This computer (assuming nothing blows up) should be usable for the next 5 or so years.Realtek High Definition Audio, v.R2.33, A01
Conclusionįor less than $200, you can upgrade an old computer. So the Vostro now has a mid range Radeon HD 6570, which is probably powerful enough for it’s gaming capacity, and my server has the dinky HD 8350, which is enough to watch TV. (If I couldn’t get this for free, similar cards cost between AU$20 and AU$50 on Ebay.)Īnd I swapped it into my do-everything-server (serving files, recording and viewing TV, hosting this blog, and a few VMs as well). It’s a pretty terrible video card, but more than capable of putting pixels on the screen. I found an unused video card at work - some variant of an AMD Radeon HD 8350. While web browsing, YouTube and Word worked OK, it was basically impossible to play any games.Īnd a kids computer needs some level of games (if only to get them off YouTube for a while). The integrated video of older Intel CPUs is very ordinary. Programs and apps load and run more than fast enough.Īnd, most importantly, YouTube works. I didn’t grab any benchmarks before or after, but the after experience is certainly more than acceptable. The 320GB disk will remain for backups, games and other programs.
I clean installed Windows 10 from a USB, which was created on another computer, to the SSD. (I went for a PCI NIC because a video card is likely to take up two slots, so the PCI Express 1x slot would be unusable) I didn’t have any way to mount the 2.5” device, but that wasn’t a problem - the drive is so light the cables keep it in place.Īfter a reboot, the new disk appeared in the BIOS OK.įinally, I installed the Wireless NIC in a PCI slot. I connected the SSD, and re-arranged the cables so they weren’t quite as tangled. (Bad RAM is often the cause of system instability, so testing early is worth your while.) I tested the 4GB RAM using Memtest86 overnight without issue. So I installed the 8GB in another computer and swapped 4GB out.ĤGB looks like the maximum the Vostro 230 will support, so 4GB it is. Unfortunately, the computer didn’t like the 8GB of RAM I bought.
I was asked to give a short presentation at my church on how to remove a virus from your PC.Īnd I thought the best way to do that is to install some malware and actually remove it. Even an 8 year old PC is usable, with $200 of upgrades.