what distro for Old Machine

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 6, 2012

Hey guys, I have this Northgate Machine my mom gave me (why?).
It is a Socket A Athlon XP1700+ and it currently has 256MB of RAM but im planning to up it to 1-2GB of ram. it has a 250GB ATA 100 Drive and a DVDROM. I had to replace the CPU fan as the old one had stopped running. I had 768mb of RAM but one of the sticks was bad.

I plan to use it for Usenet and/or sell it to a coworker as a websurfer/papers machine but would be nice if I could get it running some nicer stuff like media. The graphics is an onboard S3 graphics. The board is the Syntax SV266M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813183009
I included the link for better H/W clarification for OS compatibility.
Which Distro to run?

Peter1986C · Feb 6, 2012

I suggest trying Linux Mint, but I don't know if it can offer a decent display driver for the graphics. You therefore may have multimedia/resolution issues but Mint seems to be better at putting "weird" hw to a working state than e.g. Ubuntu. If you are feeling adventurous you could try Gentoo, but because everything will be done manually (by a CLI) and compiled from source it is a lot of work (when "done" it will be time to install a GUI). Gentoo gives a good chance of letting everything work and (if configured properly) run smoothly even on older hw.

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 6, 2012

Chevalr1c said:
I suggest trying Linux Mint, but I don't know if it can offer a decent display driver for the graphics. You therefore may have multimedia/resolution issues but Mint seems to be better at putting "weird" hw to a working state than e.g. Ubuntu. If you are feeling adventurous you could try Gentoo, but because everything will be done manually (by a CLI) and compiled from source it is a lot of work (when "done" it will be time to install a GUI). Gentoo gives a good chance of letting everything work and (if configured properly) run smoothly even on older hw.

Right now Im running Lubuntu but the CPU is maxed out doing simple crap like loading apps and running SABnzbd. LinuxMint is not able to run on 256 mb correctly. if i can find a good deal on 2gb of PC2100 RAM ( less than $40) then yeah, Id seriously look at LinuxMint. ( I installed it on my mom's lappy.) Right now though im working with limited RAM.

ShiBDiB · Feb 6, 2012

I'd hold off on bothering to do anything til u get a little more ram.. nothing crazy just a gig or 2

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 6, 2012

ShiBDiB said:
I'd hold off on bothering to do anything til u get a little more ram.. nothing crazy just a gig or 2

Thanks for the tip. Im currently running it for downloads and looking for a good deal. Any ideas? im not real sure how fast the 1700+ is

ThE_MaD_ShOt · Feb 7, 2012

I am currently running Ubuntu 11.04 on a socket A system with 2 gig of mem and it runs great. I was running 1g of mem and it still ran fine. Proc is at 2.2 ghz. Here a screen shot

chamaecyparis · Feb 7, 2012

~1.5GHz and 266 FSB -- at least 512MB required to run even antiX, which is my recommendation. I value performance over looks, just to tell you where I'm coming from. It's Debian-based, so has lots of software packages available. Plus, the smxi script makes post-install tweaking easy.

If wanting a 'buntu-derived distro, I would have to steer you towards wattos next; then peppermint. Both the latter 'like' at least 1024MB RAM, however.

The more RAM, the better, as either of the three above will improve significantly in performance directly with RAM increases.

Once the user learns linux, an eye-candy distro like Bodhi can be tested; (Not for newbies).

Best wishes!

Drone · Feb 7, 2012

Don't install new ubuntu or mint. They are too cluttered. Install mint 9

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 7, 2012

i just installed DSL 4.4

Frick · Feb 7, 2012

Killer_Rubber_Ducky said:
i just installed DSL 4.4

Was about to recommend that. But to be honest that is almost too light for that system. You could try Xubuntu or maybe CentOS. I tried CentOS on a similiar specced machine (1GB RAM) and it worked very well. Xubuntu too will work like a charm.

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 7, 2012

Frick said:
Was about to recommend that. But to be honest that is almost too light for that system. You could try Xubuntu or maybe CentOS. I tried CentOS on a similiar specced machine (1GB RAM) and it worked very well. Xubuntu too will work like a charm.

eh right now it has 256mb of ram and im going to run usenet

digibucc · Feb 7, 2012

and sab is a great network-oriented app, i have mine on a server and can add/view from anywhere on the network. i love it.

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 7, 2012

digibucc said:
and sab is a great network-oriented app, i have mine on a server and can add/view from anywhere on the network. i love it.

yeah but its a resource hog so dsl should work fine what with using only 64mb of ram and next to no cpu

Killer_Rubber_Ducky · Feb 7, 2012

i installed (frugal) dsl and it freezes after rebooting so Im probably going to run it from cd only. i need good debian compat distros that run smoothly on 64mb of ram. I need to use it to run sickbeard and sabnzbd only.
Im just going to part out the machine.

dzero · Mar 28, 2012

Try a livecd/usb of Puppy Linux or Haiku to see if those will work well with your system.

System Name	FumoffuFumoffu
Processor	Intel i7 4770K
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z87X -UD3H
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	16GB DDR3 1600 Crucial Ballistix
Video Card(s)	Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC
Storage	1- WD 500GB 1- Samsung F2 1.5TB 1- Crucial M4 128GB SSD 1-256GB ADATA XPG SX900 ASX900S3 SSD
Display(s)	Hanns-G HZ281HPB 27.5'' 3ms Full HD 1920x1200 WideScreen LCD Monitor
Case	Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Audio Device(s)	Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX 750W Gold
Software	Windows 7 Pro x64

System Name	desktop \| Odroid N2+ \|
Processor	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 \| Amlogic S922X \|
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550M DS3H \|Odroid N2+ \|
Cooling	Inter-Tech Argus SU-200, 3x Arctic P12 case fans \| stock heatsink + fan \|
Memory	Gskill Aegis DDR4 32GB \| 4 GB DDR4 \|
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX 6600 (8GB) \| Arm Mali G52 \|
Storage	SK Hynix SSD 240GB, Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB, Toshiba DT01ACA100 1T \| Samsung 850 Evo 500GB \|
Display(s)	AOC G2260VWQ6 \| LG 24MT57D \|
Case	Asus Prime 201 \| Stock case (black version) \|
Audio Device(s)	integrated
Power Supply	BeQuiet! Pure Power 11 400W \| 12v barrel jack \|
Mouse	Logitech G500 \|Steelseries Rival 300
Keyboard	Qpad MK-50 (Cherry MX brown)\| Blaze Keyboard
Software	Windows 10, Various Linux distros \| Gentoo Linux

System Name	FumoffuFumoffu
Processor	Intel i7 4770K
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z87X -UD3H
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	16GB DDR3 1600 Crucial Ballistix
Video Card(s)	Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC
Storage	1- WD 500GB 1- Samsung F2 1.5TB 1- Crucial M4 128GB SSD 1-256GB ADATA XPG SX900 ASX900S3 SSD
Display(s)	Hanns-G HZ281HPB 27.5'' 3ms Full HD 1920x1200 WideScreen LCD Monitor
Case	Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Audio Device(s)	Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX 750W Gold
Software	Windows 7 Pro x64

System Name	[Daily Driver]
Processor	[Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard	[Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling	[be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory	[64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s)	[PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage	[1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s)	[2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case	[Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s)	[Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply	[CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse	[Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard	[Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software	[Windows 11 64-Bit]

System Name	FumoffuFumoffu
Processor	Intel i7 4770K
Motherboard	Gigabyte Z87X -UD3H
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	16GB DDR3 1600 Crucial Ballistix
Video Card(s)	Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC
Storage	1- WD 500GB 1- Samsung F2 1.5TB 1- Crucial M4 128GB SSD 1-256GB ADATA XPG SX900 ASX900S3 SSD
Display(s)	Hanns-G HZ281HPB 27.5'' 3ms Full HD 1920x1200 WideScreen LCD Monitor
Case	Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Audio Device(s)	Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX 750W Gold
Software	Windows 7 Pro x64

what distro for Old Machine

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

Peter1986C

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

ShiBDiB

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

ThE_MaD_ShOt

chamaecyparis

New Member

Drone

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

digibucc

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

Killer_Rubber_Ducky

dzero

New Member

System Name	Selene / Yoda
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Cooling	H100i / Xig Dark Knight
Memory	4x 8gb G.Skill Snipers / 4x 4gb G.Skill Ares
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9 290x / XfX DD & VisionTek HD6850's C'fired
Storage	256gb ssd, 2x 2tb Wd Blacks & 1x 1tb Wd black / 1x 1tb
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Case	Raidmax Vampire / Chieftec Alum. Dragon Blue
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Hd Audio / Onboard Hd Audio
Power Supply	Corsair TX 850 watt / Corsair TX 750 watt
Mouse	Logitech G500s
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe
Software	Win 10 pro / Win Vista Home prem. 64 bit
Benchmark Scores	What are benchmarks anyway?

System Name	Black MC in Tokyo
Processor	Ryzen 5 5600
Motherboard	Asrock B450M-HDV
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Kingston Fury 3400mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston A400 240GB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Line6 UX1 + some headphones, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Cherry MX Board 1.0 TKL Brown
VR HMD	Acer Mixed Reality Headset
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

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Video Card(s)	GB Radeon HD 7950s 3GB / GB Radeon HD 7950s 3GB
Storage	2x 80GB Intel X-25, 2x600gb SATA, 1x1tb 5400RPM storage /1x600GB, 3x500GB,1x160,1x120 SATA
Display(s)	1x 27" Yamakasi / Vizio 42" HDTV
Case	Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 / Antec 900
Audio Device(s)	HT Omega Striker 7.1 / Onboard and HDMI from ATi Card
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