Please check specs for Xubuntu desktop

[TechnoBear]

An elderly friend needs to replace her existing Xubuntu PC. She uses it mainly for e-mailing and letter-writing. She doesn't need any fancy graphics capabilities. She doesn't own a camera, won't be downloading/editing images or videos, won't be playing games, etc. Is the following basic spec. sufficient? Is it worth increasing the RAM to 4GB, or is that overkill? (Xubuntu is a "light" distro, and she's been running it on a box with just 512MB RAM.) Likewise, is there any advantage to upgrading the graphics card to NVidia GeForce 210?

Thanks.

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD A4-5300 Dual Core APU (3.4GHz) & Radeon™ HD 7480D Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® F2A55-M LK2 PLUS: FM2 A-SERIES, SATA 3.0GB/s, Windows 8 Ready
Memory (RAM)
2GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series Graphics
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 16MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K120 USB KEYBOARD
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[Stephen M]

The 2GB Kingston is a better RAM than the Samsung I have on my laptop (Voyager II) so I would say it would be fine to stick with that. I run Ubuntu, Debian and, sometimes, a few different distros on my laptop and it is fine for all of those.
I do not know how my graphics card (Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB) compares but again, I think she will probably be fine with your spec.

 

[TechnoBear]

Thanks for that.

I'm unsure about the graphics card, mainly because I've only ever used NVidia cards on my own Ubuntu systems and never had any problems. I'm not sure how the Radeon will perform.

 

[pr1s0ner]

I don't personally think that AMD cards are any more difficult to setup with 'buntu systems.
I would be inclined to drop a discrete GPU in though if just to make the system easier to maintain at very little extra cost.

 

[rapiddescent]

is the bluray drive really needed? you could save a few £££ by using a normal DVD drive. Do Bluray's even work on Linux?

 

[TechnoBear]

I don't personally think that AMD cards are any more difficult to setup with 'buntu systems.
I would be inclined to drop a discrete GPU in though if just to make the system easier to maintain at very little extra cost.

Thanks. I've had a look at the Ubuntu forums, and I think in general you're right about AMD cards, but the comment in one thread "I have to launch the Amd control center everytime I boot" has rather put me off! The whole point of getting her a new computer (rather than old cast-offs, which she's had previously) is to - hopefully - stop things going wrong on a regular basis and make it easier for her to use. I've never had problems with NVidea on Linux, so I think I'll play safe.

is the bluray drive really needed? you could save a few £££ by using a normal DVD drive. Do Bluray's even work on Linux?

Actually, that is the normal DVD option - it just appears under the heading of 1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive, which is a little confusing at first glance.

It hadn't occured to me to wonder if Bluray's work on Linux; interesting question.

Thanks again, everyone, for the feedback.