Advice To Improve Overall System Performance

[JeZ-l-Lee]

Hi,

I've got a fairly low-powered desktop running up-to-date Kubuntu 18.04 LTS 64Bit.

Desktop specs:
- Kubuntu 18.04 LTS 64Bit(fully updated)
- ASRock Q1900M motherboard
- Intel Celeron 2GHz 4-core CPU(passively cooled)
- Corsair 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM
- nVidia GeForce GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 GPU(passively cooled)
(proprietary nVidia Linux display driver v415.27)
- Samsung 500GB SSD hard drive
- 500watt PSU

Anyone have any tips on how to improve overall system performance?
Performance of above system is not terrible, but it's a little on the slow side.
(I realize that KDE is quite heavy, but there must be some tweaks to make it a little faster)

Thanks!

Jesse

[Snowhog]

The least expensive way to improve performance would be to increase the amount of system RAM, unless it is already maxed out.

[JeZ-l-Lee]

System RAM is maxed out at 16GB(2 x 8GB RAM chips)
Also the CPU is not changeable, it's soldered to the motherboard

[jlittle]

How did you get to that 18.04?

I ask because if it has been release upgraded from 14.04, a reinstall might improve performance. There was something about upgrading from the base Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04, on several desktop environments, which led to bad performance on some old hardware. I supported a Lubuntu install that became quite slow.

Regards, John Little

[JeZ-l-Lee]

Clean install of 18.04 via USB

[Snowhog]

Well, you're real options for system performance improvements then, would be going to a lighter distribution; Lubuntu for example (staying within the *buntu family). Kubuntu is 'heavy' as to hardware requirements, and top performance on older equipment that you can get it installed to simply isn't a realistic expectation. Older equipment is, older equipment.

Additionally, you could consider installing and using a light-weight DE (Desktop Environment), say, LXDE.

[oshunluvr]

To my understanding, Plasma 5 is no longer considered a resource hog - aka "heavy".

There's no actual way to advise you on performance improvements without actually knowing what your performance is. Identifying bottlenecks will require some benchmarks or at a minimum of what exactly you feel is slowing you down.

HD interface/speeds
Network/Internet speed
CPU load
RAM usage
GPU load
...
...

[claydoh]

That celeron is the real sow point, tbh,
I run Plasma on Chromebooks often, and those run Celerons, but they seem to have a tiny bit more oomph than the one you have.
Plasma itself is not heavy at all - very similar to Xfce in ram usage when idle, but only if you do a Minimal install which leaves out things like Kontact that run in the background. KDE Neon maybe slightly lighter.

I actually run Plasma off a usb3 stick, and the desktop itself is fine and smooth, but anything requiring cpu is going to be slower. Even going to a super light desktop like lxqt won't make something like Gimp or Firefox or Libreoffice run any faster.

[sithlord48]

Get a new Motherboard and CPU those are you most limiting things here. Try to avoid crappy motherboards they are the base of your machine . The quality of the board has a direct effect on everything your machine does. For example your motherboard only has one ram slot, while im pretty sure your cpu support dual channel ddr3 you can't use it because you lack the slots to put another stick of ram in the machine, It has on board video but your not using it how much ram is reserved for the onboard video card ? That ram you system is not getting to use. I would consider at very least a new mobo but for the price you may have to pay for the older mobo you might be able to get a cpu / mobo and ram combo that is newer.

[jglen490]

Agree, that machine is limited and has no builtin improvement path. So other than going to a really light distro, the OP might be more satisfied with a better MB/CPU/RAM. Just figure out what you want a PC to do, and move toward the hardware that will get you there. I've "upgraded" to better, but used, PCs before when money was tight in my household, and of late have been able to build my own with new, but modest components to get a machine that now meets my computing needs. It's no screamer, but has a great case, lots of cooling and a newer MB that provides for more CPU/RAM upgrades if needed in the future.