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How out of date is the processor/RAM in my Dell?
Well for humors sake, and since I'm not too knowledgeable about past and present computer parts, how terrible is my processor/RAM?
Under system properties it says:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.70GHz
1.69 GHz, 256 MB of RAM
This is my parents computer and the computer I use since I haven't had it in my budget to purchase a new one.
What would be some good parts to get for a new gaming pc, as well as explaining what all the abbreviations mean. I know I could google, but I'd rather give someone imaginary internet points for doing the work for me.
The video card is an NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
And the HD has like 16 gigs of space. I know, this whole computer is crap. I find it strangely humorous, but I don't fully understand computer hardware so I'm sure it's funnier/sad depending on knowledge.
I plan on building a completely new computer. This computer will be retired to the basement upon getting a new one.
I can't necessarily find the name of the motherboard, but the Dell is possibly a Dimension 4300(?)
That's what it says on the front by the power button. My parents bought it back in 2000/2001
5 Answers
- Anonymous9 years agoFavorite Answer
It's ancient
- 9 years ago
The computer is old, like run no game past 2002 old. CPU stands for Central Processing unit, this is the "brain" of the computer. GHz is gigahertz that is the speed of the CPU, the higher the number the faster the computer runs, there is also the amount of cores. A dual-core 2.5 GHz processor is better that a single 3 GHz processor since it splits the work. RAM stands for random access memory, this is memory that applications use because it is faster to access. This memory is temporary and is accessed randomly by applications to store stuff like everything on a webpage. The video card is very old.
What I would recommend for gaming is a dual-core or quad-core processor with at least 2.5 GHz of processor speed. 8 Gb of ram is more than enough for every game. The video card should have at least 1 gb of ram. For normal everyday use, most dual-cores will do with over 2 GHz and 2-4 gb of ram will do anything you want to do. The video card should probably have at least 512 mb of ram for youtube and anything else above looking at text. Also the video card has/is a GPU or graphic processing unit.Most gaming computers start at $600 and up, most everyday computers start at $300 dollars and go up.
Source(s): IT class - CanadaRAMLv 79 years ago
Well. its hard to say because you haven't told us the model of the Dell or the type of RAM but I would guess that you have DDR RAM or even PC133 SDRAM
Bottom line, It is out of date and incapable of running any modern version of Windows.
There is no point in upgrading this machine with new parts to make it a gaming machine, you would have to replace everything in it and it would cost more than a new machine. (CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Power supply and video card)
If you want to keep using the machine for email and word processing and light web browsing, get the RAM updated to at least 1 GB, and either stick with Win98 or install Windows XP, and cut down on XP to make it as slender as possible. You won't be able to use the latest web browser versions, you will have to find the ones that work comfortably with the hardware and XP.
- Renee GLv 69 years ago
If your parents bought it in 2001 - it is ancient in computer terms.
As in "stone knives and bearskins" to quote the Original Spock...well, maybe bronze knives - since it is probably not running Windows 3.1.
But the only way that you're going to get good performance out of it is to run Linux instead of Windows (based on what the geekiest techs of my acquaintance tell me) and gut the thing...
Because very little tech dating back over ten years is going to run anything recent.
