[SoullessSentinel]

My main laptop is pretty poor. It's not overly old (2007) but it's basic hardware specifications are as follows:

Celeron M 530 at 1.73Ghz
2GB RAM
Sis Mirage 3 graphics.
Internal 20 GB hard drive (But that's not an issue, it's OS only, all data is on a 1TB external USB hard drive)
It's original hard drive failed so I pulled a 20 GB from an old laptop with a fried motherboard.


It's got a 'designed for Windows Vista Basic' sticker, but I am currently running Windows XP.
I'd prefer either Windows 7 (Hard drive space issue, so that's out) or Linux... However, it's graphics chipset seems to have support so poor that I can only run in VGA/VESA resolutions with no hardware acceleration.

I guess I'm just asking for suggestions to make it more usable, really. I have a more powerful desktop, but I like to use this laptop for web browsing and some programming on the move, so anything to make it better to work with would be amazing.

[TmEE]

XP is more than fine for it. You just need a proper install and some customizations and it'll fly.

[Mr Lange]

Windows or Linux. I don't know why anyone bothers with anything else unless it's for specialized reasons.
Seconding TmEE, Win XP is probably your best choice. I have a netbook (1 gb ram, single core 1.something ghz, 140 gb hard drive) that still runs on XP and it does well.

[Ultima]

Get a 64gb SSD and throw windows 7 on there. It'll be a snappy little fucker and you'll completely forget that it has such a poor CPU in it.

This post has been edited by Ultima: 30 June 2013 - 11:30 PM

[acrazyplayer]

Ultima, on 30 June 2013 - 11:30 PM, said:

Get a 64gb SSD and throw windows 7 on there. It'll be a snappy little fucker and you'll completely forget that it has such a poor CPU in it.

I'm going to have to disagree with this statement. An ssd would be put to waste with normal operations if it had a slow cpu along with it.

I have tried just that same scenario before and can assure you, you won't notice the difference the ssd makes except maybe in power consumption and noise (which is why I still left the ssd in). Just like everyone else said on here, stick with Win XP and tweak the hell outta it.

[TmEE]

Yes, SSD on a slow machine does not make as big difference as it does on already fast machine. My GF has a similarly specced machine and there's very little difference in operation between SSD and normal HDD.

[Miles Prower]

SoullessSentinel, on 30 June 2013 - 03:43 AM, said:

Sis Mirage 3 graphics.

Good luck finding decent drivers.

[Ultima]

acrazyplayer, on 01 July 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

Ultima, on 30 June 2013 - 11:30 PM, said:

Get a 64gb SSD and throw windows 7 on there. It'll be a snappy little fucker and you'll completely forget that it has such a poor CPU in it.

I'm going to have to disagree with this statement. An ssd would be put to waste with normal operations if it had a slow cpu along with it.

I have tried just that same scenario before and can assure you, you won't notice the difference the ssd makes except maybe in power consumption and noise (which is why I still left the ssd in). Just like everyone else said on here, stick with Win XP and tweak the hell outta it.

That's weird, I have an intel atom 1ghz netbook (512mb RAM) that jets along now it has an SSD in it.

[winterhell]

It really depends on the usage. If all you are going to do is spend your time in one program/browser/game you are less likely to notice the difference.
Even a Pentium 4 can be bottlenecked by the fastest 15,000rpm HDD

[SoullessSentinel]

So the general opinion is to stick with XP? I thought as much.
A solid state is out of the questions, simply because of price, if I had the money to upgrade, I'd not waste it on a laptop with such a poor GPU.

Any specific optimisation tips aside from disabling services I never use?

[Chilly Willy]

Linux DOES support the SiS Mirage 3 - you need to install/setup the SiS M671 driver. There's LOTS of info on that with a simple google search on something like "ubuntu sis m671 driver".

Here's a good site for using that chipset with an Ubuntu derivative: https://sites.google...tipsproject/sis