I'm looking to breathe new life into my old Lenovo laptop by installing Linux, specifically Arch. Here are the specs: an AMD A4-5000 CPU with 4 cores running at 1.50 GHz, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 500GB HDD. I'm currently on Windows 7 (32-bit). Just to clarify, I'm not considering an SSD upgrade—I want to optimize performance purely with software solutions. I've enjoyed using KDE Plasma in the past on SteamOS, but I'm concerned that it might be too slow for my hardware compared to Windows 7. If there's a noticeable performance difference, I'm ready to opt for XFCE instead. I'm also curious if I can tweak KDE to perform as well as XFCE by turning off effects and animations. Moreover, are there any lightweight distros out there that would suit my hardware well?
2 Answers
If you're sticking with an HDD, I'd honestly recommend going for XFCE. It'll be the best option for keeping things responsive with your setup. Software alone won't fix the performance issues you'll face otherwise, unfortunately.
I'd suggest sticking with XFCE unless you're familiar with Linux. Arch can be quite a challenge, especially for first-time users. You might want to consider a distro like Mint with XFCE to ease into it better.
You could find a cheap SSD for around $45 that might help too!