Will i be able to install KDE 2010 on this machine?

[frazelle09]

i'm thinking about buying a Dell Optiplex P4, GX280 w / 40 Gb hard drive, 512 RAM "Video-On-Board: AGP Integrated" and 3 PCI slots for a friend whose computer i was unable to upgrade to our new, shiny, KDE 2010 (it was/is a PIII w/256 Mb purchased on credit from Telnor here in Mexico about 2 yrs ago).  i had placed PCL 2007 on it but the lease ran out and she wanted some more card games on it so, dumb fred decided that it would take PCL KDE 2010.  Ha, ha.  Wrong.  So now i've had to tell her i can't get here old system to work; it no longer has Win on it and i haven't been able to get OpenBox, LXDE or i don't know what else to load, much less to run.

We've got these at work as well and seem to run Win alright with a small flat panel monitor.

So, i'm going to have to buy her a refurbished box (this one's going for $85 w/shipping!) and she'll pay me $20 a month but before i go off the deep end again i'd like to know if this thing will boot up w/KDE 2010 on it or if i'm going to have to look for a nVidia somewhere as well.

Thanks for any help rendered and have a great evening! 

[parnote]

frazelle09,

It should run KDE 4 just fine. One thing you may want to consider is to max out the RAM on the box, however. I have found that the more RAM you have, the better things run.

parnote

[frazelle09]

Thanks, parnote.  i take it your suggestion was in reference to the "basic" setup that i mentioned and not with a nVidia card.

Have a great evening and thanks for replying! 

[Rudge]

So, i'm going to have to buy her a refurbished box (this one's going for $85 w/shipping!) and she'll pay me $20 a month but before i go off the deep end again i'd like to know if this thing will boot up w/KDE 2010 on it or if i'm going to have to look for a nVidia somewhere as well.

Thanks for any help rendered and have a great evening! 

If you need some advice on the PC in question, some info on the "refurbished" PC in question might help. 

[frazelle09]

Is this sufficient?

"Dell P4 Optiplex GX280 w / 40 Gb hard drive, 512 RAM, 1mb Cache, 800Mhz FSB, "Video-On-Board: AGP Integrated" and 3 PCI slots"

Have a great evening!  

[Rudge]

I owe you an apology. I see in your original post that you provided the info. I am sorry. Thanks for tolerating me and providing it again.

I would think you should be fine with LXDE or Pheonex, but unless you can get to 1g ram, I would be hesitant to put KDE4 on it.

It would probably run, but not very snappy.

Again, I apologize for not reading your first post thoroughly.  

[frazelle09]

Dear Rudge -- hey man, no need to apoligize.  i appreciate your comments.  It's probably late where you are and we've also probably had a long weekend.

Thanks again for your comments and for answering so rapidly!  Have a wonderful evening! 

[scoundrel]

kde4 will not run on that 512mb ram... doubt you could even get the cd to boot ..

[Crow]

i had placed PCL 2007 on it but the lease ran out and she wanted some more card games on it so, dumb fred decided that it would take PCL KDE 2010.  Ha, ha.  Wrong.  So now i've had to tell her i can't get here old system to work; it no longer has Win on it and i haven't been able to get OpenBox, LXDE or i don't know what else to load, much less to run.

You should be able to find a copy of the previous PCLOS and use the frozen repos from YouCanToo  http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,65202.0.html   better if is a LXDE copy,  I've been running it with similar computers. That machine still has some life in it.

[frazelle09]

Crow!  Really appreciate your comments as well as those of Scoundrel.  i liked yours a lot since i´ve finally figured out that even if it's an old version of PCL (2007 - 09) i can just install it on her compu and forget it, as long as i've got her card games installed - giggle.  If not, i'm toast. 

Someone mentioned in one of the other threads that the 2009.1 was a very good vintage of the KDE as well.  If i can find it maybe i'll try it, too. 

i finally got a good burn (i think this has been one of my problems) and was able to get OpenBox on an old Athlon of mine that i was thinking of giving her as well.  However when i opened the "Box" there was nothing there -- a big, empty box.  Ha, ha.  Anyway, all it has is a blank screen with a cursor.  Anyone know if this is the Default "view"?  If it is, it's too empty for me & i'm gonna try if i can get a better burn of LXDE this p.m. & try it.

Again, guys, thanks for helping and have a great morning! 

[kjpetrie]

kde4 will not run on that 512mb ram... doubt you could even get the cd to boot ..

I installed my latest remaster of PCLOS 2010 KDE to an SD card in my eeepc 2G surf. That only has 512 MB RAM. Takes a long time (2 minutes to the desktop, 4 minutes to a fully restored session running three OpenOffice windows) to start but otherwise runs well with desktop effects enabled.

I think the lack of speed has more to do with the single-core processor than a shortage of memory, as the swap partition is not used.

[Ramchu]

kde4 will not run on that 512mb ram... doubt you could even get the cd to boot ..

I don't mean to take away from scroundrel's comment but I am running the full version of PCLinux kde 4 on
an HP that has only 512mb ram - and it runs very well and is as responsive as any OS that I have ever installed.

[scoundrel]

kde4 will not run on that 512mb ram... doubt you could even get the cd to boot ..

I don't mean to take away from scroundrel's comment but I am running the full version of PCLinux kde 4 on
an HP that has only 512mb ram - and it runs very well and is as responsive as any OS that I have ever installed.

tried it on two puters with 512mb ram and it was really sluggish ..

[fishfillet]

kde4 will not run on that 512mb ram... doubt you could even get the cd to boot ..

I don't mean to take away from scroundrel's comment but I am running the full version of PCLinux kde 4 on
an HP that has only 512mb ram - and it runs very well and is as responsive as any OS that I have ever installed.

tried it on two puters with 512mb ram and it was really sluggish ..

I have KDE4 on 6 PCs with 512 RAM, Pentium IV, 40 Gb HD.  Its ok, as its only being used for internet browsing and some typing.

[CaptainSarcastic]

The GX280s were pretty good machines, especially considering they were in the first generation of DDR2 motherboards.  That should be a hyperthreading socket 775 Pentium 4, and pretty snappy.  I would strongly recommend increasing the RAM, though - 512MB is on the low end, and DDR2 is available fairly inexpensively.  It will also have a PCI-E slot for video, and even a low-end card would help.

Have you considered a version other than KDE?  A less memory-intensive desktop might be something to try, like XFCE.