Tag Archives: lubuntu

Giving the AMD Trinity CPU+GPU a try!

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Initial thoughts on my new AMD Trinity based desktop:  Amazing for the money!

I just put together a system based on the AMD A4-5300 processor, ASRock FM2A75M-DGS mATX motherboard, 8GB of DDR3-1333Mhz RAM, and an Antec ECO 400W power supply.  Everything was from NewEgg, and very affordable.  This system was built using the slowest of the new AMD Trinity series of processors, and the cheapest AMD A75 chipset based motherboard I could find.

The goal was to load a Linux based operating system, and see how GPU performed under my most demanding graphical application:  Minecraft.

For less than $200 shipped (the power supply was on sale when I ordered), I was able to build a system using an existing case, hard drive, and monitor that will run Minecraft at 1920×1080 (full-screen) between 60 and 80 frames per second using Lubuntu 12.10, the “default-jre” package through Lubuntu, and the “fglrx” proprietary driver for the AMD graphics.  No other tweaks were made, and all the video settings were left to their defaults in Minecraft.

Neat.

So far, I am very impressed with the AMD Trinity system I put together for my tests.  The UEFI BIOS was very nice to work with, and even has the capability to configure the network interface via DHCP, fetch the latest BIOS version over the internet, download it, and update itself.  No operating system needed!

Lubuntu 12.10 runs like a dream.  All the hardware appears to be supported, and even without the “fglrx” graphics driver, the video worked perfect during the installation of Lubuntu, and after.  It was even quick enough to play Minecraft, but with some noticeable slowdown while running full-screen.

More updates to come as I mess around with this latest desktop systems architecture from AMD!

And now, for something completely different!

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Well, not THAT different! I am in the process of clearing out the basement of older machines, and have built as many as I can manage using excess parts and whatnot. After building the hardware, I needed an operating system to install so I can attempt to sell these systems.

First, I loaded Ubuntu 10.10 on some of the machines, but it was a little top heavy, and using the systems felt extremly “clunky”. I then switched to Xubuntu 10.10, and things were better, but I wasn’t happy with how the slowest of the machines, an Intel Pentium III 450Mhz system with 384MB of RAM and nVidia AGP graphics card, performed after the installation was complete.

I thought I was stuck, because past experience led me to believe that Xubuntu was the lightest of the Ubuntu derivatives. After almost posting the systems sale on Craigslist, I came across an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution I had not heard of before: Lubuntu Linux!

Lubuntu Linux uses LXDE instead of a Gnome based desktop environment like Ubuntu an Xubuntu. Lubuntu also uses Chromium as the default browser, instead of Firefox, as well as Abiword and Gnumeric instead of OpenOffice. Everything about the software packaged Lubuntu is scaled back for older hardware with lower amounts of RAM and processor resources.

After loading Lubuntu 10.10 on the Pentium III 450Mhz system, I was surprised at how responsive it was doing its first round of software updates, using Abiword, or even browsing the web. Granted, stuff like Flash video still won’t work due to the slower processor and low-end graphics card, but all of the software worked well, and the hard drive wasn’t thrashing with more than one application open and active.

It got even better when I loaded the faster systems (Pentium III or AMD Duron based) with more RAM!

I’ve now reloaded all of the systems I am putting up for sale with Lubuntu, and hope to list them on Craigslist before the weekend.

If you have older hardware that you’d like to put to good use, and are interested in trying out a Linux distribution, I’d highly recommend installing Lubuntu. For those of you not familiar with Linux, http://lubuntu.net has many instructional videos regarding the software that is shipped with Lubuntu. Grab some popcorn and check out what Lubuntu has to offer!