Split - Hardware/Software Upgrade Suggestions

Really glad that worked out for ya, PDiddie. $30 is a lot lighter than a new machine any way you look at it. You bring up a good point, too; the Windows Defrag, even in 2K or XP, is about the slowest, least capable defrag utility available. Now, if you clean out that machine's junk files and programs, say anything not accessed in the last 6 months or a year, set up a few main disc partitions, toss in a memory upgrade to whatever the machine will accept, and migrate from Win 9X to either 2K or XP, you'll really be amazed at how much life there is in the old beast. I did that a while back to a vintage '98 PIII 500Mhz box I was ready to give up on due to hang-ups and crashes, and for under $200, its a rock-solid dependable workhorse again. I'm even thinking of treating it to a new hard drive for Christmas.

That sounds almost exactly ol' Bessie here, timber: she's a 400 mhz P2 I bought in '98 from Gateway. She has a CD-R, a floppy drive (bless her heart) and, in a bit of forward-thinking for Ted, a DVD player. I still only use about 25% of her 9GB memory.

The only thing I have ever added to my original profile was a CD-RW last year.

So are there specific components you might recommend for the memory and the partitions?

I run diskkeeper now for about one year, although I had to pay for my Xpro $45.95. (There a free 'lite' version as well!)

I've always had pretty good luck with memory from Crucial, and from Mushkin; both are usually cheaper than straight from a computer manufacturer, but memory is cheap anyway nowadays. A PII machine running Win 9X prolly won't benefit from any more than 384Mb of memory; 9X really doesn't know how to handle more than that. Just make sure you get the right memory cards for your machine; the manufacturer's website will tell you what you need. A 9Gig Hard drive?!? Well, if that's plenty for you, then, cool. I'd feel like I was trapped in an airliner's washroom if I had that little, but what works is fine. for the one that works with it. I favor Hard Drives from Seagate and Maxtor, Western Digital a little less so, but the6ty're all fine. A storage upgrade wouldn't hurt you a bit, but if you don't need it, don't do it. I dunnp if it makes much sense to partition a 9Gig drive, but PArtition Commander is my partion utility of choice. There are others, but it works well, has a good interface, and I'm used to it. I've heard mixed results from folks migrating PII machines from Win9X to XP, but I think mostly because the folks didn't do the install properly. There could be some driver issues, too, particularly if your peripherals are as old as your machine, but XP Updated Drivers for just about everything are available now, and XP has a "Run as" feature which usually accommodated older, otherwise incompatible drivers. If you've got 9X fiully updated and it runs reliably, stick with it if you want to, but I would really recommend either Win 2K or XP. Don't even think about going to Win ME; 2K, XP, or stay where you're at. Be advised though, that Microsoft support for the entire Win 9X family is in its waning days.

I recommend against upgrading a P II. The lowest I'd think worth upgrading would be a PIII 500.

My computer won't let PC Pitstop in!

Could you explain?

Well, it's a decision you'd have to make based on your criteria, but what I mean is that the processor is not what I consider worth upgrading. This all depends on your intended use, amount you want to spend etc.

I consider P3 500 the minimum that I could acceptably use, much less spend money on upgrading. Now your use and criteria could be vastly different. That's just my take.

Frankly, you can get a used P3 for next to nothing (repurposing your monitor etc). Betcha you can get it for less than you'd spend upgrading,

I wouldn't have much hesitation to buy a whiz-bang new desktop from Dell (budgeting about $1200-$1500), I simply would rather spend that (closer to $2K, actually) on a new laptop (which I intend to do before the end of the year).

You have given me pause, Crave.

You imply there's a big difference between a P2 and a P3 (my interpretation is that there can't be that much difference between a 400 and a 500). I just wasn't aware of that (but of course, I'm not aware of a lot).

I have only lately encountered slowness of foot in old Bess, so perhaps I should just euthanize her and get me a younger babe.

When I bought this computer five years ago, it was much more than I could handle at the time. I knew that when I bought her; I expected to grow into her. I have. She does most everything I want done at the moment, but if start taking digital pictures and burning them and storing them, I probably will discover new deficiencies.

Not to mention other things over the horizon.

Not that I am asking you to sell me one or anything, and recognizing your time constraints, I will ask you to elaborate, at your convenience, any time before the end of the year, why you think a P3 at minimum would be better. (Note my usage of my current box in a previous post. If you need more info from me in order to give me advice, let me know.)

Finally, as point of information, what do you think of these specifications?

Processor: 2.6 GHz or equivalent; Celeron, Pentium 4, Athlon
Memory: 512 MB
Hard drive: 80 GB
Removable storage: DVD-ROM, 48x8x48x CD-R/RW or DVD-RW
Video: 64 MB Video RAM
Audio: 16-bit stereo speakers w/subwoofer
Monitor: 19-inch CRT, .25mm dot pitch or 17-inch LCD
Connectivity: 56K fax modem, 10/100 Ethernet port or 801.11b wireless
Expandability: 2 PCI slots, 2 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire
Price: $700-$1,200

(They come from here...)

Just remember that the price of a laptop is actually more expensive (as compared to a desktop) than you are probably figuring.

If you have a decent monitor etc, you can get a really good deal on a desktop, but deals are not as sweet for laptops (by this I do not mean the standard price difference, what I mean is that desktops can have certain bargains that laptops can't. for example buying without a monitor).



Oh, there's not a hige difference, p3 500 was a really good processor though. If it wern't I'd say a p3 800 would be my minimum.

But it's not just speed, it's everything else. You probably don't have a USB port and other small (but important) things.



After hearing more about your use etc, I think this is a good idea.



DEFINITELY!! You really only need CPU power for graphics, if you start messing with digital photography you'll really appreciate the extra processing power.



Yeah, imagine if you got into gaming.. (the bigest resource hog).



Mainly because I'd not replace the engine of a 30 year old car. That's an off teh cuff comparison, but that's the concept.

Secondly, you might have crucial limits past which you can't upgrade. For example, if you have an onboard graphics card you can't upgrade it without replacing the motherboard. and replacing the motherboard is pretty much buying a new puter.

Then you probably don;t have the right ports to use most accessories.

Lastly, even basic programs like IE are using more and more resources (software and hardware work together to up the ante, and even though there hasn't really been a killer app to drive us to really need the lastest processors just about all apps (applications, i.e. programs) will do far better on an 800, for example).

Since you can buy a used 800 (no monitor etc) for about what a decent memory upgrade etc would cost I think you are probably near the point at which it's simply not economical (dunno, it all depends on what kind of deals you are getting and i'm not the guy to ask about prices in the US).




This is robust. You get more bang for your buck for the processors between 1 and 2.



Memory is the key for most things the average end user does. So this is the minimum amount of memory I recommend. Since memory is cheap it's always good to make sure you have plenty (I recommend at least 1 GB, but 512 is fine, you'll notice the difference but 512 is not slow).



Hard drives are expensive, but that's plenty. Thing is, harddrive is a very limiting limitation. ;-) Basically what I mean is that if you get into certain things (media related like movies and music) the space goes fast.

To compensate for a small hard drive you should have decent removable media options (e.g. CD-R).

I consider 20 GB the minimum I could function on. 40 is ok, and 80 is nice.

120 and such are really nice.



Going for the DVD-R can make a big difference. Each CD holds about 700 MB of data, DVDs hold more.

But CD-R is essential, DVD-R does both cds and DVDs but you can easily get by with having a CD-R instead of DVD-R.

Since the removable media price is also a factor CD-R can have advantages (cheaper disks).



Very good (assuming it's not shared and is not onboard, which it probably isn't).

You can play most games out there on a setup like this.



I never get the puter sound stuff, I usually just hook the puter up to a home theater system.



Completely your call. I'd consider 17 the minimum I'd want but each inch makes a big big difference. Thing is, each inch is VERY expensive so this is entirely a money-related decision. You can save a lot by getting a smaller monitor so it depends on what you prefer.




Wireless can be really fun. But more so for laptops than desktops.



Sounds good.



I'm not really in the know as to US prices but this looks like a really good deal to me.

The computer is a realatively high end one. If you want to save you get the most savings by getting a slighly slower processor, and then the rest of the savings is in the monitor (with the CD-r vs DVD-r being another).

Does it come with Windows? That's another big cost issue.

Smorgasbord for thought, Craven.

Thank you.

The differences among Pentium generations are more significant than are the differences between Pentium and Celeron or AMD chip of equivalent generations. Most home users will be well-enough served by either Celeron or Athlon; the PIV's strong suites are more business-oriented, where multi-tasking and heavy number crunching (huge spreadsheets, Process Controll, CAD-CAM, that sort of thing) are the prime focus. Athlons are popular with gamers, and seem to show an edge in game performance. All the memory that will fit is usually almost enough, and a huge hard drive, or a couple of them, with carefully considered partitioning, will boost performance. 64MB Video is about the minimum for some games, and for serious editing of visuals, still or motion; 128MB is better. A tup-fight soundcard, with 5.1 decoding, should also be considered a minimum. A multi-Format optical burner, paired with a CD/DVD ROM drive, will give you plenty of forward flexibility (a couple years, anyway ). Firewire and USB 2.0 are important, and if you skip one or the other you're prolly gonna add it later. For networking, I'd go with Gigabit Ethernet, a 56K V92 Voice-Fax-Data modem, and 802.11G wireless, just to stay up toward the top of the wave. CRT monitors still have the brightness, contrast, resolution, color fidelity, and motion edge over any of the flat pannel designs, but that gap is narrowing.

All that of course is just my opinion. What's for sure is that for well under $1.5K, any of the major manufacturers will give you a helluva noticeable upgrade from "Old Betsy".

I was just playin' around on AlienWare's websiet; for a tad under $10K, you can get a real nifty desktop, and I don't think a $7K notebook would be an unwelcome holiday gift, either :wink:

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