General Computer Question.

[Shale]

My mother and father in law have an old compaq computer. I think it's a 500mhz AMD K6 or something equivalent to that. Do they need a newer computer? Internet is slow, but I figure at 500mhz a faster machine won't actually make it any faster.

I don't think they really use it for anything else, but maybe they would?


thanks,
Shale

 

[stevennoland]

If they are using dial-up, you bet it's gonna be slow. That machine would be fine with a high-speed internet hook-up. Cable or DSL would be the way to go. You might need to get a NIC, but they are cheap = $10.00 . Cable modems have also come down in price. If they can afford the monthly fee, do it!

 

[jfall]

500mz machine should be fine for surfing/e-mail, word processing. I doubt you will see an increase in internet speed on a faster machine

 

[Shale]

K thanks guys. They dont have anything faster than 50k dial up in their area though.

 

[Lonyo]

A new modem might slightly increase speed, on one line, a modem that came with a Dell machine (internal) was getting 37kb/s, and an Elsa Microlink 56k (External) got 50kb/s.

Check what they connect at if they have dialup, and if it's under 40kb/s, think about getting a new modem, you can always take it back if it doesn't help.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Shale
K thanks guys. They dont have anything faster than 50k dial up in their area though.

Hmmm, may-b the computer could just be all around cleaned up.. Even formatted.

A fresh system on a somewhat computer illiterate person makes a world of a difference.

 

[JackOfHearts]

You might want to check on the amount of RAM it has... If it only has like 32 or 64 MB it might effect system wide proformance...