Help with hardware upgrades

Mikoyan said:
Get at least 256mb RAM.

How wrong you are my friend, 256ram of any type doesn't cut it any more especially with win xp/2000. to get these two operating systems to roar you need at least 512ram. and should be fast ram DDR333/400 not the old SD ram.
 
citizen001 said:
How wrong you are my friend, 256ram of any type doesn't cut it any more especially with win xp/2000. to get these two operating systems to roar you need at least 512ram. and should be fast ram DDR333/400 not the old SD ram.
I'm not wrong. Windows 2000 works fine with 256mb DDR. Hell, it worked fine with 256mb SDRAM for me. You also have to consider that he probably can't afford to get 512 megs of RAM.
 
read any pc mag and it'll tell that 512 is needed for xp/2000. but considering he has a budget problem, then 256 will have to do.
 
256MB is not enough for an XP system if you're planning on running anything other than the OS. I would suggest 512 if you can afford it (and i have heard that using 2x256 would be better than 1x512, unsure if that is true or not. just the fact that two smaller ones would be easier to search through/index maybe?). My parents computer has only 256 and it's horrible trying to do anything. so sluggish. even though the processor is fairly decent (1.8GHz), the lack of memory slows the system down a lot.

If 256 is the best you can do, use windows 2000 rather than XP. makes a helluva difference.

I would also suggest buying a decent quality motherboard (I have not heard of "Soyo", make sure you have a warrantee for it if you do get it.)

Kingston is a good brand for RAM as well - lifetime warrantee (or at least when i got it it was.)

Keep in mind that unless your current one is brilliant, you'll probably want a new graphics card too.
 
I have run XP on a 128 mb system acceptably, at least for SMAC and web browsing.

2x256 ram is only better than 1x512 if you have a fancy type of dual-threaded ram thing, which I believe is in the latest Intel systems.

Of course, the more ram the better (I have a gig) but if you can only afford 256 XP will run fine. Just turn off all the eyecandy.

Soyo is an established company. (I don't know how it's quality is, but it's not fake or something. :p )
 
kundor said:
I have run XP on a 128 mb system acceptably, at least for SMAC and web browsing.

2x256 ram is only better than 1x512 if you have a fancy type of dual-threaded ram thing, which I believe is in the latest Intel systems.

Of course, the more ram the better (I have a gig) but if you can only afford 256 XP will run fine. Just turn off all the eyecandy.

Soyo is an established company. (I don't know how it's quality is, but it's not fake or something. :p )
didn't know you posted here...

and i have no idea how you managed to get XP running acceptably on 128. I guess it has a lot of unnecessary animations etc, but still, when XP is running with nothing more than my firewall and other system tray stuff, i'm still using 134MB ram. let alone when i have several browsers open, and applications like IDEs, music etc too.

course I have a gig too, so no worries on my own computer.
 
bobgote said:
256MB is not enough for an XP system if you're planning on running anything other than the OS. I would suggest 512 if you can afford it (and i have heard that using 2x256 would be better than 1x512, unsure if that is true or not. just the fact that two smaller ones would be easier to search through/index maybe?). My parents computer has only 256 and it's horrible trying to do anything. so sluggish. even though the processor is fairly decent (1.8GHz), the lack of memory slows the system down a lot.

If 256 is the best you can do, use windows 2000 rather than XP. makes a helluva difference.

I would also suggest buying a decent quality motherboard (I have not heard of "Soyo", make sure you have a warrantee for it if you do get it.)

Kingston is a good brand for RAM as well - lifetime warrantee (or at least when i got it it was.)

Keep in mind that unless your current one is brilliant, you'll probably want a new graphics card too.

well at least someone agrees with my and my pc magazines. bobgote do you read any pc mags like APC or PC User?
 
I used 368 MB of SDRAM to run XP just fine. It may have been 128 for a while, can't remember when I got the extra 256. All the flashy stuff was turned off, but I had no problems.

Of course, that was in my old pc, I've got 512MB DDR400 now, and plan on getting another 512 sometime. :)
 
bobgote said:
didn't know you posted here...

and i have no idea how you managed to get XP running acceptably on 128. I guess it has a lot of unnecessary animations etc, but still, when XP is running with nothing more than my firewall and other system tray stuff, i'm still using 134MB ram. let alone when i have several browsers open, and applications like IDEs, music etc too.

course I have a gig too, so no worries on my own computer.

Hell, im running XP on 128 right now :p

you knwo what helps it run well? Not having 5 internet browsers, music and other crap running at once. I can run 2 browsers and music without too much difficulty.
 
Go for an Athlon XP, its the same price as a celeron and its faster. Go for 512mb/256mb of "value" ram if you can ..you will see the difference.
 
MarineCorps said:
I don't run XP. I use win98. :p
bleargh.
2000 is better, especially if you do get this upgrade...

History_Buff said:
Hell, im running XP on 128 right now :p

you knwo what helps it run well? Not having 5 internet browsers, music and other crap running at once. I can run 2 browsers and music without too much difficulty.
well i don't have that option. I have to have many things open at the same time. actually i need a number of the hardware specs i have (ie i need at least a 64MB graphics card for school work :ack: - mine is 128MB).
 
doing some directx programming. will involve some 3d modelling stuff.
 
ainwood said:
Why don't you want to buy on-line? Newegg is pretty cheap.

Are you planning on upgrading again in the future? If so, then you might want to wait a few months until PCI-Express gets out-and-about more. Its the new standard, and promises much faster speeds. In addition, it will mean that AGP-based video-cards will be phased-out.

Speaking of PCI express, how do i change my system from AGP to PCI express graphics card? I dont want to get a new MoBo for friggin graphics. Oh well, it might be a couple of years. My bi-yearly revamping :)
 
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