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General discussion

PC upgrade Help!!

Sep 25, 2004 2:40AM PDT

Hi all,

I had purchased a Dell PC in 1999 with following specifications:
Pentium III processor 500 MHz.
64 MB RAM
6 GB Harddrive.

Friend of mine has a new Dell with:
Pentium IV 2.4 GHz.
128 MB RAM.
40 GB Harddrive.

On my PC, I am running Windows 98, whereas my friends PC
has Windows XP Home edition. My computer takes a long time
to start windows, but his startup takes less than 10 seconds.

Dell says I cannot upgrade my PC higher than 550 MHz.
If I increase my RAM to 256 MB and keep speed at 500 MHz,
will my Windows be any faster?

Thank you.

Discussion is locked

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Re: PC upgrade Help!!
Sep 25, 2004 2:59AM PDT

An increase in RAM that large will almost surley speed up your boot time and performance. You can also try changing settings for things like messenger programs and system monitors not to start when Windows starts up. Look in the lower right hand corner next to your clock... Those are the things that run at startup. The more you have, the longer it will take to complete your start up process

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Re: PC upgrade Help!!/my opinion
Sep 25, 2004 1:18PM PDT

I seriously doubt you will get a noticable performance increase with Win 98 by increasing RAM above 128 megs. You may be able to load a few more apps but, if that's what you need to do, you also should not waste the money and move toward a new rig and OS that manages memory better. I also suspect RAM is not the major bottleneck in your system. Your graphics card and all else surely contribute. This isn't what you may want to hear but I hate to think about throughing good money after bad. My two cents...

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Re: PC upgrade Help!!
Sep 27, 2004 4:09AM PDT

I agree with Steven, increasing your RAM will not contribute so much in speeding up your computer. Your friend is using Pentium IV, just compare the processor speed he has and what you have.
Your motherboard is limited to a specific CPU speed as well as RAM capacity. Check the mother board's manual first for the mobo's limitations.
If you want a faster Windows and applications' execution, you have to upgrade your computer to Pentium IV (from 1.7 Ghz to 3.3 Ghz CPU speed), but you have to replace the casing, the power supply, and the mother board in addition to the processor. You can use your old CDROM, HDD and FDD is they are still okay. For the memory board, it depends if you will choose DDRAM or SDRAM same goes with video card as well (AGP or PCI), their sockets are different from the other.
Contemplate if you need to change your system or just upgrade, but a system change is better but it also means more money spent.