🚀 go-pugleaf

carvalho@worldaccess.nl (Washington Carvalho) wrote:

>Hello! Maybe you can help me... I have lots of questions...

>I have a 486dx2 80, with 8Mb. I use Dos 6.2 and win 3.11 (and just
>installed win32). I tryed win95, for ONE day, and gave up. It was much
>slower than my old configuration. I think I need some more ram. Is
>that so? Is 12Mb enough, or should I go straight to 16Mb? 

16MB

>I'd also like to upgrade my system... (if I get some extra money!)
>what should I do first? I just want a smooth running system, if this
>is possible. 
>Here's what I have... Nothing fancy...

>- Soyo "green" Mainboard 486 pci with on board local bus IDE
>controller ( I bought it as e-ide, but the manual just says ide, is
>there an e-ide controller, or just the HD has to be e-ide?). With 256
>cache and 2x 4Mb. Bios : Award (should IDE 32-bit transfer be enabled?
>and what about ide second channel control?)

>- Seagate ST3660A, 545Mb , e-ide( I bought it as e-ide, but the
>specifications says fast ata-2 , is it the same as e-ide  from western
>digital? Using qbench I got these results: data access time 12,7ms,
>data transfer rate 1810Kb/s. Is it okay? Sometimes it seems slow. 

>-Trident 9440AGI ,1Mb, pci VGA card. (What is GUI accelerator? Is it
>the same as 32bit accelerator?)

GUI - Graphical User Interface. Probably means Windows accelerator or
Graphics accelerator, which is a video card designed to speed up
Windows and/or programs that display graphics.

>- Wearnes cdd-110 double speed cd rom. I have lots of problems with
>this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it even eats
>my cds. When I installed win95, I had a problem with the driver, it
>got really slow. (I didn't have the new win95 driver for it).Does a
>4speed improve performance substantially?

Speed improvement - noticeable. 4X is the current 'standard' but the
market is going towards 6X and 8X

>-enhance isa-bus multi-i/o card (no brand).With Uart 16550 (NS16C550).
>Connected is a ...

>- Best 28k8 V.34 extern modem.Sometimes it locks, specially if I don't
>turn it on before the computer. It also goes crazy sometimes, hangs
>off and does't dial anymore (just like NOW!)

>That's it, the monitor is bad, but it works ok!

>So, what do you think is ok, and what needs to be replaced or
>upgraded? I am too paranoid about my system? I use lots of big wav
>files ( I'm actually a musician!), photographs, some multimedia
>applications, some games and of course our "old" netscape, now heavier
>on my system than ever. It's mostly for fun, serious stuff only on
>Word Perfect!

Get a higher  performance 'GUI Accelerator'. Listed are egs in
ascending costs:

S3 Trio32
S3 Trio64
ATI series
Diamond Stealth series

You might want to get a faster hard disk. About 10ms

Use DOS's 'defrag' program (type defrag at the C:\> prompt) regularly
(once a week or two). This can improve your hard disk access speed.

Get that 4X or 6X CDROM drive if you run lots of wav or multimedia
programs off it.

If your board can support the new AMD 5x86-133 CPU (supposedly as fast
as a Pentium-75), get it!

An importanmt note, though. If you intend to upgrade more than this,
espcially the monitor, you might like to consider the current prices
of new PC systems with your total upgrade cost. It might be cheaper to
get a completely new system.

>So That's it! Long, isn't it? Can you share a bit of your knowledge
>with me? If so, please mail me at: carvalho@worldaccess.nl
>I'm actually a music student, and have a "baroque cello Homepage" at:
>http://www.worldaccess.nl/~carvalho/
>Please drop by any time!
>I have other questions about win3.11 enhaced 386 and  win32, but for
>now forget it! But I'd like to LEARN more. If you like to talk...

>THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH!!!!!
>(if you got this far anyway)

>Your truly
>Washington (I know it's a strange 1st name!)