Back to basics

[Steve]

Hi folks,

Situation...My main computer...500mhz PIII, 64MB ram, 12GB HDD, win98se.

Scroungin' around in dumpsters and attics, I just put together a workin' computer! Oh what a feelin'! 166mhz AMD-K6, 80MB simms ram, 2.1gig HDD, win95.

My question. What is goin' on here!? This lowly 166mhz comp. runs as good (if not better) than my PIII, 500mhz system!!! I keep my main comp. clean and trim. Nothing extra running in the background, scandisk and defrag weekly, virus check and adaware weekly, norton cleansweep every day.

Is this a RAM thing? Does the extra 16mb of ram make up for the 334mhz difference in processor speed? What the heck???

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Peace and Love, brothers and sisters. Peace and Love

[hiredgoonz]

Well, Win95 is going to be faster than 98SE, add to that the fact that it is a brand new install of Windows 95 as opposed to (what I guess is) an older 98SE install...

Plus, what is running in the background of the P3 system? You mention antivirus, is the same software running on the 166 AMD system? And, for most tasks, a 166mhz is plenty...

For comparison, my 650mhz P3 notebook seems to run just as fast as my 1517mhz Athlon XP for most tasks and that's almost 1ghz speed difference...


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When all else fails, read the instructions.

[Steve]

Hi HG,

Huh...go figure. Yup, Zone Alarm and Norton Antivirus running on the PIII, not on the 166. I noticed it was pretty sluggish with the original 32mb of ram, but with 80mb it's kind of zippy. Learned a little here. I've got a Pentium 233mmx I'm gonna put in it and see what happens. I've got enough simms to bring it up to 128mb. I guess there's a little more to it than just the numbers.

Thanks guy.

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Peace and Love, brothers and sisters. Peace and Love

[sea69]

Steve,

win98 runs 100% better with 128 RAM.

your processor regardless of how fast can only go as fast as the system resources allow.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[Steve]

Hi Sea,

I thought I was pretty happy with my 64mb, win98 setup. Now I'm not so sure. I haven't been able to scrounge any sdram so tomorrow I'm gonna go out and buy a 256mb chip for the win98 machine. I'll put the rest of the simms in the other. I like playin' when I can finally get somethin' to work! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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Peace and Love, brothers and sisters. Peace and Love

[sea69]

way to go!

256 is about it for win98 though.. the most that you would most likely notice any performance increase.

and just enough for winXP.. hehe

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 02-07-2002).]

[Steve]

My motherboard will only take up to 256mb so might as well go for it.

"...just enough for XP.." http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif Let's not rush things. I finally found someone to lend me a copy of NT4.

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Peace and Love, brothers and sisters. Peace and Love

[sea69]

hehe "lend"

XP= NT 5.1

I have been told.. um borrow a copy of that!

heh

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)

[Steve]

...and don't tell anyone about that NT4 thing. Don't want to break the rules or nuthin'... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

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Peace and Love, brothers and sisters. Peace and Love

[sea69]

I knew you were only kidding.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)