DragonMage Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Ok.. this is from a "Self-proclaimed expert" on old hardware :) (I mean.. I just converted an Acer P133 with 32 MB of memory and no HD, just a floppy as a LTSP client for my office). But here is my opinions on your hardware. 1. Upgrade the RAM to at least 128 MB (more is better, I think 192 is the sweet spot for KDE+OO.o) if you want to use it as a desktop. Yeah.. you can live on fluxbox, but opening OO.o is a pain on 64 MB of ram. Unfortunately, SDRAM is expensive, more expensive than DDR even. 2. Check what vidcard is included in the deal. I don't believe that computer doesn't include a vidcard, especially if monitor is included. However, if the vidcard is built in, it probably use shared memory from the main RAM, so an upgrade for more than 64 MB become not just beneficial, but essential. 3. The lack of CDROM drive kinda kills the deal for me imo. Now, I don't know how cheap CDROM is in your country, but if it is cheap enough, then it offset a little bit. Like it or not, CDROM drive is important in installing linux (or any other software out today). Of course, if you are making it a server, then you can borrow a CDROM drive from another computer, set it up running smoothly, then take it out and restart the computer. 4. 4 GB of HD is kinda small for a desktop, although you can probably live with it. A full blown hd install of PClinuxOS is about 2 GB and you can trim out certain stuffs such as games, multiple movie players, etc. If you can play your card right, your partition scheme would be like this: Around 3 gb for / (better leave some hd space for emergencies). 256-512 MB for swap the rest (512 MB) for /home. 5. Right out of the box, you can probably make a simple web server serving static pages. However, for dynamic pages (with database backing and some scripting), I don't think it is enough. Much more ram and cpu power is needed. 6. What they mean by a HW router is something similar to those stand alone internet switch/router you can buy for around 50 bux. That is, something that stands as a Internet Connection Sharing server. I think that computer is an overkill for that, I mean.. for that capability a Pentium Classic 133 is more than enough. I mean.. we used to have an old server (P2-350, 64 MB of ram, 6 gb hd) that serves as an internet gateway for 6 people, firewall, internal mail server, file server, and fax server in the office, running RedHat 7.3 for 24/7 and I beleive it is still running smoothly (just need to check whether the hardware is still working fine once in a while). 7. For a comparison, this is the spec of the worst computer in my office that is running as a stand alone desktop linux (not LTSP). P2-333 128 MB of RAM 3 GB + 1 GB of HD Vidcard with about 4 MB of memory with 14 inch monitor. CDROM drive + floppy + ISA soundcard (possibly an old soundblaster) PCI NIC ethernet card. It is running a modified hd installed pclinuxos, which means kernel 2.4.23, KDE 3.1.4, OO.o 1.1, Mozilla Firefox, Evolution 1.4.5, and some more things. It is a bit on a slowish side, but runnable as a typical office desktop. The person using it at least can check email, browse the web, use wordprocessing and spreadsheet, and still can listen to some mp3s. I have to tone down X to use 1024x768x16 bit color, but for this purpose, the lack of 24 bit color is not a killer. Hope this input helps you a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkelve Posted March 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Pftt... after giving it some thought, I'm not gonna do it. The thing will just not be able to do the minimum I want to do with it... and certainly not without a lot of trouble... I'll be look for a somewhat more up-to-spec old PC that is cheap enough... But thanks for your replies! I think without them my decision to buy or not wouldn't have been this conscious. Darkelve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero0w Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 hmmm...just for the record, I ran mandrake 9.1 with KDE on a 133 mhz with 40 meg of ram...it lagged, but it worked. :P Man, you are brave. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 (edited) wow! *drool* that's almost as good as my comp! :P Intel Celeron, 64MB RAM, 667MHz, etc... I would say buy a hard drive (that'll probably run you about $40 USD) and some RAM (I'm getting some myself, $70 USD, but that's for 256MB) I'm actually running Mandrake 10 on this right now...but I would highly recommend only going to 9.2...10 lags a bit. Also, if you're used to brand new comps, it'll seem a bit slow...I personally was used to this comp running Win98, so it seemed fast to me :P Edited March 20, 2004 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghil Vertefeuille Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 by the way, if Windows XP can run on a 450 mhz with 128 ram without lagging, I think mandrake 9.2 will be just fine :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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