On 21.03.15 08:32, Craig Sanders wrote:
On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 03:38:41PM +1100, Erik Christiansen wrote:
I'm actually surprised there's enough memory in the machine to run a modern desktop environment and web browser. A 2004 era machine probably only has between 0.1 and 0.5 GB of RAM. I think?
It's now a bit newer (VIA C7), and has a whole 1 GB, so no drama there.
that's a 32-bit CPU from Sep 2006, nearly 9 years old. are you aware that you can upgrade to a modern machine for under $170?
The drives are a good bit older than the mobo - thus a new drive for the new distro. I've in the last week replaced the CDROM with a DVD, so could casually think about a new mobo when I (probably) find that the on-board (shared memory) graphics doesn't deal with a video DVD.
e.g. the cheapest current parts combo i can find at MSY today is:
AMD A4-7300 64-bit dual-core CPU + GPU $58 ASRock A58M-HD+ motherboard $65 4G Kit DDR3-1333 RAM (2x2GB) $46
That is cheaper than the older lower performance stuff I have.
if the RAM in your current mb is DDR3 (it probably isn't), you could put off buying the new ram for a while,
ISTR it's DDR2-533 - at least it shows as 533 during boot.
but 1GB isn't really adequate for a modern desktop any more. the machine will likely be swapping to disk by the time it finishes booting and you login even with a "light" desktop like xfce or lxde, let alone start running memory hogs like iceweasel or chromium.
I'm in gnome, with 4 xterms, and running iceweasel and xpdf: $ more /proc/vmstat | grep pswp pswpin 0 pswpout 0
you've already got yourself a new drive but if you hadn't, you can get a 64GB SSD for $56 these days. small but much faster than any mechanical drive.
Rats. I've followed the discussions on this list, and noted that endurance concerns are unfounded, but plumb forgot when buying. Old habit is hard to shake.
FYI, comparison of the A4-7300 with the C7:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/887/AMD_A4-Series_A4-7300_%28JA%29_vs_VIA_C...
note that the max power usage of the A4-7300 is 65W versus 20W for the C7
That's not great news. The power supply for each the two of these I run is a picoPSU-80-WI-32, providing 80W in a matchbox-sized MHz switcher which entirely mounts in the ATX power connector. With a 12v battery between that and any old 13.8v power supply, a UPS is built in. (And out on the farm, where there's no mains electricity - just a petrol generator which runs only at night, it can run off a battery and a couple of solar panels. That 80w (120W peak) is all there currently is for the mobo, three hard drives, and the DVD. The power supply is cool to the touch. (It seems crazy for a PC to consume half a horsepower.)
- but the A4-7300 includes a built-in Radeon R3 graphics processor. if your current graphics card is as old as your mb and cpu, then it probably uses at least 30-40W anyway, and isn't anywhere near as good as the R3....9+ years is a LONG time in the evolution of GPUs.
There is no off-mobo graphics at present. If I'm tempted down that road, then yes, I'll have to at least dump the old drives to power a new card.
also, FYI, the Intel G1840 (a dual-core 64-bit celeron with built-in graphics) costs $55 but the cheapest Haswell Refresh motherboards start at nearly twice the price of the cheapest AMD FM2+ motherboards....and Intel, as usual, sucks at upgradability. once again you have to discard your old m/b if you want to upgrade to the new generation of CPUs. AMD OTOH generally keep the same socket for at least two generations so you can keep upgrading your CPU without having the expense and waste of a new motherboard.
Since back in last century, I've only updated CPU when the mobo died, except for the first 170 MHz one which became pretty useless before it died, even though there was only dial-up internet in those days. I try not to waste my time upgrading even the distro more than twice per decade, so hardware just stays till it goes under, since it's still meeting my needs. Thanks for the info. It is food for thought. But if the machine won't show the DVDs I was given last May, then I can fend off further such gifts without needing to say I couldn't be bothered to spend my time in front of a video. (I haven't had a TV in the house since I brought the old one out of storage for one day in 1991 to watch what happened in the first hours of the first Gulf War. The one out on the farm packed it in recently, making visiting family much more sociable. The 8 year old city slickers were unfit, too timid to touch the spines of an echidna when I got them out for a walk, and audibly suffering gadget withdrawal.) I'm kinda fond of a minimalist approach. Most days this week I've been too busy splitting firewood for winter to watch DVDs, and when I flop, the imagery invoked by an engrossing book is more my style. Erik -- Rear Admiral Morisetti recalled that when commanding an aircraft carrier, it took a gallon of oil to move just 12 inches (30cm), while as many as 20 tonnes per hour were burned during a period of intensive take-off and landing. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15342682