knoppix 3.4 and ibm thinkpad 600e 400Mhz 128MB

[kevin05jan]

I really enjoy using knoppix and I prefer having it installed on my HD on my old PC. However I wanna buy an IBM Thinkpad 600e and downgrade myself with hardwares a bit coz it will have only PII 400Mhz and 128MB. Question is:
1) will knoppix still perform fine?
2) is it better to upgrade my RAM
3) 400Mhz enough? I though the CPU isnt really that important but the RAM is.

I simply wanna use it to do my codings, some office stuff and a bit of easy statistics. Dont wanna run any tough computation - except a bit GRIM FANDANGO game maybe :O).

I need some advice and comments.

cheers

kev

[grant_vallance]

I really enjoy using knoppix and I prefer having it installed on my HD on my old PC. However I wanna buy an IBM Thinkpad 600e and downgrade myself with hardwares a bit coz it will have only PII 400Mhz and 128MB. Question is:
1) will knoppix still perform fine?
2) is it better to upgrade my RAM
3) 400Mhz enough? I though the CPU isnt really that important but the RAM is.

I simply wanna use it to do my codings, some office stuff and a bit of easy statistics. Dont wanna run any tough computation - except a bit GRIM FANDANGO game maybe :O).

I need some advice and comments.

cheers

kev

I am not sure how Knoppix will perform on your proposed hardware; however, what I can say is that it performs fine on an AMD K6-400 desktop which is fairly similar in power to the PII-400. This desktop has 256Mb of ram and a 32 Mb video card (Rage XL).

I guess your thoughts of upgrading the RAM is a good one; you can never have too much RAM

From Klaus Knopper's website the minimum specs for Knoppix are as follows:

* Intel-compatible CPU (i486 or later),
* 20 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products),
* bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI),
* standard SVGA-compatible graphics card,
* serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse.

So it should all work fine ...

HTH

Grant D. Vallance

[zerwekh]

Hi

I have Knoppix 3.4 installed on a PIII 500 MHz laptop with128 Mb of RAM. It works very well. I think you will not have problems with your hardware

[TimWhite]

More than adequate CPU, but you might want to max out the ram.

I'm running knoppix on (infact typing this on) a TP600 (P2 300mhz), but I have maxed the ram out to a massive 288MB ;o)

KDE is a bit heacy for it, but fluxbox flys.
Some animated web sites cause problems, maxing the CPU, but it's not normally a problem

[OErjan]

i have run knoppix on a p1 at 100Mhz with 72Mb ram worked OK with Icewm instead of KDE.

[i2hhj]

have been running CD Knoppix 3.4 german, 3.6 german, 3.6 from review "com", Internet via WLAN automatic configuration,
all worked fine.
Hans

[gnarvaja]

I really enjoy using knoppix and I prefer having it installed on my HD on my old PC. However I wanna buy an IBM Thinkpad 600e and downgrade myself with hardwares a bit coz it will have only PII 400Mhz and 128MB. Question is:
1) will knoppix still perform fine?
2) is it better to upgrade my RAM
3) 400Mhz enough? I though the CPU isnt really that important but the RAM is.

I tried it on a PII 400Mhz PC w/64MB of RAM, a very old SONY Vaio. It was a little tight, but it worked with KDE. My conclusions trying different distributions over the years in terms of memory and CPU speed are:

1. Memory and swapping are inversely proportional. Since most Knoppix don't have swap partitions, running on 64MB RAM or even 128MB, is awfully tight. You may have to rethink which GUI you use.

2. Processor matters mostly for graphical rendering for regular users. A good video card will partially compensate for it. GIMP runs much better on my regular desktop (PIII 800Mhz PC w/256MB of RAM and nice video card) than on my notebook (P4 double the speed and double the RAM with a poor video card).

3. Games are a different animal, you'll need as much hardware as you can get, including video and sound card.

My $.02

--GN