old computer

Baldur

aliEnRIK wrote: »

Fitting 1 gig of RAM will make a hugh difference to how fast it operates

If it is around 9 years old, the motherboard may not support 1GB RAM.

aliEnRIK

Baldur wrote: »

If it is around 9 years old, the motherboard may not support 1GB RAM.

Oh I agree

We'd need to look at the motherboard etc first. I was more talking 'theoretically' (I should have said that though)

old_codger1

asininity wrote: »

If you're open to a new OS you could try linux out, some of the lighter weight distros would work on your machine.

I was going to say that.

... its intel pentium----has 60 GB hard disc--only using something like 17 GB. It only has 256 mb RAM.

ubuntu 8.10 would run pretty damned quick on that spec.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Download the ISO and burn it onto a CD and boot from the CD drive. You can even leave the old version of windows on the hard disk and partition it so that you;ve got both windows and linux available to boot into.

When OP decides machines had it's day he could do a lot worse... runs firefox browser, music, movies and whatnot, no problem at all.

Also, no viruses TBH, that's often the biggest speed gain. You don't need to run all the rubbish you do with windows just to try and get it to work reliably.

I'm a fan, as you might be able to guess Been using linux, (and before that unix/xenix), for nearly 30 years.

dandare1980

If you want to give Ubuntu a go and would like a good place to start, try googling "psychocats ubuntu".

I switched from Windows fully about a year ago, Linux really can compete with the likes of Microsoft now and of course it's completely free!

Ubuntu is my personal choice because it is one of the more popular distributions and therefore very well developed and supported.

Linux offers me better security, stability, performance and doesn't cost a penny.

:idea:

Baldur

old_codger1 wrote: »

ubuntu 8.10 would run pretty damned quick on that spec.

'Pretty damned quick' is likely to be a slight overstatement, as Ubuntu 8.10's minimum system requirement for installation is 256MB - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810

With only the minimum amount of memory available, the installation process will take longer than normal, but will complete successfully, and the system will perform adequately once installed.

I'd personally look at one of the lighter distros, with a less demanding GUI than Gnome or KDE, if the PC is as old as suggested by the OP's post.

dandare1980

Xubuntu is a Ubuntu based distribution using the much lighter XFCE desktop. I use it on some of my lower spec machines.

You want a bare minimum of 512mb to run Ubuntu well, I use 1gb on a Athlon XP 2400.

If you're thinking of switching, the latest version 9.04 is being released next month.

sally_80

I found by taking out all the useless little programs that load in your system tray you can improve your computer performance twofold at least - it's such an easy change!

AirCooledHeaven

surawy wrote: »

Have a nine year old computer--getting slow and low on virtual memory balloon appears.
Is it worthwhile getting extra RAM---as we only use it for basic stuff--no movies,music etc----or should i ditch it --as the bloke in the shop told me.
Any tips re transferring data--if i were to get a new machine.

Thanks.

Wow, no surprise the guy in the computer shop recommends you buy a new computer...

As everyone else suggests, clean up, remove unwanted software, defrag the drive. If you want to splash out upgrade to 512MB ram, any more would be a waste of money.

AirCooledHeaven

Baldur wrote: »

'Pretty damned quick' is likely to be a slight overstatement, as Ubuntu 8.10's minimum system requirement for installation is 256MB - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810


I'd personally look at one of the lighter distros, with a less demanding GUI than Gnome or KDE, if the PC is as old as suggested by the OP's post.

Is it wise to recommend Linux to someone who may not be totally savvy with things hardware and software related? You could just create more problems for the OP when clearly all he needs is a spring clean and doesn't require better performance for his applications? I know Linux evangelists love to spread the word to us heathen windows users but each has its place

Baldur

AirCooledHeaven wrote: »

Is it wise to recommend Linux to someone who may not be totally savvy with things hardware and software related? You could just create more problems for the OP when clearly all he needs is a spring clean and doesn't require better performance for his applications? I know Linux evangelists love to spread the word to us heathen windows users but each has its place

If you read the preceding posts, I was actually attempting to 'temper' other posters' gleeful suggestions of Ubuntu being a panacea for all ills.