149 Celeron laptop on Black Friday - even that will be much faster that what you have.

 

[Eximo]

Java SDK needs a lot of resources. I saw somewhere an ad for $149 Celeron laptop on Black Friday - even that will be much faster that what you have.

The basic learning projects don't require much at all. Actual java development is another matter entirely, depends what you are doing. Can't quite recall the laptop I had 15 years ago, it was a Dell of some sort, but learning Java went just fine. The lab computers weren't much better, older model desktops, probably Pentium 4 or the like.

 

[troyer1234567]

The basic learning projects don't require much at all. Actual java development is another matter entirely, depends what you are doing. Can't quite recall the laptop I had 15 years ago, it was a Dell of some sort, but learning Java went just fine. The lab computers weren't much better, older model desktops, probably Pentium 4 or the like.

i have a good pc at home so i can do advance stuff on that in summer while im home, but as i said i'm student and live in another city so i just wanted to upgrade this old laptop so i could surf the net, use Microsoft Office and learn Java.

 

[troyer1234567]

You are correct. 2x1GB is the maximum size.

https://www.newegg.com/crucial-2gb-200-pin-ddr2-so-dimm/p/N82E16820148086

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_vostro_notebook/vostro-1000_service manual_en-us.pdf

As for the drive, any 2.5" SATA SSD will do, however, your older machine had a thicker standard for the hard drive, so you should locate a drive with 9.5mm adapters, up from 7mm.

https://www.newegg.com/crucial-m500-120gb/p/N82E16820148693?Item=9SIAVF1FF76649&Description=9.5mm ssd crucial&cm_re=9.5mm_ssd crucial--20-148-693--Product&quicklink=true

There are other options of course, practically any 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMMs should work, as well as any 2.5" SSD, though you might have to put some foam to pad out a thinner drive.

That or a cheap replacement, refurb:

https://www.newegg.com/dell-lattitude-e6420/p/1TS-000A-00CU3?quicklink=true

Brand new:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-14-1-Ultra-Slim-Notebook-FHD-Intel-Core-i3-1115G4-Dual-Core-128GB-SSD-4GB-RAM-Tuned-THX-Audio-Fingerprint-Scanner-1-0MP-Webcam-HDMI-Cortana-W/821470710?irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_TeByM8U0ixyLRY6wUx0Mo3YKUkGxrTy:iTlg3E0&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_11949&clickid=TeByM8U0ixyLRY6wUx0Mo3YKUkGxrTy:iTlg3E0&sharedid=&affiliates_ad_id=566719&campaign_id=9383

thank u so much, I live in Iran so the options u mentioned are hard to find lol
I have these options:

1. Western Digital Green WDS240G1G0A SATA 2.5 Inch 240GB = 30$
2. ADATA Ultimate SU630 SATA 2.5 Inch 240GB = 30$
3. KINGMAX SMV32 SATA 2.5 Inch 240GB = 30$
4. ADATA Ultimate SU800 SATA 2.5 Inch 256GB = 47$
5. Apacer AS350 PANTHER SATA 2.5 Inch 256GB = 30$
6. Crucial BX500 SATA 2.5 Inch 240GB = 30$

which one do u think is better? (4 is a little expensive for me , if 4 is the best then mention the second best too thanks.)

 

[Eximo]

Western Digital. The cheaper ADATA is QLC NAND flash, which is a bit slower than TLC NAND. Never heard of Kingmax.

Probably DRAMless, but better than nothing.

Keep in mind those are 7mm drives, your system takes the larger 9.5mm, it may not fit perfectly.

 

[troyer1234567]

Western Digital. The cheaper ADATA is QLC NAND flash, which is a bit slower than TLC NAND. Never heard of Kingmax.

Probably DRAMless, but better than nothing.

Keep in mind those are 7mm drives, your system takes the larger 9.5mm, it may not fit perfectly.

what about the crucial one, because that has Trim technology and i checked the speed test i think crucial is a little better, what do u think?

 

[Eximo]

All SSDs have trim technology, excepting really old SLC drives. There is minimum system requirement for TRIM to be supported, Windows 7 I think, maybe Vista SP2 as well. And there may be hardware requirements in the SATA controller.

The crucial ones I found included the mounting adapter. I've not had to use one though, it might be as simple as adding 2.5mm of thickness to the drive so that it doesn't try to flop around.

Crucial is generally a better brand, but they have different models at different price points. Samsung is the usual go to for myself, they make the memory, the controller, and the write the firmware/software, a full stack. Crucial buys the controller, and the memory, designs a board, and puts it together. Possibly using the provided software from the controller supplier or maybe writing their own.

 

[PeterMuellerr]

does it worth to upgrade?

I terms of environment protection and the reduction of waste: YES. I cannot tell you whether the result is as usable as you probably wish it to be. Hard drives are also cheap today (in my part of the world, 1 € for 20 GB on http://www.hood.de/0092948989.htm).

 

[troyer1234567]

I terms of environment protection and the reduction of waste: YES. I cannot tell you whether the result is as usable as you probably wish it to be. Hard drives are also cheap today (in my part of the world, 1 € for 20 GB on http://www.hood.de/0092948989.htm).

i want it to be smooth when i use Chrome and Microsoft office Word or Powerpoint , i want it to be smooth not laggy, if i buy an ssd, will it be smooth?

 

[troyer1234567]

All SSDs have trim technology, excepting really old SLC drives. There is minimum system requirement for TRIM to be supported, Windows 7 I think, maybe Vista SP2 as well. And there may be hardware requirements in the SATA controller.

The crucial ones I found included the mounting adapter. I've not had to use one though, it might be as simple as adding 2.5mm of thickness to the drive so that it doesn't try to flop around.

Crucial is generally a better brand, but they have different models at different price points. Samsung is the usual go to for myself, they make the memory, the controller, and the write the firmware/software, a full stack. Crucial buys the controller, and the memory, designs a board, and puts it together. Possibly using the provided software from the controller supplier or maybe writing their own.

thank u so much for the info
sry that i ask too many questions, but why u recommended WD green when u say that samsung is your fav and crucial is good?

 

[PeterMuellerr]

i want it to be smooth when i use Chrome and Microsoft office Word or Powerpoint , i want it to be smooth not laggy, if i buy an ssd, will it be smooth?

No. Not even with an SSD, though, comparing an SSD with an HDD, you would be technically able to measure the difference in time certain tasks need. It would be immaterial to you whether you wait 5 or 6 minutes until a task (say, booting the computer) is completed. The lack of RAM will hit you first regardless of storage (and I'd probably advise against swap memory on SSD anyway: write accesses without cache take long and SSDs wear down faster under heavy write load). You'd be able to use a simple text-mode editor (Notepad on Windows, Vi and Emacs on Linux) in a smooth way regardless of whether you take an SSD or an HDD as long as you don't switch between applications.
If I were you, I'd save the money for something else and upgrade with a better HDD (cheap, second-hand, for 1€ or 1$) for storage. If your drive fails (yes, sometimes it does happen), in practice you will be more likely to restore data from a failed HDD rather than from a failed SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

I terms of environment protection and the reduction of waste: YES. I cannot tell you whether the result is as usable as you probably wish it to be. Hard drives are also cheap today (in my part of the world, 1 € for 20 GB on http://www.hood.de/0092948989.htm).

A 20GB IDE drive is worse than useless.

 

[PeterMuellerr]

A 20GB IDE drive is worse than useless.

That's wrong because all systems have limitations on the drive size, and, well, old systems have old limitations. We are not speaking about modern computers here. I know nothing about the limitations of the laptop in question, but, in general, a 20 GB drive may very well be usable if your chipset simply doesn't digest more (or much more) according to its specs.

 

[troyer1234567]

No. Not even with an SSD, though, comparing an SSD with an HDD, you would be technically able to measure the difference in time certain tasks need. It would be immaterial to you whether you wait 5 or 6 minutes until a task (say, booting the computer) is completed. The lack of RAM will hit you first regardless of storage (and I'd probably advise against swap memory on SSD anyway: write accesses without cache take long and SSDs wear down faster under heavy write load). You'd be able to use a simple text-mode editor (Notepad on Windows, Vi and Emacs on Linux) in a smooth way regardless of whether you take an SSD or an HDD as long as you don't switch to another application.
If I were you, I'd save the money for something else and upgrade with a better HDD (cheap, second-hand, for 1€ or 1$) for storage. If your drive fails (yes, sometimes it does happen), in practice you will be more likely to restore data from a damaged HDD rather than from a damaged SSD.

what if i upgrade Ram as well ? i want to buy a SSD to install it instead of HDD and also upgrade the Ram.
btw do u know what is the maximum ram support of Sempron 3600+?

 

[USAFRet]

That's wrong because all systems have limitations on the drive size, and, well, old systems have old limitations. We are not speaking about modern computers here. So, a 20 GB drive may very well be usable if your chipset simply doesn't digest more according to its specs.

20GB drives were around the mid 90's.
The Dell Vostro in question here started with an 80GB drive.
Drive capacity is far less a limitation than type...IDE or SATA, for instance.
Published specs often only list what is available at the date of printing, not what it can actually use.

If a system is limited to a 20GB IDE drive, it is not viable for MS Office, JAVA dev, and other stated use.

Such a system is also environmentally unsound, because it takes much longer to complete a particular task than anything even a little bit newer.


Is the Dell Vostro SATA or IDE?
I'm thinking SATA, in which case that IDE is useless. If IDE, then all this talk of swapping in an SSD is similarly useless.

 

[troyer1234567]

20GB drives were around the mid 90's.
The Dell Vostro in question here started with an 80GB drive.
Drive capacity is far less a limitation than type...IDE or SATA, for instance.
Published specs often only list what is available at the date of printing, not what it can actually use.

If a system is limited to a 20GB IDE drive, it is not viable for MS Office, JAVA dev, and other stated use.

Such a system is also environmentally unsound, because it takes much longer to complete a particular task than anything even a little bit newer.


Is the Dell Vostro SATA or IDE?
I'm thinking SATA, in which case that IDE is useless. If IDE, then all this talk of swapping in an SSD is similarly useless.

what do u think Mod? Do u think if i upgrade ram to 4gb or 8gb and buy a sdd, it would be smooth ?

 

[USAFRet]

what do u think Mod? Do u think if i upgrade ram to 4gb or 8gb and buy a sdd, it would be smooth ?

I'd be wary of spending too much money on this.

It will be marginally better than it is currently.
The CPU is going to remain the problem child.

 

[PeterMuellerr]

The Dell Vostro in question here started with an 80GB drive.

Of course, if that's the case (@tryoer12345: double-check!), then for the particular laptop choose something larger. No doubt.

Such a system is also environmentally unsound, because it takes much longer to complete a particular task than anything even a little bit newer.

That's not quite right. If you really restrict yourself to writing small JAVA programs (in particular, you have to be o.k. with not running large applications, such as MS Office or Chrome), compiling these programs, and running them, then it's irrelevant how long they take: 5 seconds or 10 seconds because you spend hours on thinking anyway. It also doesn't matter how long other tasks take: you do them never or seldom. E.g., you can start your laptop only once a day, and it doesn't matter whether booting takes 5 minutes or 10 minutes.

You said you'd be wary of spending money on this, and I'd agree if running Chrome or MS Office is a must. If @tryoer12345 doesn't run anything that heavy, he/she should feel free to spend a few bucks on the upgrade. 2 GB of RAM and a larger HDD (even 80 GB) would cost 1 € + 1 € (+ delivery or picking it up) at the place where I live.

 

[PeterMuellerr]

what if i upgrade Ram as well ? i want to buy a SSD to install it instead of HDD and also upgrade the Ram.
btw do u know what is the maximum ram support of Sempron 3600+?

Upgrading RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB would make your laptop somewhat usable these days for one of the primitive tasks you wanted, viz., learning JAVA. Not more. As for upgrading to SSD… Really, I wouldn't spend more than 1 unit of your local currency on this (+ delivery costs), and I'd go for an HDD in your case anyway. I wouldn't install Windows for learning JAVA (you'd be tired of waiting until the installation process and the updates terminate), so, I'd advise going with some Linux (e.g., Damn Small Linux or (old)oldstable Debian).

 

[USAFRet]

Of course, if that's the case (@tryoer12345: double-check!), then for the particular laptop choose something larger. No doubt.

That's not quite right. If you really restrict yourself to writing small JAVA programs (in particular, you have to be o.k. with not running large applications, such as MS Office or Chrome), compiling these programs, and running them, then it's irrelevant how long they take: 5 seconds or 10 seconds because you spend hours on thinking anyway. It also doesn't matter how long other tasks take: you do them never or seldom. E.g., you can start your laptop only once a day, and it doesn't matter whether booting takes 5 minutes or 10 minutes.
You said you'd be wary of spending money on this, and I'd agree if running Chrome or MS Office is a must.

And a laptop at idle, while you're thinking, is using fewer resources and power than when it is actually doing something.

Taking 10 seconds to compile and display whatever it is you just coded takes more resources than if the system takes 2 seconds.
Repeat several dozen times to debug.


In any case, this particular Dell will never ever be a speed demon.

 

[troyer1234567]

I'd be wary of spending too much money on this.

It will be marginally better than it is currently.
The CPU is going to remain the problem child.

can i upgrade the cpu too? i heard that the socket is same as Amd Turion 64 X2 TL-56

 

[PeterMuellerr]

And a laptop at idle, while you're thinking, is using fewer resources and power than when it is actually doing something.

Taking 10 seconds to compile and display whatever it is you just coded takes more resources than if the system takes 2 seconds.


In any case, this particular Dell will never ever be a speed demon.

Yes, and at the same time this additional resource consumption by such old systems is immaterial compared to the cost of the laptop production and its carbon footprint. Even more: if my memory doesn't fail me, even 15 years ago the laptops could automatically reduce their power consumption in various ways when idle. So, yes, @tryoer12345 will pay 2 € on the upgrade and a few cents more on his/her electricity per year, but will save dozens or hundreds of $ or € by not buying anything new. This translates to saved resources on Earth.