Posted: 3/22/2005 7:39:54 PM EDT
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I have a 6-year old Desk top computer. it has a 400mh Pentium II, 64MB RAM, 8.4 GB HD, & 16x DVD ROM, & 56K modem with dial up connection. I'm running AOL 7.0 and Internet Explorer 6.0 (i think). I use it for word processing, email, 7 surfing the gun boards/buying gun stuff online. I don't download movies or music, & I'm not a gamer. I'm wondering if adding 128 MB PC100 SDRAM will make it run any faster when surfing the web? Is it worth the money and effort to get more RAM, or would i be better off with new new DELL for aroun $650.00? My only complaint is i cant upgrade to AOL 9.0 with this system. What says the hive mind? |
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with only 64mb of ram most likely yes to some extent. you will still be bottlenecked at the dialup for internet but pages will process a bit faster. Want better speed first off dump AOL. what OS are you running? Frankly you could upgeade the entire system to around a 2gig machine for under 400.00. i'd probobly put the money towards that. |
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Even if you can build one cheaper than Dell sells its entry level systems for, the software packages for Microsoft Office, etc. will price you out of the market. Dell gets such a price break on the Microsoft Software that they can sell a system cheaper than you can build it and buy the software license. Watch Dell for a good incentive package. Last month I waited 1 week and got a free printer, free shipping and double memory. The week before you only got free shipping. The whole system with 17" flat screen monitor, 40 gig. HD, Windows Office home edition?, 512 kb RAM, etc. was $ 680.00. If you want to ensure that you get good customer sevice and speak with American's instead of someone in India, be sure to purchase your system as a "small business customer". You might pay a bit more, but you don't want to be talking to the guys in India if you have a problem. |
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There's a good chance it will have no effect. It depends largely on your chipset and how much RAM is currently being used. Older chipsets up into the Pentium II era cached memory from the bottom up and had a 64MB cache limit. Windows uses RAM from the top down, so with these older chipsets, adding RAM can actually degrade performance. Given your current CPU, I'd say it's 50/50 whether you have one of those chipsets. The other thing to look at is how much RAM you're actually using now. Check your task manager's performance tab and look at total and available physical memory. If all your physical RAM is in use, then your system is using the swapfile on disk to supplement RAM and that's VERY slow. If that's the case, adding RAM may help even if the chipset doesn't manage it properly. |
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I think you need to take a look at a new machine. 400 MHz PII is awefully old. You don't need to go insane with the new one either. You don't need to buy the top of the line everything. Make sure you have at least 512 MB RAM and a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP. For processors I usually get the one that is just one step below the highest possible. Sometimes that processor costs half as much as one that is only 50 or 100 MHz faster. |
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Personally, I'd say save the money you were going to spend on ram and put it toward a new computer. Heck, you could potentially buy a bare-bones system and swap in your hard-drive, and use your current peripherals. What OS do you currently run--Windows 98? (Considering that it is six years old...) Jim |
On dial-up and surfing you're not going to see "that much" improvement moving to a 3.6 GHz/512 Mb/80 Gb machine. Adding the RAM will help some. You're biggest choke point is the darn modem but then you knew that right  . You'll pay $360 or so a year for high-speed (low drag) access unless you buy a $40 wireless card and connect into your neighbor's access point.  If you can figure out what kind of RAM you've got I've probably got sticks of it laying around here. If you can figure it out shoot me an e-mail (using the Paul1960 address) and I'll see if I can find some for free 
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6 years old. why would it up and break?? Son't listen to these other people. listen to me.. just cause. go buy a 64 mb stick of 100mhz 168 pin sdr-sdram (probably what it takes) and keep going till it really breaks... the buy the cheapest computer you can buy (that is not so cheap its crap) |
I worked for Gateway. Its a standard PC100 chip. Dont pay like $70 from GW, just grab generic. $14.00 www.1stchoicememory.com/page631.html |
adding another 64mb wont really make a noticable difference. add at least 128mb www.1stchoicememory.com/page631.html its cheap enough |
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Dissention!!! Computers that old are PERFECTLY FINE for web surfing and general office tasks. ,,,,,,, -More RAM would help, but I would go for 256 megs. That will make a HUGE difference in how responsive the thing feels. The memory is probably PC100/PC33 type, and for 256 megs I found prices of about $35 for non-ECC and $50 for ECC memory. "ECC" means "Error Correcting Circuit", and some motherboards needed this feature, but others do not. You can always use ECC ram into a non-ECC computer, but if you don't need it there's no advantage to paying for it. You could ask Gateway what type of RAM it needs, the info might be online somewhere, or you could just play it safe and cough up the $50 for the ECC. ...If Gateway wants you to pay more than $50 + shipping, screw them. You can get it cheaper elsewhere!!! ---- Another thought... someday your hard-drive will die, and it's probably a slower model as well. The cheapest price I found quickly for a 7200-RPM/8-meg cache drive was $65, for an 80-gigabyte drive. You might think you don't need 80 gigabytes of storage, and you'd probably be right--but nobody makes smaller desktop hard drives anymore. A faster/bigger-cache hard drive will make a difference too, and you will need a new hard-drive sooner or later anyway. If you have anything important saved on your computer, you may not be able to recover it if the hard drive dies. ---- You say you can't upgrade to AOL-9, so you are probably still using Win98 or ME. Upgrading to WinXP would cost you around $85, and some places have purchase restrictions on buying OEM Windows copies (must be purchased "with hardware"). More and more software is dropping Win98/ME support, but WinXP will most certainly run slower than Win98 does on the same machine. If you buy a WinXP copy, get a full install (not an upgrade disk, which is what most walk-in stores sell) and DON'T buy it off eBay or "the lowest-priced seller on Pricewatch", get it from an established retailer like mwave, newegg, ect. MS is cracking down more and more on hacked copies and shared serials. Save yourself the headache, pay the price and get it from a legal seller. -- Also--if you want to replace the hard-drive, then you will need to reinstall the whole operating system and all the other programs you installed anyway, so it's as good a time as any to do an OS upgrade. You can then add the old hard drive as a secondary drive to move any important files off it. ---- Or you could buy a new computer for $300-$400 that has WinXP, a CD-burner, a monitor and some free software and other stuff thrown in anyway. You will spend money either way. Just depends on if you've got the money up front or not. ~~~ |
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Bumping the memory up to 128 will help, on Win98. Bumping it higher won't do you much good unless you're running win2k or XP, in my experience. More than likely on a machine that old, wiping the drive clean and installing your OS and all of your software from scratch will help considerably. Win2k will run faster on that machine than 98, with enough memory (I had a two identical machines with a very similar setup once, and noticed this). If you don't own a copy of Win2k or XP, then don't bother. Just fork over a few bills for a new entry level machine. When you get a new machine, throw Linux on the old one so that you can join the super secret exclusive club of arfcom penguin powered members.
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| i'd personally leave the computer alone and get broadband instead. Then you might want to look into a newer computer later. I run a 733MHz machine and the only problem i have with it is that with the memory i'm using it has trouble dealing with my dual 200gig drives. The internet runs just great though and its really fast with cable modem. |
People still use AOL? |
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Adding memory will not speed up the internet on your computer. You are stuck at the mercy of your dial up modem. Adding memory will make the computer more responsive, load a little quicker, be more efficient over all. It will not be as sluggish once windows loads. If you find a cheap 128 go for it, but don't get if from gateway, any parts from them are extremely over priced! If you decide to get another system. Go to one of your local computer repair places and get a price on a system from them. Advantages: local service, doesn't have to be shipped off for repair, dont' have to be on hold for a quick question on phone, don't have to call India, they can get parts just as fast as anyone else. And you will be supporting your local Computer repair Center. . I'm wondering if adding 128 MB PC100 SDRAM will make it run any faster when surfing the web? What says the hive mind? |
No, just faster applications. Internet speed wouldn't be affected. ("perceived speed" might with faster image rendering, but that is about it) |
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Take a look here: click Price is $659.97, minus the $50 provided by BB, =$609.97 plus your State Tax (My tax is 6%= $36.60) 609.97+36.60+=646.67+$2.22 rebate postage=$648.89 minus $400= $248.89 |
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For your uses, your computer is fine until it simply stops working. Of the things you say you use it for, there's no way your typing fingers will out-pace your processor. Adding the memory will help a little, but your biggest bottleneck for surfing the web is your modem. Switching to any sort of faster connection will solve that. I forgot to say. I'd take Troy up on his offer. I probably have some of that memory laying around in an old computer too, but looks like he beat me to the punch by offering it first! |
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For the record, 512 megs of RAM or more will breath new light into a P2 450 or higher on XP like you wouldn't believe. Anything less RAM wise just doesn't cut it for these machines for running XP and apps. So unless it alraedy has 512 megs of RAM it's really not worth it. |
| Don't throw good money after bad investing in old technology. Might it work? Sure, whatever... But, by the time you add memory, a suitable hard drive, etc., you are 1/3 of the way to a new entry level computer, and you've saved yourself a bunch of time and frustration. |
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I say again . . . www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/cache/charCacheability-c.html
If you have an Intel FX, VX or TX chipset, you will most likely make the computer run slower with Windows by adding more than 64MB RAM. If you have an HX chipset, you can go to 512MB with tag RAM. This is because the chipsets cache from the bottom up, but Windows uses RAM from the top down. So Windows will, in effect, use the slowest memory first. |
+1 it comes down to choices- do U want quality?? or do U want cheap???? a 3 or 4 hundred dollar computer is cheap- but U get what U pay for- a lot of them only come with a 90 day warranty. a nice new box can be had for around $7-8 hundred- including XP. (CA prices may differ) broadband is also a good bet these days.......U should be able to find it for $20-30 a month. |
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(i do this for a living by the way) if you are running windows 98 you will be wasting money adding much more then 128 mb of ram. going from 64 to 128 will make a big difference. going from 128mb to 256mb will only help slightly. running 512mb of ram with windows will cause some programs to crash. windows will probably crash before reaching the desktop with 1gb of ram. windows 95/98 was not designed to run with that much memory. add 64mb of ram and start saving for a new computer... |