NMGLugers & Jared, Thank you. Yes, an adequate CPU and about 8 GB ram seem required these days as the Internet has more embedded video and scripts of too many kinds. Also, our expectations for speed have grown with the use of cellphones. I think bargains can be found at the $200 level of used computers, though maybe my "Hobbyist" approach is start with an inadequate machine and build it up in steps by adding ram and proper hard drive, etc. Some newer laptops are omitting the accessible hatches for this though, even batteries now encased inside for a complete tear down to get at them.

I am aware of the need to know about the CPU and lshw as root can show me what a CPU can do. I encountered a "Bay Trail" (tm) CPU that can only read one slot of ram. So I had to locate a single 8 GB piece. The characteristic of the CPU explained the absence of the second slot inside. And since it cannot do hyper threading it lacks some of the speed of better processors.

Thank you for the input. Ted P.

On Thu, Feb 6, 2020 at 7:06 PM ABQLUG <community@abqlug.com> wrote:

In general I suggest getting a new laptop if you are on the 2nd core
generation (Sandy Bridge) or older. If you are on a Celeron or Pentium
and it isn't a recent generation, I wouldn't even bother upgrading the
cpu, let alone ram.

If you decide to go with AMD, you will want a Ryzen, nothing older.

I typically try to get people to buy some of the used ~$400 ThinkPads
on ebay. You can get a used skylake laptop for a pretty decent price.
Though if you are a keyboard snob, then you might want to research a bit
to find a proper keyboard.

If you are wanting to upgrade a desktop, they sell some pretty low
priced used cpus that might be worth it. The older desktop cpus had much
better performance than the laptop cpus, at least back in the day.

I usually try to not suggest throwing newbies on older machines with
Linux. Sometimes people think that Linux is slow, when it's just their
POS machine.

Jared

On Feb 6 2020 4:35 PM, Ted Pomeroy wrote:
> NMGLugers, What do you consider system requirements in 2020? I
> recently had a personal lapse in common sense by trying to upgrade
> ram
> in an older Asus EEE. It was pointless. Negligible change in
> performance. I had a feeling I was wasting my time, but I "had to
> try." Really not worth the effort. And I repeated a similar effort on
> an older laptop last week.
> So, I ask you to think about what are the System Requirements for an
> adequately performing laptop? Processor- Hard drive- Memory- Ports-
> Accessories?
>
> I have some ideas and will share them when we meet next week or if
> there is interest here. I think we can encourage wider adoption of
> Gnu/Linux by clearly advising newcomers and thinking clearly
> ourselves
> about not just keeping an older machine alive, but really enabling
> new
> users to take advantage of the great software we love. Free Software
> is great for all the things people do with a computer and we can help
> them see it if we think about what truly works.
> Thank you, Ted P.
>
> _______________________________________________
> nmglug mailing list
> nmglug@lists.nmglug.org
> http://lists.nmglug.org/listinfo.cgi/nmglug-nmglug.org

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