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What is the best OS for 10-15 year old PC?

Tomek20225
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Hi :D
I've bought myself a beast PC half year ago, then I refurbished my 5 year old PC for my grandparents (added SSD, installed fresh OS etc.) so that they don't have to use my parents former 10 (? - I'm not sure) year old PC. There is nothing to do with it right now - it's just hanging out in the basement.
Grandparents like their PC and love to use it. Now they want one in their second house near the town lake. They reminded themselves that they have one and asked me to prepare it, make it faster, clean it etc.
I agreed. I don't have it yet, but I think what I can do with it. I believe it's specs are:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1800+
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 6200

MOBO: ?
RAM: Elixir 1,25GB

HDD: 160GB PATA
PSU: Codegen 300W
CASE: (random really old one - http://cdn.overclock.net/3/3f/3f26b555_vbattach175037.jpeg - looks like this)
OS: Windows XP (idk)-bit
It's space is all cramped and it runs very slowly + I'm not sure what I can do more.
I came with four ideas:
 - format the whole HDD,
 - install new fresh OS,
 - install some programs like Malwarebytes and CCleaner and set it up to manually check the PC state every set period of time,
 - upgrade.
While 3 first ideas aren' bad, but fourth is impossible (unneeded).
Doing the first and third thing is simple, I'm not sure about the OS. Is installing new one actually a good idea? What OS shall I choose? I was thinking about Windows 10, because of low system requirements and running nice&cool on even old machines (but I'm not sure if on that old too...). I don't want to install Linux because I've already learned grandparents using Windows.
What do you think about it overall? What OS shall I pick? Am I wrong somewhere? Do you have any other ideas to make this PC faster/better?

Thanks in advance :D
Thomas
 

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Try Lubuntu.

 

It works very well on low-end hardware. That's where the name comes from : Light Ubuntu.

 

 

If it runs that with no problem, then you could try Ubuntu GNOME and see how that works out.

 

GNOME is love. GNOME is life.

i5 4670k @ 4.2GHz (Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo); ASrock Z87 EXTREME4; 8GB Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3 RAM @ 2133MHz; Asus DirectCU GTX 560; Super Flower Golden King 550 Platinum PSU;1TB Seagate Barracuda;Corsair 200r case. 

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Elementary OS, very light and not super hard to use.

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Linux Mint would be my recommendation.

I would say Windows XP, but the PC will actually be used online I guess?

"We're all in this together, might as well be friends" Tom, Toonami.

 

mini eLiXiVy: my open source 65% mechanical PCB, a build log, PCB anatomy and discussing open source licenses: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1366493-elixivy-a-65-mechanical-keyboard-build-log-pcb-anatomy-and-how-i-open-sourced-this-project/

 

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MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, options enough :D

Enough trolling, linux is the way to go, just try some distro's and pick the one you like the most.

If you want my attention, quote meh! D: or just stick an @samcool55 in your post :3

Spying on everyone to fight against terrorism is like shooting a mosquito with a cannon

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@Tomek20225

Max. W7 32 Bit, and the GPU won't give you problems! 

 

linux, linux forever, win 10 would probably struggle on it

W8/W8.1/W10 wouldn't even install, doesn't meet the CPU instruction requirements

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Dogebuntu.

rj6aqwK.png

i5 4670k @ 4.2GHz (Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo); ASrock Z87 EXTREME4; 8GB Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3 RAM @ 2133MHz; Asus DirectCU GTX 560; Super Flower Golden King 550 Platinum PSU;1TB Seagate Barracuda;Corsair 200r case. 

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UPGRADE

Case:- 4U Rack Mount Case | Cooler:- Antec Kuhler H600 | CPU:- Intel i5 4690K @ 4.50GHz | GPU:- Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB AMP! Omega Core Edition @ 1449MHz | Motherboard:- MSI Z97S SLI Krait | PSU:- XFX XTR 650W Gold | RAM:- HyperX DDR3 1866MHz 4GB White (x2) Black (x2) | Storage:- Kingston V300 120GB | Storage 2:- Seagate FireCuda 1TB | Build Log |

 

 

 

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I would try windows 10. It's supposed to run really well on older PCs. If it's too slow, then put linux distro on it.

Recovering Apple addict

 

ASUS Zephyrus G14 2022

Spoiler

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS GPU: AMD r680M / RX 6700S RAM: 16GB DDR5 

 

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UPGRADE

Also this would be a good idea, even a MB with integrated CPU like a J1800/J1900/A4-5000 and a 2 or 4 GB stick of DDR3 would run lots of times better

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I would try windows 10. It's supposed to run really well on older PCs. If it's too slow, then put linux distro on it.

W8/W8.1/W10 wouldn't even install, doesn't meet the CPU instruction requirements

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An ubuntu variant, such as Xubuntu. 

 

Then install Fluxbox ('sudo apt-get install fluxbox' iirc) or Blackbox and switch to it. Performance will be good.

 

Then the PC becomes one giant game. See how long you can use it before insanity ensues.

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I would try windows 10. It's supposed to run really well on older PCs. If it's too slow, then put linux distro on it.

W8/W8.1/W10 wouldn't even install, doesn't meet the CPU instruction requirements

 

really? that sucks.

Recovering Apple addict

 

ASUS Zephyrus G14 2022

Spoiler

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS GPU: AMD r680M / RX 6700S RAM: 16GB DDR5 

 

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LXLE...another lite linux ran great on an old emachines with an athlon 2650e single core with 2 gigs It was fun running some OS written entirely in ASM.

There is also Minix. A small teaching OS that inspired Linux

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