I've decided to upgrade my computer, so I went to Compumundo to find out prices of HDDs and RAM. The smallest HD has 80 GB, it's a lot, but it's relatively cheap. What can you tell me about the file systems, formatting the thing and stuff? About the RAM, I need to find out what type of RAM or something I have. The manual where it's supposed to be is missing, is there any other way to find out which one I have? Is DIMM a type of RAM or something? Last but not least, as we're upgrading, my sister wants to infect our beautiful computer with Windows XP. I need to know how to convince her to drop the idea. Any help is appreciated

[quote="TheCount":25j6hapf]Last but not least, as we're upgrading, my sister wants to infect our beautiful computer with Windows XP. I need to know how to convince her to drop the idea. The price tag. <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

Nah, she can probably get it from some friend or something.

If you use Win98, WinXP will make your computer crawl so slow it'll be unusable.

[quote="TheCount":260jvp7l]my sister wants to infect our beautiful computer with Windows XP. I need to know how to convince her to drop the idea. Only thing that comes to my mind is that a number of programs that run under Win98 won't run under XP. Thus it depends on what your sister is going to use PC for.

Or if she doesn't knows much about PC's, just install whatever you feel pleased with and don't tell her, hehehe! <!-- s:twisted: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt=":twisted:" title="Twisted Evil" /><!-- s:twisted: -->

You could also go into a heartfelt rant about how M$ is monopolizing not only the OS industry, but the whole software industry, even the hardware industry, and recently the gaming industry (XBOX). And don't forget the extinguishing of smaller companies who have innovative new technologies by flat-out plagiarism and purchasing power. So many computer stores around the world are coerced into selling exclusive M$ products, I wouldn't be surprised if that number was something higher than 99%. You could also discuss the (IMO dishonourable) hard-wiring of IE, Outlook, and WMP into the OS source code. As for RAM, doesn't it say on the system specs? If the specs don't come labelled with the computer I'd be suspicious.

Some computer BIOS tell you which type of RAM is installed on the machine, you could try checking there, also, sometimes the RAM module has a small stick somewhere, that depicts the type of module it is.

If you use Win98, WinXP will make your computer crawl so slow it'll be unusable.

If she gets her dirty XP in the machine and that's true despite the upgrades, I'm gonna regret it more than I thought I would.

Only thing that comes to my mind is that a number of programs that run under Win98 won't run under XP. Thus it depends on what your sister is going to use PC for.

I can't imagine what a pain in the ass it'd be getting to run Hexen on it. However, I'm guessing she won't go much farther than MSN messenger, IE/Firefox or the program to transfer files to her Walkman cell (which btw doesn't work on 98 ).

Or if she doesn't knows much about PC's, just install whatever you feel pleased with and don't tell her, hehehe!

That's a good idea <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> Does anyone know of a Linux distro with a skin that looks like XP? <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

You could also go into a heartfelt rant about how M$ is monopolizing not only the OS industry, but the whole software industry, even the hardware industry, and recently the gaming industry (XBOX). And don't forget the extinguishing of smaller companies who have innovative new technologies by flat-out plagiarism and purchasing power. So many computer stores around the world are coerced into selling exclusive M$ products, I wouldn't be surprised if that number was something higher than 99%. You could also discuss the (IMO dishonourable) hard-wiring of IE, Outlook, and WMP into the OS source code.

Won't care/Won't believe.

Some computer BIOS tell you which type of RAM is installed on the machine, you could try checking there, also, sometimes the RAM module has a small stick somewhere, that depicts the type of module it is.

BIOS setup didn't help, though I did find out something interesting. Windows was telling me my amount of RAM wrong (56 MB did look suspicious). As for popping my CPU open, the guy at the store said that I could bring the module and they'd tell me which one it was.

56 MB is not impossible, but would mean a relatively unusual memory config (e.g. a 32, a 16 and a 8 MB module). It could also mean that the system has more, but some of the memory has been tagged as defective by the BIOS.

Another thing could be that maybe if you have an integrated video card it's sharing the RAM memory for it's own video memory, I've seen that happening too <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->. As for Linux distros that are similar to XP, the only one I know that has even cooler effects <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) --> , is SUSE, there's a free distribution called openSUSE which works very well, I've installed it on another computer and it works like charm <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->.

I can't imagine what a pain in the ass it'd be getting to run Hexen on it. However, I'm guessing she won't go much farther than MSN messenger, IE/Firefox or the program to transfer files to her Walkman cell (which btw doesn't work on 98 ).

Don't forget there's tons of other programs out there for her walkman that are a) cross-platform, b) free, and c) foolproof. She can easily find another one that can do the job just as well. The challenge however is to convince her about this... That said, if this clash between you and your sister doesn't solve itself, you know you can always dual-boot the system. She gets the OS she wants, you get the OS you want. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

[quote="The 4th Class":3p12ktbt]Don't forget there's tons of other programs out there for her walkman that are a) cross-platform, b) free, and c) foolproof. She can easily find another one that can do the job just as well. I'm not so sure about this.

Well, I guess I can see that some walkmen are very brand-specific, for example maybe Sony would only accept its own technology. But I mean surely there must be something out there. Then again, maybe your def'n of walkman and mine are different. When I think "walkman," I think portable CD player. Thus you don't install music into the player, you install it into the CD itself, from which you insert CD into player and there's music. Finding the software to create an audio CD is like finding milk at a grocery store: bang easy. Unless we're talking more like an iPod, or an MP3-player, in which case wouldn't iTunes do the trick?

Walkman is a trademarked product name from SONY, the original product was a portable audio cassette player. SONY re-used the name in a series of MP3 players released in the last couple of years. iTunes can synchronize only with iPods but not with other MP3 players.

Er, I was actually talking about the "Walkman" cellphone. That's why I said "walkman cell". I think you can either transfer the files through the program that doesn't work for me, or the computer takes the cell as another drive to transfer files with. The problem is that it apparently needs drivers to do that, and none of the drivers in the cells CD are recognized by 98. The thing with my RAM is as Firebrand said. And about dual booting, I thought of it but then it crossed my mind that XP would try to "update" the files from 98, as XP tries to break what's not broken whenever possible.

[quote="TheCount":5qzkfn9d] And about dual booting, I thought of it but then it crossed my mind that XP would try to "update" the files from 98, as XP tries to break what's not broken whenever possible. You may divide your hard disk on partitions, install 98 on one and XP on another, that's how it is usually done, A friend of mine did this long ago, I never heard him complain about XP spoiling '98's files.

That's good to know. I won't have to part it though because I'm getting a new one. My current drive has 2 partitions anyway, the second one has system backups.

My sister just got a budget for several CPU components from a friend of a friend of hers. The thing is as follows: MB ASUS P5VD2-MX (s775/DC/C2) (SVR) PCI EXPRESS / SATA (ddr2-533-4GB) CPU INTEL DUAL CORE E2140 1,6 MHZ 800 MHZ 1MB SOCKET 775 BOX DDR II 1024 MB 533 MHZ MEMORY HDD 80 GB SATA HITACHI RERECORDER DVD LITE ON 18X + / - OEM DUAL LAYER BLACK GEFORCE XFX 7100GS 256MB ONBOARD TC512 PCI EXPRESS W/OUTPUT TV Y DVI (1GB RAM REQ.) KIT CODEGEN 6083 BLACK (OPTICAL) ( HANDLE / KEYBOARD / MOUSE / SPEAKERS) 495 USD final. I know as much about hardware as Fidel Castro knows about astrophysics. So, any advice on this?

I am not sure about double-core processor. As I have heard, it really has sense to have it for limited number of tasks, rather specific ones, like running multiple heavy processes at a time. IMO currently its better to take single-core prcoessor with more Hz-s (I belive you may get about 2x faster processor for the same money).

Sounds pretty decent, except for the graphics. Unless she never intends to play any kind of games, you should get a 3D addin card. The one onboard won't even run 2-3 years old 3D games.

By the way: [quote="Borland C++ Builder Help":38j22sk2]Not all operating systems implement true multi-processing, even when it is supported by the underlying hardware. For example, Windows 9x only simulates multiprocessing, even if the underlying hardware supports it.

Yeah but who the heck is using anything older than Windows 2000, Mac OS X or a Linux distro with kernel 2.4+ these days? And these OSes all have some kind of built-in support for SMP.

[quote="RambOrc":xmhkz5ap]Sounds pretty decent, except for the graphics. Unless she never intends to play any kind of games, you should get a 3D addin card. The one onboard won't even run 2-3 years old 3D games. Our current video card is a Trident Blade 3D MVP4 (63) if I'm not wrong. Am I going forward or back with that new one? If that's not the video card, then it's an "ESS Allegro-1". I'm not sure.

Not all operating systems implement true multi-processing, even when it is supported by the underlying hardware. For example, Windows 9x only simulates multiprocessing, even if the underlying hardware supports it.

Yeah but who the heck is using anything older than Windows 2000, Mac OS X or a Linux distro with kernel 2.4+ these days?

I am. I'll talk her into getting single core. To tell the truth, I really don't see the point of having a dual core processor at a home PC.

So hard-headed... I'm stuck with one hard drive, a dual intel processor, and winblows xp. On the bright side, I finally got to run korax arena at more than 6 fps <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> And my sister's cell went poof, because she used winblows to transfer stuff to it, and she supposedly closed whatever she had to, so it would be safe to remove the usb cord. Unfortunately, her cell disagreed. Even more unfortunately, she took the cord out anyways. I think the cell is right now turning the lights on and off randomly while sitting on a shelf.

I suppose she removed the cell while moving data, right? That's a big no, no... when you are moving data to any device, you shouldn't just pull the cord, some devices open special ports to move data and if said ports aren't closed things can get really messy with them, heh! <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->