Will AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8Ghz 736 mb RAM work with 8.1 ?

My title pretty much sums up my question. Its my Mother's desktop pc which she wants to keep rather than buying a new machines altogether. I've been told that I need to upgrade the RAM to 2Gb which Crucial.com confirm is possible.

Are there any other issues I need to think about before buying 8.1 and extra RAM ?

Mum only uses the machine for email/msn/online banking and shopping. She's not been a big user of streaming videos as such but that could be a bonus if that's also possible for her to watch Youtube or BBC news.

Hope you can help with any advice gratefully received thanks.

Tdub

Unfortunately, the Sempron 3000+ cpu doesn't support compareexchange128, which is a requirement of Windows 8.1.

If I wanted to keep that machine working for a bit, I would install Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

I would recommend Mint Mate. That is the closest to a Windows XP. You find the .iso here. The installation process is very similar to a Windows installation. Tip: Choose an easy password. You'll need it many times.

Here are instruction on how to set it up in a nice fashion. And this is how it would look once you are done - and all that is free.


[video=youtube;P0zrevWm0YM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0zrevWm0YM[/video]

Thank you guys for your replies. I'm intrigued by Mint Mate and certainly looks like something I could have fun trying out. My problem is that my Mum's PC is 130 miles away so whatever I do needs to just work after a day visiting without any IT intervention from me. I use Teamviewer to access her machine remotely and solve most issues this way.

What about Windows 7 ? Is that an option or should I just not be a wuss and embrace MM ?

I suggest you run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor. Then you'll see.

Download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Official Microsoft Download Center

What you could do regarding Mint Mate is to place it on a stick which you can do at your place. Then try it at your Moms place. The above video was actually recorded from the stick version. Here is how you get it on a stick. Best is to use a fast (access time) 16GB stick.

If the pics are blurry, download the PDF from here.

Thanks WHS

Its back on Teamviewer tomorrow to run that Windows 7 Advisor..

I think Windows 7 has a strong possibility of success. You'll still want to upgrade that ram to at least 2gb, though.

The Mint Mate stick you can make independent of the Windows 7 question. That is a useful tool anyhow, e.g. if you want to recover files from a dead system. And it is fun to work with it. But take the time to set it up properly as per my instructions. Here is an additional tutorial which is not in the package. That helps to weed out the start menu.

Works equally well on USB2 provided the stick is fast. Best is to test it with HD Tune. Here is one of mine which works pretty well - just to give you an idea what you want to look for.