Let the judging begin

[EmperorNero]

Here are my computer specs and the typical softwares I would be running, can somebody give me an idea of how long my comp would run somewhat smoothly before I need an upgrade? when school resumes, I'm going to be a junior in highschool and I'm wondering if I should get a new comp in college or use this one.

hardware:
- Asus K7V w/out audio
- Athlon 700mhz classic (week 17, has some overclocking potential - heard it has a 900 core, but too cowardly to open the athlon to be sure)
- 128MB Crucial PC133, CAS2 RAM
- Voodoo3 3000 AGP
- SB Live! MP3+
- Plextor IDE 8x4x32 CD-RW
- Western Digital 15.3gig 7200 rpm
- 56k Actiontec Call Waiting modem (I want DSL )
- Samsung 19" 950p monitor

softwares:
- triple boot Win98, Win2k, Mandrake Linux
- MS IE 5.1 (typically 2-3+ windows opened at a time)/Netscape in Linux
- Paint Shop Pro 6
- Nero Burning ROM 5.0, CloneCD, CeQuadrat Packet Writer
- Norton Systemworks 2000
- MS Office 2000
- Outlook Express 5.0
- HP Scanning Software
- Adobe Acrobat
- MS Visual Studio 6
- Napster, CuteMX, Winamp
- AIM, ICQ
- Encarta Encyclopedia 2000 Deluxe, MS Bookshelf
- MS Photodraw
- WinDVD (when I get a DVD drive - also, I won't use a decoder card)

I don't usually play games often, but they include:
- Age of Empires 2
- Flight Sim 98, Combat Flight Sim
- Diablo I
- Starcraft Broodwars
- The Sims

lastly, sorry for the lengthy post.

EDIT: just rereading this post through, I realize how puny and crappy my games collection is .

 

[Train]

looks good for another year,

if you do get into some heavier gaming, the voodoo3 will be the first thing to upgrade. and mybe when you get to college you can tweak your Athlon up a notch or two to keep in in the running, but besides that you have a solid machine.

Though an extra 8-10 gig HD (relatively cheap) might be needed if you want to keep the computer for a few years, just to keep all the extra junk on

 

[Rellik]

3 things:

First, get more RAM! You intend to run Visual Studio and Flight sim..
also, RAM prices are going up so 256 MB is a good investment.

Second, get a 20-30 gb drive. IBM or Maxtor or WD

Third, Get a GF2 or the GF2MX. The V3 is ok, but will be a problem later this year when games such as Giants and Sacrifice with T&L are
coming out.

 

[dvch]

Your basic sytem is fine.I agree with Rellik on the ram-get another 128. I would wait on upgrading the video as prices will go down on several cards, that would be a true upgrade, in the next 6 months.