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What OS for a really slow pc?

JordanMac
By JordanMac
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Go to solution Solved by Volbet,

I would recommend putting either Ubuntu or Linux Mint on the computer. He will experience a speed boost. It depends on his use though. If he wants to play games Windows XP might be the way to go.

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at the moment my friend is running a 10 year old dell with.... windows vista.... its painfully slow and he is complaining about it too me. I told him that its mainly the hardware being so old, but windows vista is terrible and my question is... is linux going to be faster than say windows 8 on this system? if so, what distro? i have zero knowledge or experience with linux so sorry if this is a bit of an obvious answer.

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

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I would recommend putting either Ubuntu or Linux Mint on the computer. He will experience a speed boost. It depends on his use though. If he wants to play games Windows XP might be the way to go.

Nova doctrina terribilis sit perdere

Audio format guides: Vinyl records | Cassette tapes

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That totally depends on the linux. Try using something with a leightweight Desktop enviroment, like XFCE on xubuntu, or something with LXDE.

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xp or ubuntu 

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it will be believed.

-Adolf Hitler 

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Convince him to upgrade...

CPU: i5 4690K  CPU Cooler: Corsair H100   Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97X UD3H   Memory: G.Skill (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866   Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" SSD/Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM   GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti SC 2GB   Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II (Black) ATX Mid Tower   PSU: CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified   Optical Drive: MSI DH-24AAS-17 R DVD/CD Writer   Operating System: Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)

 

 

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I would recommend putting either Ubuntu or Linux Mint on the computer. He will experience a speed boost. It depends on his use though. If he wants to play games Windows XP might be the way to go.

he doesn't play games on pc, he is just web browsing and basic not very demanding work. i've looked into ubuntu, what is the software compatibility like?

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

| NZXT Switch 810 | i5-3570k | gigabyte UD-5H | Corsair Vengeance 8gb ram | GTX 670 | 2x 60gb intel 330 series ssd's in raid 0 | 1tb seagate barracuda hdd | Corsair tx750m | XSPC razor GPU and CPU waterblocks | XSPC d5 vario pump | Thermochill Pa140.3 | phoyba 280mm radiator | Chromed Copper tubing |

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Convince him to upgrade...

this friend is like an 80 year old in an 18 year olds body, he doesn't know anything about tech and is scared to upgrade.

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

| NZXT Switch 810 | i5-3570k | gigabyte UD-5H | Corsair Vengeance 8gb ram | GTX 670 | 2x 60gb intel 330 series ssd's in raid 0 | 1tb seagate barracuda hdd | Corsair tx750m | XSPC razor GPU and CPU waterblocks | XSPC d5 vario pump | Thermochill Pa140.3 | phoyba 280mm radiator | Chromed Copper tubing |

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he doesn't play games on pc, he is just web browsing and basic not very demanding work. i've looked into ubuntu, what is the software compatibility like?

What software do you mean? It come with a word processing suite (Can't remember if it is OpenOffice or LibreOffice). For Windows applications he can run Wine to see if they will run with that.

Nova doctrina terribilis sit perdere

Audio format guides: Vinyl records | Cassette tapes

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What software do you mean? It come with a word processing suite (Can't remember if it is OpenOffice or LibreOffice). For Windows applications he can run Wine to see if they will run with that.

word processing, speadsheeting software mainly.

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

| NZXT Switch 810 | i5-3570k | gigabyte UD-5H | Corsair Vengeance 8gb ram | GTX 670 | 2x 60gb intel 330 series ssd's in raid 0 | 1tb seagate barracuda hdd | Corsair tx750m | XSPC razor GPU and CPU waterblocks | XSPC d5 vario pump | Thermochill Pa140.3 | phoyba 280mm radiator | Chromed Copper tubing |

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ubuntu if he's not gaming

 [spoiler=CORMAC]CPU:Intel celeron 1.6ghz RAM:Kingston 400mhz 1.99gb MOBO:MSI G31TM-P21 GPU:Will add one later on! CASE:local ROUTER D-Link 2750U, D-LINK 2730U MOUSE:HP,DELL,ViP KEYBOARD: v7 SPEAKERS:Creative 245  MONITOR:AOC E970Sw HEADSET: Sony MDRx05s UPS:conex ups avr 500va PSU:idk OD:Samsung super writemaster STORAGE:80 gb seagate+ Seagate 1TB OS:Windows xp sp3 themed to Windows 7 + Linux |Rest all pc in my house will be updated from time-time

COMING SOON

 

 

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All included in Ubuntu and also in Mint

thats good, sound like ubuntu is the way to go. thanks. :)

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

| NZXT Switch 810 | i5-3570k | gigabyte UD-5H | Corsair Vengeance 8gb ram | GTX 670 | 2x 60gb intel 330 series ssd's in raid 0 | 1tb seagate barracuda hdd | Corsair tx750m | XSPC razor GPU and CPU waterblocks | XSPC d5 vario pump | Thermochill Pa140.3 | phoyba 280mm radiator | Chromed Copper tubing |

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You can't go wrong with windows xp for an old machine. I would not go for an os that is any older than windows xp though.

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at the moment my friend is running a 10 year old dell with.... windows vista.... its painfully slow and he is complaining about it too me. I told him that its mainly the hardware being so old, but windows vista is terrible and my question is... is linux going to be faster than say windows 8 on this system? if so, what distro? i have zero knowledge or experience with linux so sorry if this is a bit of an obvious answer.

You can grab win 8 and try it first for free from Microsoft.

 

XP is better.

 

No ubuntu desktop if you have AMD graphics.. trust me worst than vista.

My Rigs (past and present)

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You can grab win 8 and try it first for free from Microsoft.

 

XP is better.

 

No ubuntu desktop if you have AMD graphics.. trust me worst than vista.

he has some really old dedicated nvidia gpu, no idea what it is only that its nvidia.

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

| NZXT Switch 810 | i5-3570k | gigabyte UD-5H | Corsair Vengeance 8gb ram | GTX 670 | 2x 60gb intel 330 series ssd's in raid 0 | 1tb seagate barracuda hdd | Corsair tx750m | XSPC razor GPU and CPU waterblocks | XSPC d5 vario pump | Thermochill Pa140.3 | phoyba 280mm radiator | Chromed Copper tubing |

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he has some really old dedicated nvidia gpu, no idea what it is only that its nvidia.

 

Depending on the video driver support, the default new Ubuntu desktop is heavy on graphics (transparency, fades).  If you get lag, you'll want to download the manager and turn them off.

My Rigs (past and present)

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Lubuntu is the best for slow computers!

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Depending on the video driver support, the default new Ubuntu desktop is heavy on graphics (transparency, fades).  If you get lag, you'll want to download the manager and turn them off.

ok thanks for the tip, i'm probably going to strip out as much of the graphics effects etc anyway so it runs as fast as possible.

PC Builder, Engineer... BACON    Project Cobalt: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/38058-project-cobalt-copper-piping-laser-etching-and-more/#entry489258

| NZXT Switch 810 | i5-3570k | gigabyte UD-5H | Corsair Vengeance 8gb ram | GTX 670 | 2x 60gb intel 330 series ssd's in raid 0 | 1tb seagate barracuda hdd | Corsair tx750m | XSPC razor GPU and CPU waterblocks | XSPC d5 vario pump | Thermochill Pa140.3 | phoyba 280mm radiator | Chromed Copper tubing |

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xp or ubuntu 

XP=fail

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XP=fail

how that 

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough it will be believed.

-Adolf Hitler 

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You can't go wrong with windows xp for an old machine. I would not go for an os that is any older than windows xp though.

my nefU had an XP laptop and it was slow as hell. Once I installed Lubuntu it loads up on the OS in about 30secs; with Windows XP it took 2-3mins to load up.

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If he can deal with Linux I'd definitely choose Linux Mint, if not go Windows XP. In any case he should experience a major speed boost.

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how that 

I had to format my XP computer 7 times intotal because XP would not load up, meanwhile when Windows 7/8 fails to load it sets the system to a time when the PC was healthy, getting rid viruses/faults with minimal loss of data.

 

Almost forgot that even Windows Vista can do this as well.

 

Windows XP for me was the worst OS ever since it was so buggy and dam right slow, infact my past Windows Vista PC is more stable than Windows XP!

Edited by Gazzer96
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