On Sat, 5 Dec 2015 11:24:40 -0700
"Snyder, Alexander" <alex@misteralexander.com> wrote:

> Howdy!
> 
> I need some help pricing a laptop. It's 5 years old, but I had it
> custom made in 2010, to get the best out of it.
> 
> It's a black, no-brand, Core i5, 15", 12GB DDR3, 120GB HDD.
> 
> It came with 8GB of memory, but I upgraded it to 12 very recently.
> 
> It's been my main Linux box, except for a 6 month span where I went
> "Slumming" with Win7, LOL.
> 
> I'm thinking it's worth around $500, but I'd like your input!
> 
> Here is a photo:
> https://goo.gl/photos/CrqMr7hZikbihXcF7

Hi Alex,

Here's my input:

Keep it. Never sell it. Use it til it drops.

12GB of RAM is almost never attainable new under $600, but people don't
care about RAM (except me). 120GB HD means very little room for VMs and
even data. The fact that it's a 2010 means it's probably built sturdier
than today's macbook air imitators, and that's a good thing. But not in
the marketplace.

Here's my input --- go poking around /proc/cpuinfo and find out whether
it's set up for hardware virtualization. If so, get yourself a 5400 RPM
(for cool running) 1T disk and put it in there. IIRC by 2010 everyone
had switched from IDE to sata, so this should be no problem. You'll
have a kickass machine that maybe might get CPU bound a little more
than others.

If you *really* want to speed this thing up, throw in a 256GB SSD, and
get an external USB spinning disk to hold big data.

When you have a laptop that runs Linux, you have a very valuable asset:
A laptop you know for sure runs Linux. Keep it!

SteveT

Steve Litt 
November 2015 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques
     of the Successful Technologist
http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
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