Is it worth putting an SSD in an old acer laptop?

[acernoob]

For the last 9 years or so, my father's been using an old Acer Aspire 17' 7720-6902. He absolutely loves it.

The basic spec is :
- 1.83 ghz Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T5550,
- 2gb RAM,
- Mobile Intel Graphic Media,
-250GB HDD

Also, his pc has Windows XP! It's time for an upgrade.
All he will use it for is Spotify, email, freecell, internet browsing and photo storage, what to do with it?

He bought a new PC but never used it after its first try or two. Trying to convince old parents is the hardest thing in the world
Any help and advice is very much appreciated.

[sig]

SSD is the bigest "boost" for old computer, especially laptop. Rest of part probably enough for him.

[spacein_vader]

SSD is the bigest "boost" for old computer, especially laptop. Rest of part probably enough for him.

Agreed on the first part. If you're planning on putting Win7 or newer in it to replace XP you should definitely bring the RAM up to at least 4gb too.

[Phage]

A better laptop would make a great Christmas present. Or even a tablet.

[Bagnaj97]

SSD will provide a noticeable boost, but if you're planning to upgrade to a newer OS I'd also look at doubling the ram - 2 GB won't be a nice experience.

[Zak33]

you might struggle with drivers on an old laptop with a new OS

please bear that in mind.
Lots of older mobo's (laptop and PC) dont have Win10 or even Win7 drivers.

[scaryjim]

To everyone who thinks you can't run a new OS on 2GB - have you tried? My Toshy Click Mini is an Atom + 2GB and runs Windows 10 very nicely indeed.

Really, you need to get him off Windows XP. It's massively vulnerable to attack - just look at the disruption caused by Wanna Decryptor only a month ago. He might not like it, but learning a new OS now is way better than dealing with the outfall of a malware attack. And at that point - if you're looking at a new SSD, possibly a RAM upgrade, a Windows 10 license etc., you might as well just get him a new laptop from a major retailer.

This has a number of benefits, not least that when it goes wrong you can suggest he contacts whichever major retailer it was bought from, and they can handle the support issues You do *not* want to be running free tech support 24/7 on a ten year old laptop, and you just know that if something doesn't work how he expects he's going to blame you anyway

[kompukare]

The big problems I see with a new laptop or even a used ThinkPad/EliteBook/Latitude is the screen size. For someone older without 20/20 vision, the 17" screen is probably something they've gotten used to.

[shaithis]

Windows 10 footprint is the smallest of a MS OS in a while, 2GB is plenty, depending on application requirements of course.

Of course, running Photoshop or have a million chrome tabs open is going to consume a lot of RAM....

[spacein_vader]

This might even be a good use case for Windows 10S. Assuming it's used for internet/email/video/basic word processing it'd add a layer of security against malware.*


*Until/unless malware writers find a way around UWP.

[Unique]

my main laptop is a similar aged 17" model, but I've upgraded almost everything possible from maxing ram to 4gb and changing the single core 2.0 Celeron to a 2.5ghz core2duo. I removed the optical bay to install an extra HDD, updated the wifi to N and added Bluetooth and 3g modules etc (these things were pretty cheap and easy to upgrade - the CPU was a pain. I have had both an SSD and a SSHD which makes a big difference but I still use it with a 2tb HDD for maximum storage space

so I'd say max the ram and stick in an SSD and put win7 or win10 on. check the wifi module and upgrade that (should be less than a tenner for internal or you can get a USB one, but internal will likely make use of the internal antenna that's probably wrapped around the monitor. you can add Bluetooth via USB but it's easy to add internally. you could add USB3 via expresscard, or expresscard gives you a few other options. I have a 2 port USB3 card to which I have a USB3 gigabit Ethernet card with 3 USB ports

I use win7 on mine but I did try win10 to see if it would work and it did. in fact I can run various VM's on it too

[scaryjim]

This might even be a good use case for Windows 10S....

Or, frankly, a chrome book.

The only thing that makes me hesitate is "photo storage". That probably means downloading from a device, which might mean driver issues etc. depending on what device. And "storage" isn't really a term associated with low-end devices or SSDs, tbh.

Unique's raised another option though - SSHD. Could be a good option to get an increase in storage and some of the benefits of an SSD, without having to worry too much about block sizes, trim support etc....

[kierant]

Go for the SSD your love it!