how to speed up my laptop

saikiran lonely

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Jun 14, 2014
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hi,i have a dell inspiron 1300 model laptop its specs are 256mb ram ,40hdd,intel celeron m processor.so what should i do to speed it up..pls help me
 

zink1701

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Sep 14, 2012
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What OS are you using? I have an old laptop with similar specs to yours, I formatted the drive and installed Bodhi (a lightwight OS), Xubuntu and Lubuntu are also good OS for older machines. Win 7 may work with ready boost but I tried with my laptop and it wasnt that great. The best option though is suggested by Fabio2011, more RAM is the best thing you can do with it, you may struggle to get an SSD to fit into the laptop depending on what connection the HDD bay uses.
 

somebodyspecial

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Sep 20, 2012
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http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-memory-for/Dell/inspiron-1300
Modules that work in your laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208893
64GB PATA/EIDE, $80.
Max Sequential Read
Up to 114.7 MB/s

Max Sequential Write
Up to 63.92 MB/s
Due to the 64GB it's too slow. I'd rather have the 250GB HD below.

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Scorpio-WD2500BEVE-Drive/dp/B001EWXLUE
Should work fine. $105. But with the price of this+40 for mem if you have the cash you can get a junker laptop from dell for $300 and it would be BLOWING away your old system with support for sata, usb2 (or 3.0), 16-32GB (depending on model), new OS etc.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops.aspx?&~ck=mn#!dlpgid=everyday-laptops
Loaded with 4GB already (2x what you'd buy for $40), 500GB! double again over the WD drive above. Dual core celeron
http://ark.intel.com/products/81071/Intel-Celeron-Processor-N2830-1M-Cache-up-to-2_41-GHz
Up to 2.4ghz celeron. chip just launched Q1 2014 22nm, battery should be pretty good on this system.

Did I mention it was $250? :) so entire new system (and the have even better for $300) or a slow drive (2x125GB platters and SSD probably slower) +mem for ~150. I'll take the NEW system please. :) Only $100 more. Only thing missing is an optical drive but that can be added later external or you may have on already.

I think the WD might have 2x133 platters but they just lop off some to get 250 (I have on in mine, just can't remember). Still FAR slower than the single 500GB platter in the new system as areal density and better cache etc speeds these up. There is much more you can do with a 500GB and new machine, maybe even some decent GOG.com gaming or something.

Hope this helps.
 

saikiran lonely

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Jun 14, 2014
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You can get a used much faster laptop for the money you will spend upgrading yours. I see older quality dual-core laptops like the Lenovo T61 or T60 for around $100 all the time.

I don't suggest spending any money on your current system unless it's under $20.
 

Saikran, this is 12-year old laptop. You cannot do much to speed it up.

If you can find cheap memory to upgrade it to at least 1024mb, put fresh copy of Windows XP on it if you insist on Windows. Or follow the advise for lightweight Linux install.

But as someone else said - don't spend money on it.
 

somebodyspecial

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Sep 20, 2012
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I have one of each...LOL. I'd rather have the dell's I mentioned for $250 with far better tech if he was considering a drive and memory to begin with why not get warranty, new faster stuff etc? My 2c.