Worth updating/improving old NEC

New laptops are powerful and cheap - but windows 10 can be a rare old pain in the bum.

Why windows, and why a computer?

Would an Android tab or even phone do the job? I'm using a simple Samsung J2 core with a headset - works great for online interviews and training sessions.
I just popped it onto a tabletop tripod and it's fine.

Just throwing an idea into your head.

Last year, I bought a used 2008 MacBook (2 GB RAM, 2 GHz Intel core 2).   Your NEC is both newer and faster to start with than my MacBook.   I set it up with a used SSD that I already had, to use outside of home with no financial or other confidential information on the machine.  The SSD has a noticeable impact of perceived speed. 

I wouldn't try to run a CAD program on it but it is just fine for web surfing and running movies in VLC.  I don't know how fast your onboard wi-fi is but if you hook up to your router with an Ethernet cable, your only speed limitation for Skype, or other similar software that you might use for teaching online, will not be the machine but your ISP.  Of course you will need a camera/microphone if the machine does not have one.

Nice man, I hate buying new junk when old qualitiy stuff was fine

NEC r great btw..

Don't suppose anyone knows where to get an Jap market NEC charger?????  snowball in hell im guessing

in NT too 0r BMT or QN

eBay or Amazon would be my first choice.

I always get 6 month most expensive viettel ( 1 month free 180k) but i doubt i need it.

thats the thing. i just dont know about SATA 1-2-3 etc so dont know if extra RAm and stuff would any any value

BTW,  ACER r crap

The upgrade to the SSD will give you noticeably faster performance. The RAM will likely not give you very much in terms of performance unless you are using RAM hungry applications. I would do the SSD upgrade first and see if you are satisfied with the performance improvements. I would recommend Samsung EVO SSDs. I believe the current model is the EVO 860. They have served me well and their data transfer software for windows has always worked flawlessly for me.

I hope im not straying too far now but like, the NEC says RAM at 4500mhz for example, whereas the ACER says 1120Mhz or sth for example?

is that significant?

There are many different types of RAM. Each machine is designed to use only certain types-that run at certain speeds. Newer faster RAM is, well, newer and faster, but very unlikely to be supported by your machine. You can lookup the specs of your machine to see what kind of RAM it will support. It is possible that you could use a slightly faster type of RAM in your machine, but again, unless you are using really RAM intensive applications, you will see very little benefit from upgrading it.

I would recommend testing Linux Mint.  It's very small compared to Windows and runs well on older systems.  Should work great on an I5.  You can download the program and burn to CD or USB and test it without installing on your system.   I switched about a year ago after having major issues with a Windows 10 update that I couldn't recover from.  I will never go back to Windows.  It functions very similar to Windows 7.  It has a very small learning curve and doesn't require the use of terminal commands (Although, the terminal is very handy for anyone wanting to learn a few basics).  There is a very strong community for getting assistance if needed.

Sugarcrisp wrote:

I would recommend testing Linux Mint. .

Interesting - I gather it can be booted from a flash but what software will run with it?
I use Google Chrome, PowerPoint, word and so on.
Can they (or whatever does the same job) be run on Linux?

Sugarcrisp wrote:

I switched about a year ago after having major issues with a Windows 10 update that I couldn't recover from.  I will never go back to Windows.

Windows 10 was written by a bunch of steaming idiots that had managed to forget an operating system is there to for users, not the operating system.
I still have one W 10 machine, because I can't find and alternative, but that goes as soon as I do. and it's never allowed anywhere near the internet so Microsoft can't naff it up.
Hang on - I lied - I have another W 10 laptop gathering dust in a drawer because it's about as much good as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Android can't really manage PPT quite as well, and Chrome's translate functions aren't even close to as good with their Android version so I carry a W 8 tab and a W 10 tab for the moment.

Hang on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI7QQqnV1P8

not watched it yet

There is a very large selection of Open Source software available for free and many of the big named software also (Google Chrome).  As for Microsoft programs.  No!  However, there are many alternatives that can be just as good or better.  One of the best Open source office suites is LibreOffice.  It has everything that MS Office provides and it's free.  If you need to have MS Office, there are online options available that work within any operating system.  The best thing to do is download the Linux mint operating system and test it prior to deciding.  I prefer to install on USB, but both options work great.  You will notice a very good improvement in performance without paying for hardware upgrades.

I might well try it on that 10 laptop.
Thanks for the idea

Sugarcrisp wrote:

There is a very large selection of Open Source software available for free and many of the big named software also (Google Chrome).  As for Microsoft programs.  No!  However, there are many alternatives that can be just as good or better.  One of the best Open source office suites is LibreOffice.  It has everything that MS Office provides and it's free.  If you need to have MS Office, there are online options available that work within any operating system.  The best thing to do is download the Linux mint operating system and test it prior to deciding.  I prefer to install on USB, but both options work great.  You will notice a very good improvement in performance without paying for hardware upgrades.

I've had great results using Apache Open Office.

https://www.openoffice.org

Do you know if it is compatible?

LibreOffice and OpenOffice were built from the same base.  I would say that LibreOffice is a little more polished, but they both work great.