Linux Mint and laptops

[AZgl1800]

the ASUS TP500 series FlipBooks like mine, are a PITA to get the MediaTek WiFi going, no Linux support period.

[trope]

I'm either directly of indirectly responsible for Mint on about 7 or 8 Dell laptops. All function perfectly. The most recent purchase was in May this year. When I buy a new laptop - I look for a few features in general.

1) Intel CPU and on CPU graphics. I generally avoid dedicated GPUs.
2) I never get touch screens.
3) For RAM I choose either 4GB or 8GB - never less and never more.

Why not more than 8GB of RAM?

[whm1974]

Has anyone brought a laptop from System76 before?
www.system76.com

[Reorx]

I'm either directly of indirectly responsible for Mint on about 7 or 8 Dell laptops. All function perfectly. The most recent purchase was in May this year. When I buy a new laptop - I look for a few features in general.

1) Intel CPU and on CPU graphics. I generally avoid dedicated GPUs.
2) I never get touch screens.
3) For RAM I choose either 4GB or 8GB - never less and never more.

Why not more than 8GB of RAM?

Because 4 is more than enough for my needs... up to 8 might give me "enhanced" multitasking capabilities. Anything more is just wasteful of resources IMO.

If you think you need more, open "System Monitor" to the "Resources" tab and have a look at the "Memory and Swap" section... leave it open as you work and see what happens. If you are using a lot of Swap, you might need more RAM... OR, you might need to edit your "Swappiness"!...

SystemMonitor.png

[AZgl1800]

I'm either directly of indirectly responsible for Mint on about 7 or 8 Dell laptops. All function perfectly. The most recent purchase was in May this year. When I buy a new laptop - I look for a few features in general.

1) Intel CPU and on CPU graphics. I generally avoid dedicated GPUs.
2) I never get touch screens.
3) For RAM I choose either 4GB or 8GB - never less and never more.

Why not more than 8GB of RAM?

I can tell you that the 12gB of RAM that I have now made a tremendous difference....
can keep a lot of stuff floating in RAM and it flies like a greased lightning.

[rui no onna]

I can tell you that the 12gB of RAM that I have now made a tremendous difference....
can keep a lot of stuff floating in RAM and it flies like a greased lightning.

I have a feeling you're underestimating the effect of the SSD.

[laurel]

whoa wow! and dirt cheap..
dunno why but i suspect it isnt the same pin setup as the toshiba one its a weird one
mk2529gsg
they dont show it but what i found so far by buying a dud already is the 7 /side would be fine
the toshibas got a 7 pin then a(male )raised plastic area then 2pins for the 9 side
one i bought sais it fitted all mini 1.8s too
except it didnt
but thanks heaps for that link, ive saved it in case

i had to smile last night
i found the disk health check bit
and 9 bad sectors rest say ok and some of it kept saying aged....
the laptop is 2011 made, funny 7yrs=aged;-/
im running saved from tip desktop thats probably far older, i can now joke i have a geriatric pc;-)

[trope]

So in the picture that you posted, I just need to pay attention to the "swap" and not the "memory"? I looked at it periodically throughout the day and the memory was often in the 80s and above 90%, while the swap did not seem to go beyond 12-15%.

I'm either directly of indirectly responsible for Mint on about 7 or 8 Dell laptops. All function perfectly. The most recent purchase was in May this year. When I buy a new laptop - I look for a few features in general.

1) Intel CPU and on CPU graphics. I generally avoid dedicated GPUs.
2) I never get touch screens.
3) For RAM I choose either 4GB or 8GB - never less and never more.

Why not more than 8GB of RAM?

Because 4 is more than enough for my needs... up to 8 might give me "enhanced" multitasking capabilities. Anything more is just wasteful of resources IMO.

If you think you need more, open "System Monitor" to the "Resources" tab and have a look at the "Memory and Swap" section... leave it open as you work and see what happens. If you are using a lot of Swap, you might need more RAM... OR, you might need to edit your "Swappiness"!...

SystemMonitor.png

[Reorx]

So in the picture that you posted, I just need to pay attention to the "swap" and not the "memory"? I looked at it periodically throughout the day and the memory was often in the 80s and above 90%, while the swap did not seem to go beyond 12-15%.

Maybe you RAM needs are greater than mine!... How much RAM do you have in that machine now? If your RAM usage is typically in the 80s and 90s, your performance would probably benefit from either running less tasks simultaneously OR installing more RAM. Can you post a screenshot like I did???

[catweazel]

If your RAM usage is typically in the 80s and 90s, your performance would probably benefit from either running less tasks simultaneously OR installing more RAM.

That's not necessarily true. The OP could have 32GB and still see that much RAM consumed due to the DE, say for example, caching large files after a copy, in which case it will be released by the kernel as and when needed. It's best to find out how much RAM the OP has before diagnosing the need for more RAM.

Cheers.

[Reorx]

If your RAM usage is typically in the 80s and 90s, your performance would probably benefit from either running less tasks simultaneously OR installing more RAM.

That's not necessarily true. The OP could have 32GB and still see that much RAM consumed due to the DE, say for example, caching large files after a copy, in which case it will be released by the kernel as and when needed. It's best to find out how much RAM the OP has before diagnosing the need for more RAM.

Cheers.

Hey CW - good to have you back... I DID ask how much RAM was in the machine and hedged my RAM size recommendation by saying if RAM usage was typically 80 to 90%...

[trope]

Attached.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am running out of space on my HD? Have 8 GB memory which is the max for my system, but as the cost to replace the HD with a bigger one approaches the cost of getting another laptop, I might do that, since I do not know that my current laptop can take an SSD.

[lsemmens]

Attached.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am running out of space on my HD? Have 8 GB memory which is the max for my system, but as the cost to replace the HD with a bigger one approaches the cost of getting another laptop, I might do that, since I do not know that my current laptop can take an SSD.

I'm not sure where you get the cost of new HDD is as much as a new laptop. I just put an SSD in an older laptop. Provided that the drive is Sata you should be able to upgrade easily. What make and model laptop is it. Then we can reliably advise. FWIW you can also use an external drive and move a lot of your non-essential stuff (pictures, music, documents etc) to that.

[trope]

Have a dell latitude e6410, which came out ~2010?. I have not determined whether it can take an SSD, is not described in the specifications maybe because it is too old. Another question is whether third-party HDs are are as reliable as Dell's. A 1 TB new Dell standard 2.5 inch hard drive is around $130. I could get a several years newer laptop (still used) for that price with a much bigger hard drive. And 8 GB is the maximum memory. If it would help to get more for performance reasons, then I would have to upgrade laptops.

[rui no onna]

Have a dell latitude e6410, which came out ~2010?. I have not determined whether it can take an SSD, is not described in the specifications maybe because it is too old. Another question is whether third-party HDs are are as reliable as Dell's. A 1 TB new Dell standard 2.5 inch hard drive is around $130. I could get a several years newer laptop (still used) for that price with a much bigger hard drive. And 8 GB is the maximum memory. If it would help to get more for performance reasons, then I would have to upgrade laptops.

Dell desktops and laptops use standard parts and are not any more reliable compared to drives you get off, for example, Newegg. Dell just has a big markup. SSDs use regular SATA interfaces. I expect most computers built within at least the last 15 years would be compatible with SSDs.

[trope]

Have a dell latitude e6410, which came out ~2010?. I have not determined whether it can take an SSD, is not described in the specifications maybe because it is too old. Another question is whether third-party HDs are are as reliable as Dell's. A 1 TB new Dell standard 2.5 inch hard drive is around $130. I could get a several years newer laptop (still used) for that price with a much bigger hard drive. And 8 GB is the maximum memory. If it would help to get more for performance reasons, then I would have to upgrade laptops.

Dell desktops and laptops use standard parts and are not any more reliable compared to drives you get off, for example, Newegg. Dell just has a big markup. SSDs use regular SATA interfaces. I expect most computers built within at least the last 15 years would be compatible with SSDs.

Is there any way to confirm that it can take an SSD? I am assuming you mean as a replacement to the current HD? Because if I open one, try to install it, and it doesn't work, I am not sure I would be able to return it.

[rui no onna]

Is there any way to confirm that it can take an SSD? I am assuming you mean as a replacement to the current HD? Because if I open one, try to install it, and it doesn't work, I am not sure I would be able to return it.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=e6410+ssd

[Reorx]

Attached.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am running out of space on my HD? Have 8 GB memory which is the max for my system, but as the cost to replace the HD with a bigger one approaches the cost of getting another laptop, I might do that, since I do not know that my current laptop can take an SSD.

Thanx for the info...

1) SO, I doubt your HD "running out of space" is causing any problems. Out of curiosity, how much unused space is left on the drive? You could free up some HD space by moving some of the bulkier stuff off line to a DVD or USB stick or USB HD. This will show you exactly how much performance hit your HD "fullness" is causing...

2) What do you do that takes up 7+GB of RAM space??? I don't think I have ever seen one of my machines use over 3GB of RAM and it only rarely is over 2GB. On my home machine (with 8GB of RAM), I have never seen any SWAP used! If you are running with 100 browser windows open, you might consider running with less! If changing your computing "style" is something you don't want to do, it might be time for a new laptop with bigger everything!

3) If you want to be able to hibernate your laptop, use a SWAP size a little larger than your RAM size. On my 8GB laptop I use a 9GB SWAP. If you don't ever hibernate, you could use a smaller SWAP and use the disk space in / or /home.

[trope]

Attached.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am running out of space on my HD? Have 8 GB memory which is the max for my system, but as the cost to replace the HD with a bigger one approaches the cost of getting another laptop, I might do that, since I do not know that my current laptop can take an SSD.

Thanx for the info...

1) SO, I doubt your HD "running out of space" is causing any problems. Out of curiosity, how much unused space is left on the drive? You could free up some HD space by moving some of the bulkier stuff off line to a DVD or USB stick or USB HD. This will show you exactly how much performance hit your HD "fullness" is causing...

2) What do you do that takes up 7+GB of RAM space??? I don't think I have ever seen one of my machines use over 3GB of RAM and it only rarely is over 2GB. On my home machine (with 8GB of RAM), I have never seen any SWAP used! If you are running with 100 browser windows open, you might consider running with less! If changing your computing "style" is something you don't want to do, it might be time for a new laptop with bigger everything!

3) If you want to be able to hibernate your laptop, use a SWAP size a little larger than your RAM size. On my 8GB laptop I use a 9GB SWAP. If you don't ever hibernate, you could use a smaller SWAP and use the disk space in / or /home.

Have 2.1 GB remaining, mint keeps bringing up warnings.

I'm glad you pointed this out as I had no idea about it, I see that I can determine under "Processes" where the memory is being used. 2 GB to Windows 7 in my virtualbox which I can decrease and see what happens. My browser is using maybe close to 2 GB. I will update it to the latest version and if it still uses a lot, will switch browsers.

I don't think I've been using hibernate, mainly suspend. Is there any drawback to using Hibernate? I can switch settings, but I must increase the SWAP? How do I do that?

[Reorx]

Have 2.1 GB remaining, mint keeps bringing up warnings.

I'm glad you pointed this out as I had no idea about it, I see that I can determine under "Processes" where the memory is being used. 2 GB to Windows 7 in my virtualbox which I can decrease and see what happens. My browser is using maybe close to 2 GB. I will update it to the latest version and if it still uses a lot, will switch browsers.

I don't think I've been using hibernate, mainly suspend. Is there any drawback to using Hibernate? I can switch settings, but I must increase the SWAP? How do I do that?

Don't increase your SWAP. In order to get more disk space available, delete or move data off the drive. Video files have a tendency to be bulky - remove as able.

Your computing needs are definitely not "average"... you will need to change your computing habits or get a new laptop... Virtual machines SUCK RESOURCES - disk space, RAM space, CPU cycles, etc. Out of curiosity, why run Win7 continuously in a VM???

How many tabs do you routinely keep open in your browser (2GB?!?!?!?)