[TriLUG] OT: 64-bit computing advice

[Brian Henning]

# 2 looks like a pretty nice suggestion.  I'd already sort of sold him 
on the mATX form factor (his current machine is a full tower).  We've 
already done # 3; he upgraded to a 19" LCD a few weeks ago (from a 17" 
CRT..  from 800x600 to 1280x1024..  nice move).  Anyway, this (and all 
other suggestions) gives me some more to chat with him about this weekend.

Cheers!

~B

James Brigman wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-08-29 at 08:52 -0400, Brian Henning wrote:
>> Hiya Gang,
>>    My dad is asking me for advice on upgrading his P-III 750MHz Win98 
>> desktop which is gradually grinding to a halt.  It seems that the 
>> marketplace is really trying to shove 64-bit desktop computing down our 
>> throats (anyone seen an Athlon XP for sale lately?  Or a quality mobo to 
> 
> Brian, two suggestions:
> 
> 1) If the existing machine is in great shape but has wimpy RAM and HDD,
> you could upgrade both the RAM and the HDD and see about 20-30% speed
> improvements for most tasks. Do the suggested reinstall of Win98 with
> the new RAM and HDD, keep the box relatively "clean" with
> Ad-aware/Spybot/Antivirus and it might give a couple more years of
> service. Total cost less than $200, much less if you have good
> scrounging skills. 
> 
> A 750Mhz PIII is dated, but I still run a similar laptop as my main
> email machine at home just because it's quiet, has a decent LCD screen
> and is and low power.
> 
> 2) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138025
> 
> It's a motherboard/CPU combo from NewEgg, about $100. You can:
> 
> - reuse your case if it takes an mATX motherboard
> - reuse your RAM if it's DDR (probably not if you're upgrading from a
> PIII, but DDR is now cheaper than PC133...so two 512 sticks wouldn't
> double the price)
> - reuse your AGP 4x/8x vid card if you need to
> - reuse your drives and/or add a new, fast, big drive
> - upgrade your dad to USB 2.0 from USB 1.1
> - upgrade your dad to 100mbit ethernet
> - has onboard video if you don't have a vid card
> - has a modern Socket 754 CPU onboard
> 
> You could try reloading Win98 on this motherboard - it comes with a
> driver CD that has Win98 drivers, but I'm not sure how well that would
> work. You might have to go with WinXP. 
> 
> 3) You might do only item 1) above, but add a nice LCD screen, new mouse
> and keyboard to make the box seem really new. An LCD upgrade can make a
> huge difference. 
> 
> Know that there are many of us out here who likewise are trying to
> provide good performance and value for family members using old HDW and
> OS's.
> 
> JKB
> 

-- 
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Brian A. Henning
strutmasters.com
336.597.2397x238
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