the inspiron

The Inspiron 3252 is a machine with below-average specs for 2016. Boasting a Pentium N3700 clocked at 1.60 GHz, and 8 GB of RAM, it chugs along. The place where I work was going to throw it out, and because of its small size and low power consumption, I figured it’d make a great machine for projects. Low power consumption means less heat, and when your dorm AC doesn’t work right, it’s great.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out what to do with it. As of now, it’s just an Ubuntu distro-hopping PC. I don’t trust this Pentium computer on Windows. The only reason I actually use Windows anymore is for gaming and the occasional time I open Visual Studio.

I went back and forth between Kubuntu, Deepin, Steam OS, and Mint. Today, I wanted to revisit Pop!_OS, as it’s what I ran on my laptop before I switched to Kubuntu.

With other machines, I had a clear focus on what I wanted to use them for. My Raspberry Pi has been a game console for many years now, (except that one week I used it as a Pi-Hole), and my Windows 98 Gateway PC was a retro gaming machine for the short time I used it before I went back to college.

While I’ve been here up at college, this desktop has been used for many things. I brought it up here initially as a Steam OS minicomputer because I knew I’d have reliable Ethernet connections between the common rooms and my room. The Inspiron is not suited to play games at all, so I’d stream from my main PC.

After I had gotten bored with it, it sat around under my desk for a while. Bringing the wires downstairs became a pain, and not many people seemed interested in the LAN party I was basically throwing in the common room.

Just recently, my motherboard on my main PC died. This was the computer’s time to shine, and it performed decently well while running the latest version of Linux Mint. I did a few homework assignments and coding on it with no issues.

Having said that, YouTube exists, and this computer can barely handle 720p60, let alone 1080p60. It doesn’t matter what the operating system or workload is, the video just stutters as that poor Pentium tries to keep up.

Because I have a nice, big 144Hz monitor now, I wanted to use it. It turns out that it’s just much easier to hook my laptop up to my monitors instead. Now, I can watch YouTube videos with no problems, and as a bonus, any work I do in classes easily carries over to the big screen. This completely negates the need for the desktop.

The setup for my laptop is a pain though, and I’d much rather have a consistent desktop setup instead. When my new motherboard comes in, the Inspiron will probably be put back on the shelf. I’m hoping in the future it’ll see more use because right now it’s just collecting dust.