Upgrade old PC 11

[Boomerang]

I'm just curious if some members here have some tips if I can upgrade my old PC to play some new games.

The specifications of my PC are:
- Abit PX5 motherbord (1997)
- Intel PI 200mHz processor
- ATI Rage/Rage II PCI (ati_m64) video-card
- Creative AWE64 Soundblaster sound-card
- Memmory 64MB dimm (sdram)

I already upgrade the BIOS with the latest version that Abit supports. With this new BIOS I was able to add a second Hard disk 20GB.

I allready installed Windows ME and that works great.
I also installed Microsoft office 2000 and that also works fine.
But now I installed the "Harry Potter" game, and that is realy SLOW. (the sounds and pictures are OK, windows ME has found his own latest drivers for the video- and sound-card)

I have plans to add 128 MB Memmory but I'm not sure if that will make the PC faster for playing this game.

So my question is:

1)Is my plan to add 128 MB Memmory enough to make my PC faster for this game?

2)Are there other ways to speed-up my PC with some software or simple hard-ware.

Please respond,
Erik








<!-- My sport: Boomerang throwing !!
This year I will participate at the World Championships in Germany. (

http://www.boomerang2002.com)

!! Many Happy Returns !! -->

 

[evildoughboi]

you can always try to get rid of da progs dat run in da bkgd dat u dun use. it also allows the comp to start faster. get the prog system mechanic. it also takes away the win boot up screen so the comp starts up faster. if u want to get rid of the progs dat run in da bkgd, go to start menu, programs, accessories, system tools, system information. then on da menu find system configuration utility. then go to startup. thenk check off whatever prog u dun want to start. in addition go to control panel, and add-remove progs. sumtiems there mite be progs dat u dun use or didnt kon u installed that comes wen u installed dled programs. that mite allow the comp to run a tad faster, not much. buh it makes ur comp &quot;cleaner.&quot;

 

[paparazi]

A little bit more memory will help! not so much by making the system quicker but more stable.
Graphics is what you want! on an older system you will gain little buy spending lots on anything high end as the system will bottleneck the performance.
My recommendations are a second hand Voodoo 2 12mb or Voodoo 3 if possible 16mb
New would be Nvidia TNT2 16 or 32mb
Maybe an ATI Rage 128 ALL PCI* as I dought if you have AGP?
Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[Jakespeare]

You could add 256 MB's of memory, and it would still be a dog with any new game.

They have graphics, and CPU processing requirenments that you can not meet with a 200 MHz processor.

Sorry.

Every dime you throw into that computer ..... except being able to add 64 RAM for $15, would be a waste.

PCI VIDEO cards are slow.
Your processor is slow.

Windows ME was a poor choice,,,,,, since it is a resource hog, compared to Windows 98.

>>>>>> If you want to play games, you will have to get a faster computer,,,,,,, and an AGP Video card.

2001 software requires a 2001 (or newer) computer.

 

[osuman]

I don't entirely agree with all of the above statements. More RAM will definitely make the computer faster. The addition probably won't make it run fast enough to play the game, but it will help. Check Abits website to see what processor you can upgrade your PC to. You could probably get a processor that would be considerably faster for cheap from a used comp store since there is no demand for lower end chips. If it's a graphics intensive game then both of these things may not help enough to make a difference but it may make the game playable. Another 64 meg stick of ram and the fastest processor that the board will take shouldn't cost more than $50 and it will do other things a lot faster too.

I definitely agree about Win ME. If you have a copy of 98 and want to play games you should go back to that.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

The Harry Potter game requires a processor running at 266Mhz or faster to get the best out of it.

AFAIK, the fastest AMD K6 runs at 233Mhz - and those K6's aren't as fast as their Intel counterparts. IMO the Pentium 200MMX chips give better performance.

I don't think that the faster K6-2's run on your board, and Abit don't list it on their site anymore.

Adding more RAM and a better gfx card will improve that system no end - but the HP game will always be a tad slow on it.

I'd have to agree with Jakespeare - if you want to play any recent game at an enjoyable speed, you'll need a complete overhaul or a new computer.

 

[ChrisHirst]

To make your PC seem quicker to use reformat and install Win98SE DO NOT install Office 2000, I administer a 70 user network and we had to upgrade every machine to be able use Office 2k, We were using P200,s or AMDK6 233,s all 64M and you could tell the difference when Office was installed. put in 128M RAM and a faster video card\Accelerator would help. You should also be able to overclock the Intel P200 by a couple of speeds maybe to 266 (before Intel started 'clock locking') If you do this You will need a better CPU fan and your system may become unstable and it is at your own risk (you could fry the CPU). Newer games will either run slowly or not at all because of the extra hardware requirements, But you should get a bit more useful life from the machine.

 

[cdogg]

Win98SE would run more efficiently than ME on your system (as far as system resources), but I don't know if I'd agree to convert back from ME at this point - unless you've got the time and own Win98SE.

Your best bet to slightly improve gameplay:

- upgrade the RAM to at least 128MB (that's probably the max your mobo will support if it's &quot;pre-97&quot
- upgrade your video card as suggested above (16MB PCI video would be good enough; anything more would be overkill and wouldn't work to it's potential)
- look for a used PI-233MMX Intel CPU and only buy it and upgrade if it's dirt-cheap


Note: Don't expect a dramatic increase in performance, even if every step above is performed

 

[Boomerang]

Hi all,

Thanx for the reply's.

By the way, the motherboard has PCI-connectors.

I bought a second hand voodoo2 12 MB add-on card, without the drivers. I first installed a driver from

http://www.sonicblue.com/support/di...y_Graphics&item=drivers&product=Monster_3D_II

and then the file &quot;Mnstr2207.exe&quot;
(I think the ftp-path = ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/display/monster/monster3d2/Mnstr2207.exe )

But I didn't noticed any better performance.

Later I installed the driver from

http://www.voodoofiles.com/1843

This also didn't give any better performance.

What did I do wrong??

1) The wrong driver? (I can't actually see the exact manufacturer on the card)

2) Are there some features I missed with installing??

Please help,
Erik


<!-- My sport: Boomerang throwing !!
This year I will participate at the World Championships in Germany. (

http://www.boomerang2002.com)

!! Many Happy Returns !! -->

 

[paparazi]

The Voodoo 1 & 2 are 3D accelerators and literally click into action when a 3D game/application is loaded.
They don't work all the time!! like a normal graphics card does!
I have seen people fit this card incorrectly!
You must use the loop cable from your normal graphics card to the voodoo.
And then plug your monitor into the Voodoo card.
If you Know that it is a Voodoo 2 12mb then use the referance drivers from Voodoo files or 3dfx website.
If you have loaded the drivers and tools correctly you should see Voodoo tabs in display properties (right click on blank screen, select properties)
This card will make a real differance in 3D gaming on your machine but obviously you will be limited to games released before 2000, Quake/Unreal should just about play. Martin
Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[Boomerang]

Hi Martin,

Thanx for replying. I found out that it's a &quot;Trust&quot; card and found the good drivers from the Trust-site. As far as I can see these drivers seem to be the same as the drivers from voodoofiles.com. I see indeed the Voodoo tabs in display properties, although if I click the first time on one of the tabs I see first shortly a black screen and then I sse the tab-screen OK. Then I click the second tab and I see a sort of non-graphic Tab-screen.

I think the drivers are installed correctly, but I don't notice that the HarryPotter game is quicker then before.
I think I have to deal with that it only supports game before 2000.

Or is there some other trick to let the HP-game know about the voodoo card??

Erik <!-- My sport: Boomerang throwing !!
This year I will participate at the World Championships in Germany. (

http://www.boomerang2002.com)

!! Many Happy Returns !! -->

 

[garwain]

I don't recall you saying that you have installed the extra memory. If you haven't already, throw in a 128 SDRAM chip.

also, remove the MS Office FastFind program for you programs->startup menu THAT THING KILLS!!!

If you have several programs appearing in your system tray or task bar, close them, and free up as many resources as possible.

and if possible find/borrow a win98SE CD and get rid of ME. I have a strong computer (800Mhz processor, 512 ram, 32Meg 2D/3D card and games were still slow. dropped back to 98SE and they ran a lot better.

 

[paparazi]

This may be a little vague, but you need to set it to Glide and not direct 3D, Voodoo 2 's work better in this mode.
You may have option in the game to do this? in setup?
Martin Vote if you found this post helpful please!!

 

[ceh4702]

An Intel P200 is not worth upgrading. I wouldn't spend one dime on it. Face it, it is time to buy a new PC. The SDRAM may be salvageable.

Some of the newer motherboards like the ASUS P4B for pentium 4 setups and the ASUS TUSL2-C for PIII/Celeron boards are using PC133/PC100 memory. A new Celeron 1.2 Gig CPU is about $120.00. It is probably 5 times faster than a P200 at least.

I saw a Visiontek Geforce2 GTS with video output only (OEM) for 49.00 at

http://www.newegg.com.

This would go nicely with any new motherboard. A slightly used VOODOO III 3000 would probably play your game too. There are a lot of old 8 meg and 16 meg video cards for sale. A motherboard with an AGP slot would really improve the video capabilities. Any EIDE harddrives you have that are 1 gig or more will probably work with a new motherboard. An old 1.44 floppy will probably work on a new motherboard also.

Face it, it is time to buy a new computer. You can buy a nice celeron off the shelf for probably $500.00 dollars. You can probably buy a barebones computer for $250-$350 and use some of your existing hardware. Dont use WinME Windows 98 SE runs more stable. XP is nice if you have the cash to buy it or can aquire it somehow. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[bighw]

Jakespeare's advice is my choice, ignore the fact that he/she is a 'vendor. The other advices are good too, of course.