Can Ubuntu help this old PC

[The Jinx]

Okay I am currently running WinXP on an old eMachine T6003 and I've just about had it with the laggy performance. I was wondering if Ubuntu can speed things up and breath some life into this old pc.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester @ 1.8ghz
2 x 256mb DDR PC3200 (200mhz)
MSI RS480-IL w/ integrated ATI Xpress 200

I am basically just going to be downloading videos and my occasional homework assignments. The problem I ran into when using WinXP is, when I am about to finish downloading a file, say 200mb in size, with Azureus and I am watching a video. Once the file is finished and Azureus begins checking it the whole pc pretty much is rendered useless until it is done checking it. In addition, I think that the lack of Ram I have available (384mb) also affects the performance under WinXP.

Looking forward to your suggestions

Thank you,

Update:

Okay, well I tried booting up Hardy Heron last night as a livecd and I couldn't get pass the logon screen. Everytime I tries to loadup the session I just redirected back to the logon screen. I did manage to get to a useable desktop when I choose the failsafe GNOME session. Does anyone know what is happening?

[cardinals_fan]

Try Zenwalk or Vector on that box.

[gletob]

Ubuntu works on my eMachines with a intel celeron 2.3 Ghz with 512 ram and integrated graphics runs ubuntu fine
EDIT: Compiz and Emerald work great

[gali98]

Okay I am currently running WinXP on an old eMachine T6003 and I've just about had it with the laggy performance. I was wondering if Ubuntu can speed things up and breath some life into this old pc.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester @ 1.8ghz
2 x 256mb DDR PC3200 (200mhz)
MSI RS480-IL w/ integrated ATI Xpress 200

I am basically just going to be downloading videos and my occasional homework assignments. The problem I ran into when using WinXP is, when I am about to finish downloading a file, say 200mb in size, with Azureus and I am watching a video. Once the file is finished and Azureus begins checking it the whole pc pretty much is rendered useless until it is done checking it. In addition, I think that the lack of Ram I have available (384mb) also affects the performance under WinXP.

Looking forward to your suggestions

Thank you,

Well just to inform you... you do not have an old pc. I run ubuntu on a Pentium II (416 megahertz) with 512 ram and it works great. Now bear in mind that it is still quite slow, but your porcessor is about 10 times better than mine (no I didn't do the math)
I think ubuntu would run great on your computer... Maybe not with fancy graphics and whatnot, but you really don't need all that.
Kory

[w7kmc]

Okay I am currently running WinXP on an old eMachine T6003 and I've just about had it with the laggy performance. I was wondering if Ubuntu can speed things up and breath some life into this old pc.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester @ 1.8ghz
2 x 256mb DDR PC3200 (200mhz)
MSI RS480-IL w/ integrated ATI Xpress 200

I am basically just going to be downloading videos and my occasional homework assignments. The problem I ran into when using WinXP is, when I am about to finish downloading a file, say 200mb in size, with Azureus and I am watching a video. Once the file is finished and Azureus begins checking it the whole pc pretty much is rendered useless until it is done checking it. In addition, I think that the lack of Ram I have available (384mb) also affects the performance under WinXP.

Looking forward to your suggestions

Thank you,

I use a Dell Dimension L667R machine with 320 MB and a 667 Mhz processor with Ubuntu 8.04 with no problems whatsoever. Hibernate and suspend work great and everything else does, too! Video on CNN is a little on the slow side (Flash) and sometimes my kids complain that flash video games are a bit slow compared to my other PC. I wrote about it in my blog here. (http://kmcgra.blogspot.com/2008/04/ubuntu-804-upgrade-success.html)

Xubuntu is another option. I wrote about it here (http://kmcgra.blogspot.com/2008/01/resurecting-old-pc.html) running on the same PC. In the end I settled on a straight Ubuntu install, since the difference was minimal between the two distros.

It looks like your specs are better than mine, so I would say go for it with Ubuntu or Xubuntu, depending on the desktop you like. Give the Live CD or WUBI a try to make sure things work.

You will not get top notch performance, but I think it is great for web surfing, and the like. I am using the very same machine to post reply.

[The Mekon]

I am writing this on an old HP Pavilion 710 which has 384 Mb of memory and runs a 1.8Ghz Celeron processor. At present I am using 55% of memory and about 5% of swap and it runs pretty soothly. My operating system is Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron but I don't use any visual effects as the crummy on board video is too slow.

It is horses for courses - if you want a blindingly fast gaming machine forget it, but if you want an adequate machine for web browsing, emails wrd processing the your old computer should be OK using Ubuntu.

Brian

[John T. Monkey]

1.6ghz Pentium M and 512mb RAM here, works fine for me.
I'm also running openSuse 10.3 on my other computer: 1.4ghz AMd Athlon, 512mb ram, Tornado GeForce2 graphics card, 32mb. Woo!

[Zero Prime]

Okay I am currently running WinXP on an old eMachine T6003 and I've just about had it with the laggy performance. I was wondering if Ubuntu can speed things up and breath some life into this old pc.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester @ 1.8ghz
2 x 256mb DDR PC3200 (200mhz)
MSI RS480-IL w/ integrated ATI Xpress 200

I am basically just going to be downloading videos and my occasional homework assignments. The problem I ran into when using WinXP is, when I am about to finish downloading a file, say 200mb in size, with Azureus and I am watching a video. Once the file is finished and Azureus begins checking it the whole pc pretty much is rendered useless until it is done checking it. In addition, I think that the lack of Ram I have available (384mb) also affects the performance under WinXP.

Looking forward to your suggestions

Thank you,

In one word, Yes. When I started using Ubuntu it was nearly the same PC as yours. I had Nvidia integrated graphics instead of ATI. Ubuntu will work great on that machine. A new graphics card in the open PCIe slot will make it even better. I would go with Nvidia though.

[mmb1]

Ubuntu always manages to surprise me with how well it can run on lower performance systems. Try the default GNOME, then XFCE, and move on down the line until something meets your requirements. Best of luck.

[Tundro Walker]

I was running WinXP on an 800mhz w/386mb ram, and it was smooth. (Had to tweak a lot of services, but it was smooth). Ubuntu was a bit sluggish on it, but Xubuntu ran smooth on that same rig. I'm sure Fluxbuntu would be good, too.

[gameryoshi600]

try xubuntu

[CREEPING DEATH]

I know Ubuntu 7.10 runs fine on lesser equiment, try 8.04 and report back!

CD

[The Jinx]

Okay, well I tried booting up Hardy Heron last night as a livecd and I couldn't get pass the logon screen. Everytime I tries to loadup the session I just redirected back to the logon screen. I did manage to get to a useable desktop when I choose the failsafe GNOME session. Does anyone know what is happening?

[regomodo]

That's hardly slow or old. Ok, the ram is a little lacking perhaps but Ubuntu will be fine. Hell even openSuse will work on that

[chucky chuckaluck]

if you're concerned about performance, you might try a minimal installation, like doing a cli installation from the alternate cd, then adding x, a light wm (openbox, fluxbox, dwm) and whatever apps you need. also, as i recall, azureus is a pretty hefty app (i almost never use torrents). you might try something lighter like rtorrent. terminal apps will use less memory than gui apps, so you might want to use terminal apps for most things and use the memory you save for your most treasured gui apps. ('treasured'? who tf talks like that?)

[CREEPING DEATH]

X isn't liking your video card or something. I usualy install from the alternate CD, much faster and reliable.

CD