Useful Upgrade?

[NutBucket]

Here at work my computer sucks A**. Its a Gateway P166, non MMX with 128 megs of ram, two crappy video cards, and about 6 gigs of HD space. Anyway, my problem is that when I have winamp going the whole system slows to a crawl. Unfortunately, since I'm a summer hire/intern, company policy dictates that I can't get a new computer. So, I have an opportunity to get a 166MMX system, easily upgradeable to a 233MMX. I can put in even more ram, probably 160 meg, still keep dual monitors, etc. My question is, will there be a noticeable improvement in performance? I'm not going to bother to swap if I'm not going to see some difference. All I need the system to do i perform reasonably well with winamp running, meaning that I can surf the net, run AIM, run Lotus Notes, and WinMX. Thanks

 

[TunaBoo]

Make sure DMA is on.

I would go for every MHz I could, but that is me.

 

[SocrPlyr]

if you wind up w/ a p233mmx i think there will be a good performance increase... (the mmx processor adds more than just mmx but also extra cache and i think a couple of other things...) i would go for it if it doesn't cost too much for the 233mmx...

Josh

 

[NutBucket]

Anymore thoughts?

 

[majewski9]

Yeah there is a big difference between a 233mmx and a 166! Check to see if 128megs is the max ram though.

 

[majewski9]

Why is your work using P1's? I mean I work for a cheap skate university and we all got P3's now!

 

[InFecTed]

I've done this upgrade some years ago🙂
From P166 to P233MMX there was some performance boost, and btw mine was OC to 250mhz.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Yep you will notice a difference. Even tho its only 100 mhz or so higher, look at the percentage increase. Has more impact than from 900 to 1 gig for instance.

 

[NutBucket]

Thanks guys. To those who ask, our company does upgrades for permanent employees only. When their machines get replaced, the ones that are displaced are given to those who need them, casuals, temps, interns, etc. When I came to the company, last july, P166 was the best thing available as an intern. So that's what live with. At least I've got a 20" and a 17" going dual right now, so its not too terrible.