A New Start

[thealphaoverseer]

Hi Everyone!
I am very fed up with my SL410k. Although it has had a long history with my family (bought brand-new and with us ever since), it is just no good. It takes 5 seconds to load webpages and can't run two applications at once smoothly. The CPU is almost always at 100% capacity. I realized that for the same price to upgrade to 8GB RAM, I can pick up one of these: https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/subiaco ... 1250653532
So, if I sell my SL410k, I should be able to purchase that T60 and maybe a few upgrades so it is usable. What do you reckon? Also, how much do you think my SL410k will go for, and what does the 'k' mean?

[dr_st]

What are the specs, model number, or at least the CPU on your SL410k? Some of them had terrible single-core Celerons, the others had pretty high-end Core 2 Duos, better than anything you can get on a T60.

On average, I don't expect performance to be any better on a T60, in fact it will probably be worse, and you are limited to 3GB RAM rather than 8GB. Not an upgrade by any stretch of imagination.

[axur-delmeria]

Before you buy another laptop, it's best to know what you currently have. Aside from the SL410k model number, you need to provide us the following specs of your laptop:

Processor (model # and clock speed) if you're using windows, you can find this in Device Manager
RAM type, speed, and size
Graphics Chip (I'm expecting Intel GMA 4500)
HDD: brand, capacity, partitioning, and % free space.

Also, what version of Windows are you using?

This will give us more insight with regards to the machine's capabilities, which in turn will help us give you better advice on whether to replace the laptop or just upgrade certain parts.

[ThreeIguanasPerSecond]

It takes 5 seconds to load webpages and can't run two applications at once smoothly.

*ahem*. your SL410k has 2GB of RAM, doesn't that obviously give you the speed of a turtle? the web has been getting more and more bloated over the years, and 2 GB is... just asking for trouble. well, unless you're on Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

The CPU is almost always at 100% capacity.

you have a Pentium T4500. i mean, you can't expect it to pull through anything with a mere 1 MB of L2 cache, right? and for starters, the clock frequency is at an anemic 2.3 GHz. considering it's a Core 2, that's simply Atom-esque performance in this era.

how much do you think my SL410k will go for

have a look at the market's SL410 models around you, they're either excessively priced ($200+) or fairly priced ($50~$90). the main thing is, are you going to give it an exorbitant price tag? or are you going to sell it off for what it 'should' be worth in this age?

what does the 'k' mean?

unlike the other suffixes which has some form of logic in its name, this suffix doesn't. all it says is you have a low-end (think economy, like the R40e/R50e/R51e/R60e/R61e) SL410 that was specifically sold to the GCG (Greater China Group) states, nothing much.

What do you reckon?

the T60 will always be slower than your SL410k, even if you maxed it out with all possible upgrades. so let me put it this way, your SL410k has potential, but only if you max it out. now for what's most important, the investment of either machine is based on your perspective of how you see your current SL410k and that T60. the fact is that a maxed-out T60 will never be faster than a maxed-out SL410k, but we all know that speed isn't everything, so it all boils down to your personal choices at this point.

i can't tell you what's a right or a wrong choice, because like i said, it's all down to what you like the most.

[dr_st]

Upgrading to 8GB RAM, changing out the CPU to something like T9600 (hopefully there is no BIOS block), and getting an SSD can boost tons of new life into this machine. Much better than getting an old broken and dirty T60...

[axur-delmeria]

Upgrading to 8GB RAM, changing out the CPU to something like T9600 (hopefully there is no BIOS block), and getting an SSD can boost tons of new life into this machine. Much better than getting an old broken and dirty T60...

If OP laptop's RAM is 1x 2GB, buying one 4GB would put it to 6GB, which is a reasonable compromise IMO. After that, a 240GB SSD (or 120GB depending on his preference) to speed up boot and general responsiveness.

Let's just hope there's cheap T9600's where he lives. I've never had a Core 2 that fast.
My T9300 was on a platform that couldn't make full use of it (X61).

[TPFanatic]

What are your tastes and preferences, aside from ThinkPad?

If you're shelling out for a new ThinkPad get yourself something nice like a Broadwell unit with an IPS screen, 8GB of RAM, and an SSD.

[thealphaoverseer]

Aha! Thanks for the input! The classical T series always looked nice, but I guess I didn't realise the potential of my SL410k. It's running Win 7, but I'm thinking of upgrading to Win 10 by partioning the drive, if that's possible. I have like 6 spare SSDs at home, so storage isn't an issue. I also have spare RAM, but not DDR3. A T9600 isn't very cheap, although cheaper than 4GB of RAM. Would the performance increase dramatically if I swapped out the RAM and the CPU? I'm also not planning to keep it for long, since after the COVID restriction are over, I can pick up maybe a W541 for 300 or 400. Would the upgrades boost the sell price?

[thealphaoverseer]

Oh no. I can't partion the disk for 2 OS's. Maybe only Macbooks can do that. Goodbye Windows 7!

[thealphaoverseer]

Oh no! Windows 10 isn't installing. After I have selected the boot device from the boot menu, it flashes a dash repeatedly in the top left corner. It continued to do that for approximately 30 minutes, then I gave up because the fans were getting loud and the laptop getting hot.

[thealphaoverseer]

By my calculations, a T9600 and 4GB of RAM should cost approx. $20 each And I might be able to sell my Pentium T4500...
Is the T9800 better? It costs almost twice as much

[axur-delmeria]

Is the T9800 better? It costs almost twice as much

IMO the T9800 isn't worth the additional cost-- it's barely 5% faster (in terms of clock speed) than a T9600.

[TPFanatic]

Don't bother buying a new CPU for performance. The T4500 is a 64 bit dual core so it's as fundamentally and practically as good as any Core 2 Duo. A new CPU won't add any value either, because the value of this SL410K (and any used laptop) will never exceed that of the sum of its parts. So a new CPU is just additional cost to you, especially if you already plan on replacing it with a W541 (good choice).

You need to run an SSD to get any utility out of it. Don't bother with anything else until an SSD is in.

With an SSD, you can survive on 2GB of RAM, but it will still suck when you open your web browser. 4GB will suck less. 8GB would actually futureproof the machine.

As for Windows 10 not installing, your bootable media might not be created correctly. It should work reliably on a DVD.

[thealphaoverseer]

Thanks! I've got 8GB of RAM and a T9600 coming my way. Maybe I shouldn't have ordered the T9600 after all... Well, it's got 6 times the cache, so it should improve performance. After benchmarking my Pentium, it was performing way below average, so it probably needed replacement after all. Oh yes - and life is a lot easier when you have 6 spare SSDs at home .