Why does this thing seem so fast?

[Santilli]

Dell, p2 400 mhz, 440 BX chipset motherboard, quantum LM 30 gig, about
30% used, Matrox 550 with 21 inch monitor, zip, old sound card, ISA, that works, where more exotic Philips did not, old CD rom/DVD hardware, removed, and ide zip drive. Weird, how fast it seems, over our 1.2 almost T one, internet connection.

I think it maybe it just doesn't get much that would really dual task, or stretch it's processor, other then a bit of video playback...

s

 

[ddrueding]

For a while I was stuck on a PII 433Mhz Optiplex Desktop. Upgraded it to 512MB of RAM and a 400JB, ran XP pretty quick.

 

[Buck]

Yup, they do seem quick. I still have one (SE440BX/PII400) in service, and the only things that have held down the speed are the hard drive, RAM quantity, and video card. Once I upgraded those items, it works just as fast as my PIII 1.2GHz Tualatin.

 

[blakerwry]

It's probably software. Optimized software offers the biggest advantages in performance compared to hardware. If you've got a good install and don't have much junk (updates included) slowing things down then a pII system can still be pretty snappy. I wouldn't want to do MPEG encoding on it, but for everyday tasks I don't see a reason for more than a pIII at the current time.

 

[Santilli]

IIRC: It's the current install of 2000. I remember it was sluggish when I 98 on it with Maxtor 5120 boot drive.
The LM seems to have helped, and, I suspect whoever did the bios did an outstanding job. Anyone know who does the bios for Dell, and it maybe it's just good Intel chipsets, with good drivers?

s

 

[e_dawg]

I don't see how the BIOS could account for any perceptible differences in speed between PC's... am I missing something here?

 

[Santilli]

Just guessing...

s

 

[Bozo]

S said " maybe it's just good Intel chipsets, with good drivers?"

Yep, you hit the nail on the head.


Bozo :mrgrn: