this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
31 points (94.3% liked)

Hardware

7523 readers
43 users here now

All things related to technology hardware, with a focus on computing hardware.

Some other hardware communities across Lemmy:

Rules (Click to Expand):

  1. Follow the Lemmy.world Rules - https://mastodon.world/about

  2. Be kind. No bullying, harassment, racism, sexism etc. against other users.

  3. No Spam, illegal content, or NSFW content.

  4. Please stay on topic, adjacent topics (e.g. software) are fine if they are strongly relevant to technology hardware. Another example would be business news for hardware-focused companies.

  5. Please try and post original sources when possible (as opposed to summaries).

  6. If posting an archived version of the article, please include a URL link to the original article in the body of the post.

Icon by "icon lauk" under CC BY 3.0

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world
Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social
31
10 years old laptop - is it time to retire? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 month ago by someacnt@sh.itjust.works to c/hardware@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

My dad has a laptop I used to use, which has been working well so far. Recently, he got frequent out-of-memory (RAM) issues - the computer freezes, forcing to restart. It is hard to diagnose, but it might be that 8GB RAM might be too small even for light workload these days.

So, I just checked when it is produced - 2015-10. So it is now 10 years old. While I am wary of producing e-wastes, maybe that was long enough life we got out of it. Perhaps it costs more in electricity than buying a replacement laptop? So, I want to ask - is it time to retire this laptop?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Lippy@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

A laptop from 2015 probably has an Intel 4th or 5th gen CPU. If 8 GB of RAM is an issue, then you could upgrade it to 16 GB in theory, provided that it isn't soldered down. That could keep it going for a bit longer if 8 GB is the only problem that keeps it from daily use. I'd say that 8 GB is about borderline these days. It's still perfectly fine for basic web browsing but not much more.

Even though RAM prices are in the stratosphere, DDR3 prices aren't as badly affected, so you could get 16 GB relatively cheaply. I'd look for 2x 8 GB DDR3L-1600 SO-DIMMs. Just ensure that the laptop can accept it.

Upgrading the hard drive to an SSD will make a huge difference for performance as well if that hasn't been done already. Unfortunately, 2.5" SATA SSDs today are even more of a ripoff than M.2 SSDs at their current elevated prices because they aren't really being produced anymore. At that point then yeah I agree with the sentiment that putting the money towards a new laptop will go much further.