Can this set of hardware run Cinnamon?

[DiaNobb]

Have 4 old PCs, Acer Aspire M5700 in our storeroom. Take the parts out of them and try to use them for running Linux Mint.
Please see if this set of hardware can run Cinnamon:
MB : G45T AM2 V:1.0
CPU: Intel Core2 Quad and cooling fan
RAM: DDR2 800 SDRAM 4G (2x2)
PSU: UFO AB450 (450W)
Please recommand a suitable distro for this set of hardware if Cinnamon is heavy.

Thanks.
DiaNobb

 

[Brickwizard]

First, Cinnamon is not a distribution it is a desktop environment [the bit you see and react to,] and is considered medium weight,
there are lighter desktops LXDE, mate and XFCE are popular,

to answer you other question, up till it died in an accident I was running MINT LMDE on an old dell laptop with a 2008 T series twin core Pentium, 4 GB DDR2 [max it would take] my only concession was to fit a SSD instead of the old plate spinner HDD
boot time around 51 seconds

 

[tpkusr]

I would suggest Linux Mint 22 Xfce as it will be excellent for your hardware.

 

[tpkusr]

Other option could be

Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” Cinnamon
Or
Peppermint OS “Bookworm” Cinnamon (have to install cinnamon manually)

If you like cinnamon most.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

XFCE and LXDE are both lightweight DE's (Desktop Environment) suitable for your hardware, however with XFCE you'll have less issues, which I'd personally choose.

Which ever distro you choose they'll usually come with multiple DE flavors to choose from, therefore look for ISO that ships with XFCE.

My suggestion for distro + DE is Debian with XFCE.

If you want to follow there is netinst and dvd, difference is that dvd ISO comes with many software included, while netinst ISO is minimal install that requires internet to install and then later you download software on demand as needed.
So overall netinst will consume less disk space.

During installation you're prompted to choose DE, choose XFCE.

 

[kc1di]

I would concour that Mint xfce would be best for your hardware.
Debian is also very good. But you may have a steeper learning curve.
Good luck with what ever you choose. Cinnamon would be a bit heavy for your hardware.

 

[bob466]

Mint Cinnamon would be slow on your computer with those specs, xfce would run just fine.

I'm running xfce on my 13 year old Laptop and it runs just fine, I did replace the HDD with an SSD which helps.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Can this set of hardware run Cinnamon?​

Simple answer is Yes, but how well, I cannot be sure.

The factor that gobbles up the most RAM is likely to be the internet browser.

Below I have two screenshots using =

• Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” Cinnamon as suggested above by @tpkusr , and
• Linux Mint 22.2 "Zara" Cinnamon

The memory figure in each is of RAM used at rest, and the RAM used with Firefox open with a large number of tabs open.

In the first case there is no Swap, in the second case (on a different drive) there is Swap enabled.

Both drives are SATA drives, not SSD.

The Mobo (motherboard) you have listed above can allegedly support up to 16 GB of RAM. Even if you were able to ust up the ante to 8 GB of RAM, that would make a quite substantial difference.

HTH

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

BTW @tpkusr , on

Peppermint OS “Bookworm” Cinnamon

I am not aware of such existing. Peppermint use Xfce.

 

[tpkusr]

I am not aware of such existing. Peppermint use Xfce.

Forgot to say " you have to install it manually "

 

[Brickwizard]

Following on from @wizardfromoz post, here is my ram report, I am using Mint LMDE7 [this machine only has 8gb ram installed 64mb assigned to graphics]]

brian@Deep-thought:~$ free -h [this set of figures are with 2 browsers [Firefox and Anonsurf] and several windows open
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7.6Gi 3.2Gi 982Mi 691Mi 4.5Gi 4.5Gi
Swap: 8.0Gi 0B 8.0Gi

brian@Deep-thought:~$ free -h [this is idle Cinnamon desktop only]
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7.6Gi 1.3Gi 2.8Gi 107Mi 3.9Gi 6.3Gi
Swap: 8.0Gi 0B 8.0Gi
brian@Deep-thought:~$

 

[kc1di]

MX-Linux would be another suggestion. XFCE or KDE both should work on you machine quite well.
KDE maybe a bit slower. But would be better than Cinnamon. In any event let us know how you make out.
If you do go with mint this page is worth looking at to give the fastest possible use.

Linux Mint Xfce: lightweight yet full-featured

Easy tips, tweaks and tricks for Linux Mint and Ubuntu, both for beginners and for advanced users. Complete starter's guide with simple how-to's.

easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com

and these suggestions.

Speed Up your Mint!

Easy tips, tweaks and tricks for Linux Mint and Ubuntu, both for beginners and for advanced users. Complete starter's guide with simple how-to's.

easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com