I have a 7 yr pentium 3, with 128mg of ram. I want to expand it to 512mg. I do have to additional slots for the strips. The system has a 30 megehez system bus. My system is run on a 56k dial up. I want to increase loading bitog forum faster than the 1.5 minutes that I currently do.
Is it worth it to expand memeory
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Memory will help a tiny bit, but it won't help the 56K dial-up. 7 years is pretty darn good! I say you owe the old gal a faster connection.
its got a faster bus than 30mhz. probably 100mhz or 133mhz.
the good news is that pc100 or pc133 ram is cheap. bad news is that its youre connection that is killing you, not the ram.
the fastest computer in the world would still take 1.5 minutes if you choke it down from a dial up connection. dial up is like riding a unicycle while everyone else has ferraris (broadband).
the good news is that pc100 or pc133 ram is cheap. bad news is that its youre connection that is killing you, not the ram.
the fastest computer in the world would still take 1.5 minutes if you choke it down from a dial up connection. dial up is like riding a unicycle while everyone else has ferraris (broadband).
In this case, the memory could definitely help, but you might be trying to polish a turd here (pardon the expression). That old of a computer is never going to come close to performing like a newer box. You'd be better off spending your money on a new, low-end PC. If your current monitor is decent, you can save by keeping it, but I think that if you compare, a new low-end system won't be significantly more expensive than a memory upgrade.
Contrary to what these guys are saying, I don't think it's JUST the dial up. 56k can be OK if you're used to it or it can be HORRIBLE if you're running a very old system with a distinct shortage of RAM, as in this case.
Also, if it's no longer being made, memory for that old of a system might be hard to come by and may actually be more expensive than you may think due to lack of availability.
Contrary to what these guys are saying, I don't think it's JUST the dial up. 56k can be OK if you're used to it or it can be HORRIBLE if you're running a very old system with a distinct shortage of RAM, as in this case.
Also, if it's no longer being made, memory for that old of a system might be hard to come by and may actually be more expensive than you may think due to lack of availability.
A CPU is only one element of the speed equation for a computer. There are many ways to keep these older rigs running well, even today, for around $100. I just did this in reviving a PIII laptop.
Going to 512 mb will significantly aid overall performance, even with a PIII. Memory in that architecture is relatively inexpensive.
Another cheap performance boost on an older platform is a new video card. Your rendering is probably very labored at this point. You likely have an early AGP bus, and these are cheap to upgrade and will help rendering dramatically. There are some decent ATI chipped models for under $30 that would work.
The other big bottleneck in these systems is the hard drive. Move up to a faster 7200 with larger cache and your system load speeds will substantially improve, even on an old ATA 66 controller. Smaller 7.2k PATA 100 drives are dirt cheap and still available.
But as others have said, your dial-up is bottlenecking your internet throughput. Invest in a LAN card and a high speed service with a router/firewall/modem and your load speeds will rocket. And you can recycle the external hardware on your next system.
Going to 512 mb will significantly aid overall performance, even with a PIII. Memory in that architecture is relatively inexpensive.
Another cheap performance boost on an older platform is a new video card. Your rendering is probably very labored at this point. You likely have an early AGP bus, and these are cheap to upgrade and will help rendering dramatically. There are some decent ATI chipped models for under $30 that would work.
The other big bottleneck in these systems is the hard drive. Move up to a faster 7200 with larger cache and your system load speeds will substantially improve, even on an old ATA 66 controller. Smaller 7.2k PATA 100 drives are dirt cheap and still available.
But as others have said, your dial-up is bottlenecking your internet throughput. Invest in a LAN card and a high speed service with a router/firewall/modem and your load speeds will rocket. And you can recycle the external hardware on your next system.
Volvohead, I have been seeing compination packages of AMD 64 dual core CPUs and motherboard with integrated video for under $100 and 1Gig of memory for that motherboard for about $50. Of course, that would also call for a new power supply.
I'm a fan of keeping old computers useful, but it's always a good idea to keep an eye on what it would take to jump a few generations ahead because upgrade on old architecture don't usually transfer to a newer architecture.
I'm a fan of keeping old computers useful, but it's always a good idea to keep an eye on what it would take to jump a few generations ahead because upgrade on old architecture don't usually transfer to a newer architecture.
I would not spend $1 on this machine.
I wouldn't either unless I was convinced it would get me another couple of years satisfactory use out of the computer. If that's the case, more power to him.
It's old enough that someone with an old machine gathering dust might give him some memory if he asks around.
It's old enough that someone with an old machine gathering dust might give him some memory if he asks around.
Have you tuned your internet connection for dial up? There are several sites that will change the paramaters on your PC for better dial up
www.dsl-reports.com has connections tests for dialup. I still have my first comp.,an emachines 433 mhz.Man,that thing runs very fast for its age.Of course,i stripped away as much as i could,and added ram to it.Best mods i did for this comp.
thats a good idea. i have a few sticks of 64mb and 32mb pc100 ram kicking around from past computers ive gutted out. yall remember when ram was $100 per 32mb? well i do, and it pains me to throw it away. you could probably add 128mb if you want. send me a pm with youre address and ill ship a few out to ya.
What operating system are you running? If it's something like Win95/98, then this is probably OK. If you're on Win XP, then you would certainly benefit from more RAM.
As others mentioned, it's your internet access speed that is mostly the bottleneck. I had Pentium 2 machine (233 MHz cpu) with 128 MB RAM, a 4 MB graphics card back from 1997, a ---- 3 GB HDD and Win95. Web browsing on cable broadband was pretty quick compared to dialup, and that was 4-5 years ago. Nowadays webpages are even more graphics- and code-intensive which is not very dialup-friendly.
Do you honestly think you can just drop in a barebones board for $100? No way. You almost always wind up dropping in not just memory, but a PS, HDD and other peripherals (such as a cooler). A decent PS is no less than $60. If he needs the older style ports for printers and externals, he's screwed. And then you have to make sure the form factor fits in the old case. Not to mention the OS reload and the new hardware config. process.
This approach never costs under $200, and is often higher. He's better off starting from scratch at that point with a complete new system.
I gave him the highest street price for a few new upgrade parts. If he's savvy, he can pick up used bits for free or under $10 each that will get him there. Ebay and small computer shops. I could probably rejuvenate this system for $25 with used pickups and stuff from my parts box.
All he wants is web pages to load faster. He's not playing Doom 11 on it. A PIII system can still do that just fine.
But the OP's biggest problem is his OS. ME is dreadfully cranky 9x architecture, and more importantly, is now unsupported by MS.
A PIII system can still competently run Win2k. Even better than most Linux platforms, as we just determined with our 8yo PIII laptop (on only 192mb).
Win2k, 512mb, and a (used) faster video card, and the OP's old box will still surf the web for a couple more yrs.
A PIII system can still competently run Win2k. Even better than most Linux platforms, as we just determined with our 8yo PIII laptop (on only 192mb).
Win2k, 512mb, and a (used) faster video card, and the OP's old box will still surf the web for a couple more yrs.
A PII system runs Firefox just fine. My kids share a PIII 650, 424 MB RAM, 8GB disk, Win98SE. A good firewall to block all inbound traffic and firefox. For only web browsing via broadband or dialup, the old MS OS's do just fine for singular purposes such as this.
Here's a link to help tweak dial-up speeds in Win95/98/ME. http://www.auldfart.co.uk/tweaks2.html#Optimizing_Dial-Up_Modem_Connection_Speed__
Text from that link:
________________________________________________
(Windows 9x)
By optimizing the MaxMTU & MaxMSS settings along with the RWIN and TTL settings you can increase dialup modem
connection reliability and performance by as much as 200%.
What is the MTU and MSS?
MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit and in basic terms, it defines the maximum size of a packet that can be
transferred in one frame over a network.
MSS or Maximum Segment Size defines how much actual data can put in that packet, and it is therefore a marginally smaller
value than MTU to allow for packet addressing and other information.
Why do the default values need to be changed?
By default Windows hard codes the value of MTU to equal 1500 bytes. This value is adequate for normal LAN networking, but
when your connecting to the Internet with a modem this value is too high. This can show itself in different ways, the most
noticeable affect is less than peak performance.
By adjusting this value to more closely match the requirements of a modem Internet connection huge performance gains can
be achieved.
Below are the instructions on how to modify these values for yourself. Please remember though, modifying the Windows
registry is not for the faint hearted. Always remember to back it up first!
1. To change the settings you first have to find the details of your Dial-Up Adapter.
2. Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\Root\Net and within there will be one or more sub-keys such as 0000, 0001 ...
3. Open each key and find the one that contains the value of 'DeviceDesc' equal to 'Dial-Up Adapter'.
4. Within that key there will also be another sub-key named 'Bindings'. Open the 'Bindings' sub-key and you will find a string
name like 'MSTCP\0000'. Take note of the four digit number after 'MSTCP' (in this case 0000) and use it in the next step.
5. Now go to the key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\Network\MSTCP' and expand the sub-key with the same four digit number
as from the previous step.
6. In this key you will find a value called 'Driver' and it will be equal to something similar to 'NetTrans\0002'. Take note of this
four digit number (in this case 0002) and use it in the next step.
7. Now open the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans] below there will be one or
more sub-key's. Expand the key with the name equal to the four digit number from the previous step.
8. Within this key create a new string value named 'MaxMTU' and set it to '576', and also add a string value named 'MaxMSS'
and set it to '536'.
9. Then exit the registry and restart your computer.
Settings
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\
NetTrans]
Value Name: MaxMTU, MaxMSS
Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Here's a link to help tweak dial-up speeds in Win95/98/ME. http://www.auldfart.co.uk/tweaks2.html#Optimizing_Dial-Up_Modem_Connection_Speed__
Text from that link:
________________________________________________
(Windows 9x)
By optimizing the MaxMTU & MaxMSS settings along with the RWIN and TTL settings you can increase dialup modem
connection reliability and performance by as much as 200%.
What is the MTU and MSS?
MTU stands for Maximum Transmission Unit and in basic terms, it defines the maximum size of a packet that can be
transferred in one frame over a network.
MSS or Maximum Segment Size defines how much actual data can put in that packet, and it is therefore a marginally smaller
value than MTU to allow for packet addressing and other information.
Why do the default values need to be changed?
By default Windows hard codes the value of MTU to equal 1500 bytes. This value is adequate for normal LAN networking, but
when your connecting to the Internet with a modem this value is too high. This can show itself in different ways, the most
noticeable affect is less than peak performance.
By adjusting this value to more closely match the requirements of a modem Internet connection huge performance gains can
be achieved.
Below are the instructions on how to modify these values for yourself. Please remember though, modifying the Windows
registry is not for the faint hearted. Always remember to back it up first!
1. To change the settings you first have to find the details of your Dial-Up Adapter.
2. Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\Root\Net and within there will be one or more sub-keys such as 0000, 0001 ...
3. Open each key and find the one that contains the value of 'DeviceDesc' equal to 'Dial-Up Adapter'.
4. Within that key there will also be another sub-key named 'Bindings'. Open the 'Bindings' sub-key and you will find a string
name like 'MSTCP\0000'. Take note of the four digit number after 'MSTCP' (in this case 0000) and use it in the next step.
5. Now go to the key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\Network\MSTCP' and expand the sub-key with the same four digit number
as from the previous step.
6. In this key you will find a value called 'Driver' and it will be equal to something similar to 'NetTrans\0002'. Take note of this
four digit number (in this case 0002) and use it in the next step.
7. Now open the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans] below there will be one or
more sub-key's. Expand the key with the name equal to the four digit number from the previous step.
8. Within this key create a new string value named 'MaxMTU' and set it to '576', and also add a string value named 'MaxMSS'
and set it to '536'.
9. Then exit the registry and restart your computer.
Settings
Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\
NetTrans]
Value Name: MaxMTU, MaxMSS
Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Thanks for all your help. I just want say I have 63% resouces free when I'm on this forum. The is when I dial up my isp dial up is at 44bps. Then when I go to bitog forum it switchs to 33bps and does its stalling when I check modem status for bytes received and bytes sent is not moving and I.e. globe is spinning with no additional download of information on the page, I could be in this mode for many minutes. Then I switch to another site with no problem. This happens with ford.com, gm.com,mlb.com. Am I missing somithing in my evaluation of this problem or Is it a line problem?
Which part of $50 for 1 gig of memory and more for a power supply in my original post didn't you understand?
A couple of the under $100 combos I saw included cooler and the Mboards has PS2, parallel printer and IDE connections in addition to onboard video and sound.
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