Is my computer good enough for Zorin OS?

Hardware Support
1

Hi I'm James and I'm relatively new to Linux. I've checked out a few distros and installed a few. I have a laptop I'm gonna put a Ubuntu distro on because it is kind of old so Windows 10 is a bit too beefy for at this point. Here are its specs:

System:
Host: james-Lenovo-ideapad-320-15IAP Kernel: 5.13.0-39-generic x86_64
bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (Focal Fossa)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 80XR v: Lenovo ideapad 320-15IAP
  serial: <superuser/root required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0J40700 WIN
  serial: <superuser/root required> UEFI: LENOVO v: 5RCN36WW
  date: 08/06/2018
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 16.8 Wh condition: 29.1/30.6 Wh (95%)
CPU:
  Quad Core: Intel Pentium N4200 type: MCP speed: 895 MHz
  min/max: 800/2500 MHz
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series Integrated
  Graphics
  driver: i915 v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 505 (APL 3) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.2.6
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet driver: r8169
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
  driver: rtl8821ae
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 10.53 GiB (1.1%)
Info:
  Processes: 210 Uptime: 4h 10m Memory: 3.66 GiB used: 1.62 GiB (44.3%)
  Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.38

I'm gonna replace the HDD with a PNY CS900 SSD and was wondering if I should use Zorin or Zorin lite. I'm looking for it to be responsive, stable, and get relatively good performance and battery life. This is my school laptop so it is mostly just for internet searching and notetaking via Google Docs. I would like to use Zorin but if my computer's spec aren't good enough I want to go to Zorin Lite.

I'm new to Linux/Ubuntu so I would like some insight.

1 Like
2

I would definitely recommend Zorin Lite, and it may even be a bit on the beefy side.

3

I have installed Zorin Lite on a couple of old/slow Core i3 systems with 4GB RAM, with great results. Not sure how the Pentium N4200 compares, but at least it has twice the cores :slight_smile:

4

I had tried multiple distros on a quad core machine. I found that zorin lite 15.3 worked great. I have since upgraded my laptop, so could not test 16 lite, but i imagine it will be a bit slower because the graphics are improved for lite, almost giving it a gnome look (customizable of course). I had maxed out the ram at 8gb, which helped tremendously. Along with an ssd, it would perform well enough for your purposes. Check the ram and ensure you have at least 4gb, but 8 is preferred.

You could always try it and if it doesn't do well install an earlier version.

5

I have installed Zorin on my wife's laptop which is a very old Acer Dual Core notebook (IIRC not even 2GHz) with 4GB RAM that you can flip around to become a tablet. Since she wanted to use the touchscreen, I had to go for Core and not Light, but after putting an SSD in, in performs rather well!! She can do a bit of browser work and even simple graphic things with Krita.

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