Subject: Upgrading P III Computer Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 18:14:07 -0500 From: Robert Carpenter To: Gill Boyd Hi Gill, Before I bought my computer, I talked to you about Jerry Lee at Omni-Teq, and was pleased that you recommended him. In August, 1999, I had him assemble for me a Pentium III 450 with 128 Meg of PC-100 RAM, 13 Gig hard drive, Sound Blaster PCI Live Value Audio, Diamond Viper 770 32 Meg video board, US Robotics hardware modem, Windows 98 S.E., MS Office 2000 Sm. Bus. Ed., etc. I wanted this video board in case I ever wanted to get into games, and I wanted top quality sound for music listening. I have since replaced the small Yamaha speakers with an Altec Lansing ACS48 setup with sub-woofer that really barks. This system replaced an '89 version of a small computer that ran only in DOS, and when it died I wanted to get fairly close to state-of-the-art. I use the system mainly for word processing (mostly correspondence), and really enjoy Word rather than the DOS version of WordPerfect that I used previously. I also use Excel to prepare a couple of financial statements at the end of each month that tells us what we are worth. Using e-mail has been a great way to stay in touch with our kiddos and cousins. I enjoy CD music while I am at the keyboard. I installed American Greetings CreataCard recently, but have not yet conquered it. I do not have a camera setup or a scanner, but will likely add a scanner one day. Dwight Silverman wrote a column in the Chronicle, in April I believe, that suggested that if one wanted to upgrade a P III, now was the time, before the P III processors were no longer available. Thinking that I don't ever want to get so completely far behind current state-of-the-art again, I went to Omni-Teq but found that Jerry Lee was no longer there. The place is now called X System. What happened to Jerry? I talked with a very nice young technician, Ralph Ramirez, and inquired about costs to upgrade. I learned that my Gigabyte dual-bios motherboard will accommodate no more than a 650 processor at 100 Mhz, which doesn't seem worthwhile for an upgrade from 450. So I asked about the following: New Intel motherboard $135 866 Processor 210 256 K of PC-133 RAM 110 Labor to install 95 Total $550 A P III 933 is $230 and a 1000 is $265. Maybe either of them would be a better buy. Question. I replaced the CD-ROM drive that failed recently, and was comfortable doing that myself. However, replacing the above items and checking out the system afterwards concerned me enough that I thought it would be worth $95 to have Ralph do it. Question. Considering that I use the computer maybe 5 to 15 hours a week, would I gain much speed or capability that I could make use of? Would it be worth the cost? I asked Ralph if I wanted to move to a P 4 someday, could I continue to upgrade. He said the P 4 would require a different case from the mid-tower case I now have. I have no interest in going the P 4 route right now, and don't know if I ever would. I don't know what I would do with 256K of RAM right now, but it is cheap and it is faster than what I have, and I know that Windows likes lots of memory. If I did the upgrade, would I buy myself several more years of capability over what I now have before I would want to go to much newer equipment? I am very pleased with the system I have, and my 19" ViewSonic PS790 monitor provides great color. I am very much a computer novice, but I have learned enough on my own to use Windows, Word and Excel for my fairly simple needs. I want to take some courses in all three, but I have not been able to fit them into my schedule, considering some other priorities in my life that I have to attend to. I do not feel a need to upgrade, but I know that technology is moving on at a breakneck pace, and it bothers me that if I do not upgrade now, would I regret it in a year or two? Gill, I apologize for all the detail, but I wanted to give you enough info about my computer needs and use. I would appreciate your comments on all this. Thanks much. Robert E. "Gene" Carpenter