justthisbloke Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 My old lappie HD has died. So what do the panel recommend as a replacement? Must run Ubuntu easily. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geezer466 Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 How old is your current machine and is it only the hard drive which has died? If it is reasonably modern it should run ubuntu quite well Pick up a cheap 500gig 2.5 inch drive on ebay (or smaller if you wish) should be <£40.00 stick it in and install. I wouldn't be buying a new machine to stick ubuntu on. I had an old netbook which has windows7 mobile on it. Gradually slowed till till it was practically unusable. Took the cover off cleaned it all out (dust) formatted the drive and stuck precise pangolin on it. It zips along like brand new. I run media servers around the house with trusty installed and this little netbook comes in handy when I want to test something and practice command line. Ubuntu is a good choice, I have only got into it in the last couple of years. Wish I had discovered it sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ames Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 My old lappie HD has died. So what do the panel recommend as a replacement? Must run Ubuntu easily. Thanks. If it is only the HD then replace it with an Solid State Drive (SSD). My 10 year old Centrino Duo running XP was on its last legs - it took 5 minutes to boot. then was ssslllooooowwww. I replaced the HD with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD and installed Windows 7. You wont believe how fast an old laptop can go! - takes about 6 seconds to boot up. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidg Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 The missus has been moaning that her Windows 7 lappie "was dead", indeed it was very very slow. Did a virus and trojan check, nothing. So backed up her data and reinstalled 7 and it is fine now. I guess I'll have to do that again in another 18 months. As for Ubuntu. Check their compatibility list. I run an Acer Chromebook with an Ubuntu variant but it is not 100% seemless. It is very quick though. I had an old netbook which has windows7 mobile on it. Gradually slowed till till it was practically unusable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellerkat Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 If it is only the HD then replace it with an Solid State Drive (SSD). My 10 year old Centrino Duo running XP was on its last legs - it took 5 minutes to boot. then was ssslllooooowwww. I replaced the HD with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 SSD and installed Windows 7. You wont believe how fast an old laptop can go! - takes about 6 seconds to boot up. Hope that helps. Yup! Got an old ancient MSi CR620 which has essentially been relegated to the dining room / kitchen. Got a good deal on 4Gb RAM and a smallish SSD. Now it flies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgul Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Not sure I'd get a new machine for Ubuntu - unless you have specific power needs (gaming, simulation, computation) then most activities will fly on relatively modest (or a bit old) hardware. Unless your computer is really ancient (say, older than 8 years) then max ram + ssd should work well. IMO the most linux compatible systems are Lenovo Thinkpads. They have a 'certified' page http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd031426 but I've never had a problem with machines not on the list. In general, the secret with linux machines is to buy at the corporate refresh cycles - you get loads of quality 3-year old machines on ebay that will run Ubuntu/any Linux well. At the moment they seem to be getting rid of x220s - quite nice machines, very sturdy, v. fast for linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spyguy Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Any where you do not have to pay for a Windows license. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libspero Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 I would guess something like this: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 My old lappie HD has died. So what do the panel recommend as a replacement? Must run Ubuntu easily. Thanks. What about a replacement hard drive? Sorry to point out the obvious. Oh and get a bigger one, for they are cheaper now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Get a Intel based (Haswell?) Chromebook, and stick it on that...I've heard good things... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justthisbloke Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Well, the hd is bust 'cos I dropped it! Some other bits fell off as well. So the entire thing needs replacing really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Well, the hd is bust 'cos I dropped it! Some other bits fell off as well. So the entire thing needs replacing really. I think gravity has made all the bits go to the bottom! I reckon if you shake it a bit, you can get all the bits in the right order, like an Etch-A-Sketch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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