Your old laptop is not dead if it’s still running on SATA, Long live old laptops
When I was in varsity I was met with my first laptop, A Compaq laptop, the year was 2012, when HDD where still a thing and applications did not require fast read/write speeds. The heaviest programs I was running at the time were NetBeans IDE, Eclpise For Android, and MatLab, those programs ran like a dream, it was better than using the IT lab computers in the cold airconditioned Lab.
Fast forward a few months of usage windows started becoming very slow, as the Mr fix it I was recommended CCleaner by a friend, a software that would show some promise to gain back speed from my laptop, after a few cleanup sessions with CCleaner, my computer went back to almost normal speed usage. I continued using CCleaner and recommending it to other friends, but before that, I used to install the OS fresh. On few months went, then another iceberg was encountered where CCleaner was not able to irradicate, the programs I use started being slow on Windows, and the laptop would be fine, but the minute I open my programs performance would deteriorate, sage way to Linux.
The lab computers I used back on campus used to use Linux, which was very light and fast, so the next thing I did was install Linux alongside Windows(Dual boot) and use it for my school work, which turned to a 10-fold increase in performance, programs in Linux were running fast, no need for F5, although I kept windows it was for other programs that I could not find for Linux at the time.
Later in the year, I got a Toshiba laptop C660, and my life was changed, I got the Intel i3 CPU, windows was fast again and I could do interesting stuff and play some games, a great run I had with the laptop, they don’t make them like that anymore and it was a gift from my uncle who moved to an AMD laptop, at the time I didn’t understand the AMD CPU+ GPU ecosystem that was booming, he knew a lot than me, but what I don’t know, wouldn’t hurt me.
Welcome to the world of Windows 10, as Microsoft announced Windows 10, it looked desirable with all the changes and a claim of better memory management than Windows 7, I got it on my Toshiba, let’s just say I lost some and won some, the Bluetooth stopped working, but the visuals were amazing, an upgrade from windows 7, but it didn’t last long as some of my programs did not work so I had to go back to 7.
Passed on my Toshiba C660 to my little brother, went on with a powerful laptop from work after varsity, then got introduced to more programs which caused my laptop to be slow, a problem I thought I will never see in an expensive laptop, but there I was with an i7 CPU and windows 10, but still facing sluggish performance, always visiting the IT guys who just clean temps files and defragment my hard.
USB can be your hard drive, I had a friend who installed Linux on a USB stick an interesting trick that had optimal performance when I dug more into the idea that’s when I got introduced to Solid States Drives(SSD), what a treasure find I stumbled on, SSD saved me 2~4 minutes windows wake up screen from shut down, with this new knowledge I stumbled on I quipped my personal laptop(ASUS FX503VD) with the latest of SSD the NVme, astronomic performance, with very fast load speed for programs.
Passing on the knowledge and discovery I hooked my sister with an SSD for her birthday for an old laptop (ASUS VIVOBOOK) she wanted to throw away because of speed issues, e-waste neutralized. On the love story part, my wife was using the same Toshiba laptop I had in varsity, obviously I also hooked her up with an SSD, but because Windows 10 not been fully supported she moved to a Mac M1, that’s a story for another day, that laptop is in a line of its own with no fans.
To conclude and get to the point, your old laptop is not dead and can quickly be revitalized by adding an SSD or NVme, a lot of programs/applications are moving to browser-based implementation and we all know google chrome eats a lot of ram, but with better hard drive performance you will be able to use your laptop for years to come, update it 1st with a SSD/NVme drive before you upgrade, as you might not need to upgrade.
