caretaker

I'm too used to fast, trouble-free browsing now to go back to standard hard drives and windows os.

not2old

is this is the 20" screen desktop model, with a wired keyboard, or will you be going wireless keyboard?

What model year is the one that you purchased?

Do let us know how it works & how the graphics look for watching TV or movies?

not2old

which product type, make, model & specs is it that you have?

BristolUK

If the mouse and keyboard work well enough, they'll do.
Remember that primary use is 'playback' of previously downloaded to thumbdrive or EHD stuff. Click play and stop.

It's touchscreen, something else I have no interest in but maybe play, stop and pause can be done by touch.
PC Mag review suggests 2011/12

caretaker

I use solid state drives and Linux, with 64 bit Ubuntu, usually firefox browser but on the rare occasion chrome. Try a computer with an ssd instead of a sata drive sometime and compare. I have a herd of laptops, graduated sizes for different applications, and they're all similarly equipped. This big heavy Dell m6700 Covet isn't going anywhere on my lap, but the others could.

BristolUK

I think this might depend on what step up one has made in the past.

My first 'real' computer - from PC World, £349 plus free printer - was around 1999. It had all of 3gb....not the RAM, the actual hard drive.
Images on google took an age to load - half an inch at a time, going down the screen, if you were lucky. Video playback was a waste of time.

But surfing was good enough. I was on a couple of forums back then and that was okay. The Guardian pages loaded without delay.

My Dell over here was 512 RAM and 40g and it was good. Never slow and video playback, streaming, downloading was all good. (until I wore it out)

But I was aware that my laptop was quicker and better (and is still very good even now 4 and a half years on) so I can well believe I'll notice the difference with my next laptop which may well have an SSD with the extra cash I'll be willing to pay.

caretaker

When I first wanted to get one, 240gb ssd's were on sale at OTV Tech for about $75, now it's $150. A 120gb ssd for $70 or so will provide the same speed as a larger capacity, so your method of external storage (or in my case just adding a big sata drive for storage because there are 4 drive bays on this) works fine. I got a 480gb ssd for main drive in this one for $156 on sale but that wasn't necessary. I think the 500gb sata for storage was around $60. My Lenovo T520 has a 240gb ssd, the T61 and X200t both have 120gb ssd's. Linux isn't voodoo or fake news, also worth trying out and while it used to be strictly the territory of outsiders it's getting a lot of recognition now.

25 and 30 years ago I used to get cast-off computers from any source and if they showed any promise I'd bring in my friend Frankie and he'd get them running for a box of beer from the bar, just so we'd have internet in the club. It wasn't very consistent and we had to switch back and forth from mac to pc because anything from our office was Apple and everything I got outside wasn't. I was given a BC Hydro computer that still had a hard drive and all their office stuff on it, would be a scandal now, and it had windows 95. Very clunky but I got on the net with it.

BristolUK

I browse the Guardian weekly tech column (ask Jack) and on the open for comments part Linux is regularly praised.

It certainly makes me curious.

Last year I had a brief period of dual booting W7 and W10 on my partitioned lappie.

I suppose I could give Linux a go similarly.

caretaker

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