Old pentium 4 3.0ghz 1,5gb DDR ram is very slow

aruro9

Commendable
Jul 23, 2016
2
0
1,510
Hello i have an old desktop with pentium 4 3.0 ghz and 1,5 gb DDR ram. I want to use it for web surfing/youtube and i would like to have linux so i can mess in terminal , etc and learn some things. I tried installing ubuntu but it was very very slow, and now with ubuntu MATE its somewhat okay but still slow.I tried Lubuntu with no luck because i was getting boot loop! Also watching youtube videos is impossible because video is freezing and when i press the fullscreen button it goes to fullscrean after 5-10s but still lagging. What can i do to improve its performance? I will have an old graphic card from a friend soon , but i dont know if this will help?. Shall i put more RAM?
motherboard is: Intel D865GBF
That desktop was unusable for like 5 years, i did an internal cleaning and now its like new, the only problem is that is very slow, thats why i need some help!
Thank you!
 
Solution
Can i know the exact model of this Pentium? There isn't really much you can do to make this faster, maybe if you add some DDR ram it might become faster, but god only knows where you get DDR1 anymore. Ive heard Chrome OS can really make an old PC faster. Also, get an SSD, it will be a huge improvement but will probably cost more than your pc.
 


auro9,

Updating the BIOS and drivers is the very first thing to try. Go to:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/desktop-boards/legacy-intel-desktop-boards/intel-desktop-board-d865gbf.html

_and update the BIOS, chipset, storage,and USB drivers -everything.

Then look into the hardware:

Intel Desktop Board D865GBF/D865GLC Product Guide:

Supported Processors for the Intel® Desktop Board D865GBF

I'm not sure if the 865 chipset only supports 32-bit processors or can be made to run a 64-bit P4- 600-series. The GPU is also AGP and that is a disadvantage, although the later AGP sockets can use later 1GB AGP cards .

I still have a P4 system from 2004: Dell Dimension 8400 (2004) > Pentium 4 630 @ 3.0GHz > 4GB DDR RAM > Quadro FX580 > WD 750GB > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. That system cost $1,900 new. The 8400 system still runs AutoCad 2007, Adobe CS3, and MS Office Pro 2003 really quite well- with very good streaming and video playback, and even Sketchup 8 is OK on small projects.

The key is to have a 64-bit CPU like the P4 670- and those go up to a 3.8GHz- the 672.

Increase the system RAM to the maximum 4GB and add a PCIe GPU of a power reuirement that your system can use and I think you could have reasonable results.

Overall, I'd say you'd be way ahead in effort, performance,a nd future upgrades to find something like this:

Dell Precision T3500 W3503 2.4GHz 4GB DDR3 RAM - DVD-RW - No HDD Sold for $24.95 +$30 shipping

And that can over time become a really useful system- there are 4 and 6-core CPU's up to 3.86GHz, it can use 24GB DDR3-1333 RAM, 2X PCIe x16 GPU's, and so on. I bought one for $53 and out of the box, in two hours:

Precision T3500 (2011) (Original) Xeon W3530 4-core @ 2.8 /3.06GHz > 4GB (2X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > GeForce 9800 GT (1GB)> WD Black 500GB
[Passmark system rating = 1963, CPU = 4482 / 2D= 609 / 3D=805 / Mem= 1409 / Disk=1048]

CPU: $60
RAM: $43
GPU and drives left over from other upgrade

Results:

Dell Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.46 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i + Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751> CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]

That's a system that I can use 2D and 3D CAD, Sketchup, MS Office, Adobe CS6- Photoshop , Illustrator, After Effects, and so on and will reasonable results with an SSD. You can install a PERC H310 RAID controller- about $50 used and the disk system will be 6GB/s (as I did on a Precision T5500).

Cheers,

BambiBoom


Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 > CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)



 
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