Linux Distro Suggestions for Dell Inspiron 530

[Cornbredlover]

Hello Everyone,

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 530 that I was looking to make into a linux machine. I have pretty much 0 experience with linux and I'm looking for a dedicated machine to mess around on. The only things I'm really looking for is for the distro to have a GUI and for the distro to be pretty light weight, the system has a hard time enough running windows 10 and 7, anything that would make it more responsive would be massive.

 

The Specs are:

CPU: Intel Celeron 450 (I think? in windows it's listed as a Intel(r) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 2.4 GHz)

RAM: 5 GB

GPU AMD Radeon HD 6450

Storage 2 drives one 300 GB one 455 GB

 

If what I'm looking for is just not possible for a system this outta date please let me know, I'll probably just turn it into a minecraft server.

 

Thanks in advance!

[r00tb33r]

Try Windows 11 Superlite by GhostSpectre.  Made my C2D laptop usable again.  *Much* better than Windows 10.

 

Brave is a good choice of browser for such old systems.

[RollyShed]

1 hour ago, Cornbredlover said:

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 530 that I was looking to make into a linux machine. ..... the system has a hard time enough running windows 10 and 7, anything that would make it more responsive would be massive.

The first thing to do would be fit an SSD. That gives x10 faster storage access.

Personally I then install Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop.

 

Looking at the CPU rating, looks like 920. I've installed Mint on lower specd machines.

 

The suggested installation comes with a browser, office suite and a lot more and a lot more available.

There is also a very good discussion forum for Mint.

 

The key item is the solid state drive to up the performance.

If at a later date you get something better, the disk can be moved across to it with no problems.

 

The existing disks could be used for additional storage space if needed.

[thevictor390]

The tricky part is it's hard to have a preference for a distro until you've actually experienced a few different ones. It won't matter much to a beginner except for the look and feel of the default desktop. Feel free to try out any of the common suggestions like Linux Mint, Manjaro, Ubuntu, Fedora.... it doesn't really matter just to get started. As you learn you may encounter things that you do or don't like and you can then re-evaluate.

 

Another thing to note is that for as many distributions of Linux as there are, most of them use the same handful of "desktop environments" which is the part you actually click on and interact with. When looking at the options for a distribution, e.g. Mint, the page will probably reference which one is trying to be lightweight and easier to run. Typically this is XFCE or LXQT but there may be new ones out there too. With 5 GB RAM you probably will want to go with the lighter ones. I have personally found that it doesn't make a massive difference though, so there's really no harm in trying whatever you want.

[RollyShed]

RAM - the minimum is 2GB for Linux Mint Cinnamon and yes, it works well. Not the most powerful. but that's all I can have on one laptop, ASUS T200, that I use when travelling. It does everything I need and I don't know of anything it can't do.

 

That means 5GB is plenty for most uses. Gaming is a totally different thing.

[xAcid9]

23 hours ago, Cornbredlover said:

the system has a hard time enough running windows 10 and 7

Those spec shouldn't have problem running Windows 7 imo, maybe your HDD is dying or too slow. Try get an SSD. 

 

As for distro recommendation, maybe Manjaro XFCE. 

[goatedpenguin]

If you are an expericent linux user I reccommend going with arch even though it is not the most stable distro out there it is very lightweight if you are a begginer you can try using fedora or linux mint and see which one suits your computer the best

[goatedpenguin]

is there any specific purpose for this laptop for linux to be installed?