Dell Dimension 3000 + Pentium 2.8 and 256RAM

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.

"Ed_Zep" wrote in message
oups.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

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

On 9 Aug 2005 16:03:07 -0700, "Ed_Zep" wrote:

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.

ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote in message
...
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

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.

wrote in message
oups.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

Memory is clearly the best investment anyone can make on any system
running XP.

PC manufacturers should be pushing for more memory rather than pure CPU
in new machine purchases.

I found 256Mb bad back in 2001 when XP was released.

Even as little as 768Mb (ie. a cheap 512Mb upgrade) makes for a much
smoother XP experience.

My personal machine is not fast... I run an Athlon XP-M at 2,400Mhz but
I think the 1.5Gb of DDR lets XP really fly.

T.

Right! XPee sucks up all the memory it can get, and uses it very ineffectively.
Install a few bit and pieces of hardware that add their own programs to run at
startup (e.g. your typical inkjet printer bidirectional management software,
Norton Internet Security, etc.), and more useful memory vanishes.

A system memory upgrade is the most cost-effective way to speed up any computer
running XPee. And just you wait for Vista. I cannot even imagine what a huge
memory hog it will be... Ben Myers

On 10 Aug 2005 09:11:10 -0700, wrote:

Memory is clearly the best investment anyone can make on any system
running XP.

PC manufacturers should be pushing for more memory rather than pure CPU
in new machine purchases.

I found 256Mb bad back in 2001 when XP was released.

Even as little as 768Mb (ie. a cheap 512Mb upgrade) makes for a much
smoother XP experience.

My personal machine is not fast... I run an Athlon XP-M at 2,400Mhz but
I think the 1.5Gb of DDR lets XP really fly.

T.