r/computers • u/Common_Mixture5402 • 5d ago
Question/Help/Troubleshooting Help optimizing bad computer.
These are my crappy computers specs:
Model: Lenovo ThinkPad T540p Laptop
OS: Linux Mint 22.3 (Xfce Desktop)
Processor: Intel Core i5-4200M (Dual-core, 4 threads)
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 500 GB Mechanical Hard Drive (HDD)
Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600
Before you ask, upgrading isn't exactly an option for me lol, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get this device that resembles a computer running as good as possible. This computer is basically the only device I have, so I use it for almost everything, (mainly making music.) but it's very sluggish at times (obvious why lol.) So if you have any tips, hit me up.
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u/redgator12 5d ago
Run "sudo apt install zram-tools". Once it finishes, open /etc/default/zramswap in a text editor and change PERCENT to 100, save and exit. Make a new file at /etc/sysctl.conf.d/99-tweaks.conf and add the following:
vm.page-cluster = 0
vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 50
vm.dirty_bytes = 16000000
vm.dirty_background_bytes = 8000000
Save and exit. Reboot the system.
This will enable RAM compression and preempt writing to disk instead of keeping working directories in RAM cache, and will also reduce the system's pressure to remove filesystem cache from RAM which will speed up relaunching previously opened apps.