Dell Dimension 3000 + Pentium 2.8 and 256RAM

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Ed_Zep" <ed_zep@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:1123628587.711433.119140@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hi, have just got one of these and thought it would be much quicker
> than it is. Just running Windows it doesn't seem much better than my
> 1.2Ghz Athlon with 512Mb.
>
> Any ideas? No new software's been installed and it'll only be used for
> basic Internet browsing but it just seems way too slow.
>
> Thanks, Ed.
>

The Dimension 3000 uses Shared memory, so not all of the 256MB is available
for the OS and applications. You desparately need more memory.

Tom

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers)> wrote in message
news:42f94a24.23812208@nntp.charter.net...
> Upgrade to 512MB for an apples vs. apples comparison. Windows XP cannot
> run
> adequately in 256MB, regardless of Microsoft's hype. I sell a lot of
> memory
> upgrades locally... Ben Myers
>


What Tom and Ben said. Plus, run 'msconfig' and turn off all the bravo
sierra, then go to My Computer / properties / advanced /performance and
select custom. Enable/check only the effects you want in the XP eye candy.
You'll be amazed at the difference in the system response.

AND, -lastly- if the machine has NIS on it (Norton Internet Security),
remove that POS from Add/Remove and then download AVG 7 free edition. There
are (4) entries in add/remove, so don't miss any.

That is all.

I'm looking at the *exact* system configuration you've got at this very
moment (except with 512mb of RAM), and it was still pig slow until I made
the adjustments above.


Stew

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<tlai909@visto.com> wrote in message
news:1123686043.185335.282200@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> LOL!
>
> I would imagine that an Athlon 1.4 with 1Gb of memory would slaughter
> the above machine in the 'real world'...
>
> To be truthful, Dell sell these base systems to idiots... the 2.8GHz
> gets the punters in but in reality, the memory does the real work.
>
> T.
>


I wouldn't disagree with that. I've seen some older OEM Athlons that were
exceedingly quick/crisp with what I thought were less than ideal RAM.

If I built today (ie-for gamiing), I'd almost surely build an AMD64 system
around an N-Force chipset, or I'd fall back to a 478-pin Intel 875....


Stew