overclock help

[Bigciccone]

i have a hp pavilion desktop 8485z. with a intell pentium III 450mhz processor. 96MB sdram and 13.6 DMA hard drive. (i know not much at all!)
i am running winows xp sp1. The computer is a dog, i want to overclock for performance just wandering how to go about doing it.

[Vintage86]

I think the lag is mostly coming from your lack of ram, the minimum for windows xp is 256mb of ram. Even so, I don't think even with overclocking if possible, wouldn't make a difference. It's time you get a new computer.

[Leonardo]

I seriously doubt your computer's motherboard has the necessary settings options to even try overclocking. As Vintage alluded to, your best option for improving hardware performance would be a RAM boost. With only 96MB RAM, it's quite an accomplishment that your computer is running Windows XP at all!

[lemonlime]

Couldn't agree more--the RAM will be the biggest boost you could get out of that system. As Leo mentioned, I couldn't imagine trying to run Windows XP with less than 256MB of RAM. I remember a few years back in about 2001, I had an old IBM thinkpad with only 128MB of RAM. It was painful using Windows XP.

[Bigciccone]

figures.. haha its just i have a gateway with amd athlon processor 20 gig hard drive and i believe 256 or 384 mb of memory that ran beautifully untill i started getting sluggish performance .. took it apart blew some air on it and started it and the psu i believe went so i replaced it went on and now wont stay on.. i have this problem with 2 other emachines i own too.. i cant seem to get the power supplys to work!

[Thrax]

Everything about that computer is too slow for XP.

[mmonnin]

Instant performance boost by going to 2k. Well not much of a boost...but less of a drag.

[tmh88]

you'd be better off buying something cheap like this
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8223004&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat103700050060&id=1166840115228

[Bigciccone]

i was offered a two computers a desktop, and a laptop for graduation. Both with bigger hd and more ram but wasnt sure how good they were because they were so cheap. also i heard some things about vista that arnt so good

[mmonnin]

If it was 'cheap' it could still have XP on it.

[Jengo]

right now you really shouldnt worry about vista, yes vista launch wasnt too long ago, but sooner or later microshaft is going to make you switch Operating Systems to their "newer" one.

Just get a new system, if it comes with vista, so be it. You are going to need it sooner or later.

[Bigciccone]

soo my grandfather has a new computer with vista.. and it dosnt support his printer. the drivers..

[zero.counter]

Get/build a new system, skip Vista until say, SP2...and donate those systems to any local non-profit organizations.

Memory (and many other parts) is/are dirt cheap right now, so building a complete system minus operating system (dual core) would run about $350 current specs.

[airoh69]

Or you could use those programs that can strip down windows xp. I used them once and you can make a fresh install of windows that will use less than 50mb ram

[Bigciccone]

thanks you all for the feedback.. Airoh69- what are the names of these programs??

zero.counter- i would like to build one my self, any sites you recomend for parts? i'm also very unsure if i would be able to do it myself, and know what parts are compatible with each other.

[zero.counter]

zero.counter- i would like to build one my self, any sites you recomend for parts? i'm also very unsure if i would be able to do it myself, and know what parts are compatible with each other.

I, like many, use newegg for numerous reasons. The others I frequent are Directron, zipzoomfly, and xoxide. I don't like to have my CC information spread about the internet.

[Bigciccone]

how do i know whats compatible with what?

[Leonardo]

how do i know whats compatible with what?That's why we're here, and that's why you're here! :D Many of us built our first computers after research on the internet and buy seeking advice at Icrontic.

If you are interested in building a computer, start a new thread in the "Core" sub-forum. We will need to know:

your budget
what the intended use of the computer will be
time horizon - how long you'd want to keep the machine or how long before major upgrades to keep it 'fast'

[airoh69]

thanks you all for the feedback.. Airoh69- what are the names of these programs??




One program that i know is called XPLite

[zero.counter]

One program that i know is called XPLite

nlite as well

[Bigciccone]

thank you all. i will post one in the core sub forum now