Noob alert! PC specs questions

supersunbird said:
What you get doesn't have to match and can be a different size. Any PC shops should be able to get you 1GB for ~R250 or 2GB for ~R450
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So any DDR2 RAM card should fit. Pin size no matter? Thanks again for the help.
 
SonnyK said:
So any DDR2 RAM card should fit. Pin size no matter? Thanks again for the help.
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Jip.

Anyway, to see the difference before and after, press ctrl+alt+del just after PC booted, and go to performance tab, you can see just how much MB of real and virtual (thats on the slow hard drive) RAM is used just by the system idling.
 
I've got a Pentium 4 3Ghz with 512mb ddr 400 ram and service pack 3 Home Edition. I use Glary Utilities start up manager to control what starts with the computer and inevitably frees up ram. Pc is pretty snappy and usable once antivirus is loaded on startup.
 
RAM is a cheap upgrade that adds a lot of performance.

Something else to be aware of is that XP security updates stop next year. I'm not sure how safe her machine will be beyond that point.

At some point you are either going to have to replace that machine or shift her to a lighter OS that isn't as vulnerable. Considering you self identify as a "PC noob", when you reach that point you will probably want to get her a low end machine capable of running a newer OS (win7 or win8).
 
porchrat said:
RAM is a cheap upgrade that adds a lot of performance.

Something else to be aware of is that XP security updates stop next year. I'm not sure how safe her machine will be beyond that point.

At some point you are either going to have to replace that machine or shift her to a lighter OS that isn't as vulnerable. Considering you self identify as a "PC noob", when you reach that point you will probably want to get her a low end machine capable of running a newer OS (win7 or win8).
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Thank you for the positive news angel of death :p :(
 
SonnyK said:
Thank you for the positive news angel of death :p :(
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LOL sorry. :p


Hold on I will try and put a positive spin on this to make you feel better and make me feel better about making you feel bad:

You may not have to replace the machine for quite a long time after XP security support stops (I think it stops March or April next year if I'm not mistaken).

I'm hoping you should be able to at least get through 2014 without encountering issues your virus checker can't squash. This of course all depends on how prevalent XP is next year (how much incentive there is for the freaks out there to create malware) and how responsible your mother is when using her PC.

I recently moved my grandparents over to win8 but that was because their Celeron collapsed so I had no choice. Up until then I had been doing what you are doing: scrounging for old RAM and replacing only crucial parts.
 
porchrat said:
LOL sorry. :p


Hold on I will try and put a positive spin on this to make you feel better and make me feel better about making you feel bad:

You may not have to replace the machine for quite a long time after XP security support stops (I think it stops March or April next year if I'm not mistaken).

I'm hoping you should be able to at least get through 2014 without encountering issues your virus checker can't squash. This of course all depends on how prevalent XP is next year (how much incentive there is for the freaks out there to create malware) and how responsible your mother is when using her PC.

I recently moved my grandparents over to win8 but that was because their Celeron collapsed so I had no choice. Up until then I had been doing what you are doing: scrounging for old RAM and replacing only crucial parts.
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That's MUCH better thank you :D.

Seriously though, I will probably replace the machine next year sometime. I'm hoping the antivirus suite (Trend -from ABSA) will hold out the old boat. Right now R275 sounds better than a couple of thousand.
 
SonnyK said:
My mom has a PC with very bad specs, which are only being used for Internet banking, browsing, downloading (not multi media), email and the odd Word doc. creating and editing

Specs:
XP Pro Version 2002
Service Pack 3 ( had to up from 2 due to issues after trying to install Trend Anti virus)
Celeron(R) D CPU 3.06 GHz
448 MB RAM

Computer was slow but after installing service pack 3 it's ultra slow.

Question: MUST she buy new tower or is there a cheaper solution?
Click to expand...

SonnyK said:
That's MUCH better thank you :D.

Seriously though, I will probably replace the machine next year sometime. I'm hoping the antivirus suite (Trend -from ABSA) will hold out the old boat. Right now R275 sounds better than a couple of thousand.
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You know what, linux would run just fine on that old hardware with 1.5GB of RAM. Virusses would be a thing of the past and it would be as stable as schite! If she needs ms office you can run it via wine or alternatively use wps/kingston office (or libre office) and that pc would feel like a new one!
 
ponder said:
You know what, linux would run just fine on that old hardware with 1.5GB of RAM. Virusses would be a thing of the past and it would be as stable as schite! If she needs ms office you can run it via wine or alternatively use wps/kingston office (or libre office) and that pc would feel like a new one!
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Are you fscking with me? :p
 
So I have the 1 gig in primary and 512mb in secondary. Total registered is 960 mb

In idle physical memory reads;

Total 981
Available 597
Cache 348
 
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SonnyK said:
Are you fscking with me? :p
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You would be surprised at how easy it is to run some of the more user friendly flavours of Linux these days. Ubuntu is probably high up there given the amount of support it has not just from its maintainer Canonical, but also from other companies. You'll often software vendors making available specific Ubuntu versions of their software.

Besides for what she likely uses the computer for (word processor, email, Internet browsing) most major versions of Linux can run a lot of the same programs you get on Windows (Firefox, Chrome etc.). So the change isn't as big as people think it is. It was big 10 years ago but these days Linux and Windows are both quite user friendly.

You don't need to consider it right away though. You have time until the last nail is driven into XP's coffin. If it were me I would attempt to install Linux on a machine before tossing it. That way I may at least still be able to salvage it as Linux usually requires far less resources than Windows. It isn't an approach for everyone though. You need to be prepared to get used to the new interface.
 
SonnyK said:
So I have the 1 gig in primary and 512mb in secondary. Total registered is 960 mb

In idle physical memory reads;

Total 981
Available 597
Cache 348
Click to expand...

Machine should already be responding better?

Anyway, make sure the RAM modules are seated properly (firmly in) and try to swap them around, obviously both while it is off lol.
 
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