[LaughterOnWater]

I have an old computer that was handed down from another department.
I thought I'd try making it into a kiosk movie presenter for some in-house videos in one of our public areas.
Kodi might work, but this computer is on the cusp of usability.

It came with windows XP, which I wiped. I installed Linux 18.1 Mate which is pretty slow.

Here are the specs:
OptiPlex SX260
2.20GHz, Celeron, 400FSB, 128K Cache, Gray, Ultra Small Form Factor Base
2.0GB RAM, Non-ECC, 266MHz DDR, 1x128 and 1x256, SX260
24-10-24X CD Read Write for Dell OptiPlex SX260
20GB Hard Drive, EIDE, 9.5 MM, 5400 RPM, SX260/SX270
Linux Mint 18.1 - MATE 32-bit

No GPU is listed when I look up the stats on the Dell Service Tag, so it must be an integrated video setup.

The video playback using VLC is pretty awful. It will play 480p or smaller. 720p doesn't render properly. I get a big blue bar on one side of the screen. There are all sorts of weird artifacts to numerous to detail here.

I have a $10 android phone that does a better job rendering video at a higher resolution than this thing, but I'm trying to reuse an old device since we have it.

Given the above hardware specs, is it worth trying to install KODI on this machine, or should this poor thing be recycled?
I'm willing to use 480p or even 360p videos, since they render okay in full screen on a 19" monitor.

I like Mint, but I'm willing to try other linux variations that might work better on this machine.

What linux/kodi system would you suggest?

Cheers in advance,

Chris

[retsibsi]

It's a very old and very limited machine. Your best chance is using something like Libreelec, rather than trying to run Kodi on top of another operating system (and Mint 18.1 MATE is likely stretching it beyond it's limits as you've already found out. If you must use Mint then I'd suggest the XFCE desktop version but even then I think you'll be struggling)

[fritsch]

Replace the GPU (add one) or use a raspberry pi3.

[retsibsi]

Replace the GPU (add one) or use a raspberry pi3.

Looking at the Optiplex SX260 specs it's intended to be fitted behind a monitor and is intended for office use. It doesn't seem to have a slot to fit a replacement GPU. From previous experience with similar types of systems, even if could take a (half-height and preferably passive?) GPU the additional load on the power supply would likely leave an internal PSU fan blasting away non-stop. As this particular model has an external PSU (non-fan?) it's probably already close to supplying the maximum wattage it can.
I suspect your suggestion of using a Raspberry Pi3 would be a much, much better route to take. I have one and it deals with everything I throw at it (I paid for the MPEG2 and VC-1 codecs to be released, to expand it's capabilities to its max incidentally, but even without those codecs it's a capable little media centre)

[fritsch]

The SX260 has a very, very old GPU (2002) it won't for sure help with hw decoding - if you get kodi to run at all.

[LaughterOnWater]

It's a very old and very limited machine. Your best chance is using something like Libreelec, rather than trying to run Kodi on top of another operating system (and Mint 18.1 MATE is likely stretching it beyond it's limits as you've already found out. If you must use Mint then I'd suggest the XFCE desktop version but even then I think you'll be struggling)

Apparently, even they no longer supply a 32-bit version. I'd have to install manually, and I don't think there are supported drivers.

Replace the GPU (add one) or use a raspberry pi3.

No budget! Probably not enough power anyway... Bummer!

Replace the GPU (add one) or use a raspberry pi3.

This is probably the best bet.

Looking at the Optiplex SX260 specs it's intended to be fitted behind a monitor and is intended for office use. It doesn't seem to have a slot to fit a replacement GPU. From previous experience with similar types of systems, even if could take a (half-height and preferably passive?) GPU the additional load on the power supply would likely leave an internal PSU fan blasting away non-stop. As this particular model has an external PSU (non-fan?) it's probably already close to supplying the maximum wattage it can.
I suspect your suggestion of using a Raspberry Pi3 would be a much, much better route to take. I have one and it deals with everything I throw at it (I paid for the MPEG2 and VC-1 codecs to be released, to expand it's capabilities to its max incidentally, but even without those codecs it's a capable little media centre)

This is most useful information. Thank you. It has made me decide to simply recycle the machine.

The SX260 has a very, very old GPU (2002) it won't for sure help with hw decoding - if you get kodi to run at all.

Thanks!

Thanks everyone for your replies. The main goal was to see if a legacy machine could be made into something useful rather than recycle it. Obviously not. The machine will be brought to a recycle center.

Cheers!

Chris

[nickr]

It could still be useful for something else.

[LaughterOnWater]

It could still be useful for something else.

True! But I'm pretty much done with this machine. It wasn't that great as a weather kiosk. It isn't panning out as a video kiosk. I found one of my old Raspberry Pi's (Model 1B) and put LibreElec on it, and it runs like a charm. It's a little slow, but once it's running the local video playlist it's good to go. It's amazing that a little Pi dev card from 2012 can render 720p better than a celeron desktop from 2002. At least I'll still be able to reuse the mouse. The keyboard isn't even USB.

[nickr]

Yeah I took about 20 old machines to the recyclers a while ago. Done their power hungry service as file servers, routers, mythtv backends etc. Removed the hard drives in case of private info.