Old PC setup

irishguy

i am setting up an old pc [75mhz p1,16mb ram,1,6gig drive] for by mother she will just be using it for surfing the net and basic office applications,i was wondering would i be better running windows 98 or windows 2000.Would 2k even run on it?i got it working on a 100mhz P1 with 32mb ram it worked but it was very slow

Gerry

I wouldn't even like to run win98 on that machine. 2k won't run on it, needs at least 64mb. 98 runs ok-ish on 32mb. You should post on the wanted board looking for suitable ram. It will be a perfectly ok machine once you get a decent amount of ram into it.

irishguy

its even worse than i taught it only has 8mb ram,ill just us it for parts.i emailed gateway tech support[its a gateway pc] and they said it supports up to a 500mhz celeron [i think thats that a bit optomistic] and 128mb ram i have no idea wot kind of ram it is all i know is that it has 72pins

elmer

there's no chance it would take a 500mhz celeron - the interface for that chip goes up to 233mhz but what speed you can do totally depends on how you can set it in the bios

it'll run 95 ok - but i do suggest getting as much ram as you can - the memory it'd take would be 72pin simms, the ram of that era is all pretty much the same at chunks of 16m or above except that the access speeds vary, such as 60ns 70ns or 80ns

If you can get 32 or more 98 should be ok - take a look at 98lite.net and get 98lite - it's a great little app for streamlining 98

I can't say i've ever tried to run different speeds of ram of this era. I guess it should work

I think you'd also be better checking gateways site rather than calling their support. They obviously haven't a clue in this case

irishguy

i had a look at there site,it was no help.Would the simms run togeather wit PC66 as i have a computer with 32mb of PC66 with 4 spare simm slots +1 free dimm would they run togeather??

Gerry

The dimm will normally occupy the same address lines as 2 of the simm slots, so you could have a max of 2 simms when you have a dimm in. Try it anyway. By the way elmer is completely right, it sounds like support don't have a clue. Gateways american site is actually pretty good for documentation, you will need patience though.

elmer

I had trouble with the simm dimm thing before on a 200 i had a good while back - it would only run one or the other, maybe you'll have more luck

i'll also have a rummage around at home, I just might be able to rustle up some simms

Ryo Hazuki

Win2k on 16mb?

On my rig with 128 it used like 70mb of ram just for the basic OS, no other programs running.

Id stick with win95 and office97 for the sake of performance

irishguy

win 2k will run on 32mb ram i am not sure if you will be open many applications but it will run and it will do want i want.Windows doesnt manage memory very well so if it has lots of memory avalibe to it it will try and use it,if you 128mb of ram win 2k will be fine and you can run all applications

elmer

i think the reccommended spec is 64mb - and 300mhz - you'd do far better on 98

sceptre

Originally posted by Ryo Hazuki
Win2k on 16mb?

On my rig with 128 it used like 70mb of ram just for the basic OS, no other programs running.

Come down to UL - I'll show you 40 P120s running Win2k and Office 2k on 48megs.

I'll also show you a queue of up to 40 people queueing for the higher specced machines while there are seats free at the slow ones:D.

I've had Win2k running on a P75 with 32 megs of RAM (one day when I must have had very little to do). I'd strongly advise against it. Look at it this way - it's your mother. Pop Win95 or 98 on it, get Office running (office 2k will run on a P75 with a reasonable amount of RAM (reasonable being 16 or up)). Performance will still be pretty poor unless you get 64 megs for the machine but it'll work.

Personally, i'd install win95 and put Office 97 on it.