Category: Geeks r Us
This may seem like a silly question but I'd really like to know what makes an XP computer fast, especially when running multiple windows of Firefox, Wordpad and/or Notepad, and say Windows Live Messenger and/or or Windows Media Player thrown in for good measure. My IBM Thinkpad X32, for instance, has a 2ghz processor but only 512mb of ram (it can go up to 2gb) and is very slow. But I've seen machines with 2gb of ram and only 1.6, 1.7 or 1.8ghz processors. If I get one of the above instead of the 2ghzs with 2gb of ram, will it still be fast enough to meet my needs or will it lag like this machine? What if it's 2ghz with 1gb? Would it still be faster than 512mb or am I better off with 2gb regardless of which processor speed I get? I thought I would only settle for 2ghz and 2gb, but if a slightly slower machine won't make a difference, than I'll choose one of those. Thanks.
additional ram and a clean OS will really make a difference.
hth
ritchie
So I should definitely go with the 2gb ram. Cool. I was told that there isn't a huge difference between a 1.8ghz processor and a 2ghz. I've seen machines with the higher speed, but it's good to know that the slightly lower one is acceptable if I find it at a cheaper price.
Agreed with post 2 here.
speed differences like between 1.8 and 2.0 arn't all that, but jumping from something like 1.6 to 2.0 or 2.0 to 2.5 would make a difference.
If you were to reformat the machine you have, and go from 512 mb to 1 or 2 gb of ram, you'd notice a difference. Windows blotes over time.
While it wouldn't be the fastest thing in the world by any means, it would be faster than what you're working with now, often people are shocked at just how much better things get with simple changes like that.
Ram also has speeds, some is at 1066 1320 640 800 and so on, but generally the more ram you have the better if you are running multi programs at once. Ideally you'd get the better processor and less ram if you had to choose, because ram is cheap to upgrad, but processors are expensive. If you can get go with over 2.0 due to some new programs needing more processor speed in the future. So 2.0 with 2 or 3 GB ram running at 640 would do nicely. 800 is better and if the machine is newer you could find one that runs hotter at 1066 or 1320. But ram is cheap if the machine is a newer model. Older machines ram is expensive.
The Dell D610 is the machine that I'm considering and it's maximum ram is 2gb. I have no clue about the ram's speed.
Also, thanks on the tip about reformatting. I didn't know that about Windows. Yet another great thing about this os I guess. *sigh*
Getting a dule core processor even at a slower speed will also help a lot.
True, but I'm also limited by what I want in a laptop such as onboard parallel port, a pcmcia slot and a serial port and/or compact flash card slot. The first two are absolutely essential when possible. My IBM Thinkpad X32 has the parallel and pcmcia plus a special slot for compact flash cards, so I can literally plug in two cards at once or have a device in the pcmcia slot and my compact flash in the other. But it has no optical drive and was designed without the applications key, which is sometimes necessary, as when deleting bookmarks in Firefox. So I have to plug in a usb keyboard for that purpose, one of the few times i use that port. But the one usb port is pretty much broken and there's no regular ps2 port for a keyboard so yeah.
The Dell D610 has a bay which can be used for an extra battery, a cd/dvd rom or a floppy drive. But unlike the IBM, with it's unobtrusive pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard and mouse buttons well below the space bar, the Dell has two sets of mouse buttons plus the pointing stick. While they can be disabled, that really sounds unappealing. More so is a touchpad, so I need to avoid a laptop with one of those. I was all set to buy the Dell until I read this.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2683
Everyone else, including a friend of mine on here, said that it was solid and well-built, so now I don't know what to believe. It's a shame, too, because it really did have all the features that I want, minus the headphone noise that everyone keeps mentioning in these reviews, and Wikipedia said that some have been known to have motherboard issues. I really! don't need that. So while I'm still considering it, I also need to look for another option incase I decide not to get it. I could always up the ram on the Thinkpad to 2gb, have a new keyboard put in (or wait on that since it's not totally horrible) and maybe have the fan looked at but that would probably cost more than getting another machine.
But I definitely want to try and use it's recovery feature to reinstall everything from scratch. I have almost everything saved on my cards so can easily reinstall things. If that helps the speed for now, it's certainly worth a try. But I need someone sighted to help me.
How much are you going to pay for the Dell D6610? You are thinking you need ports and you really don't. If you go with a "new" computer you can get one with a standard keyboard. It's right on the computer, so no need for external keyboards. How much? Smile.
I saw some good ones from between $175 and $250. There was a really nice one with 30 day money back guarantee and the windows installation for $210. Trust me, I need the ports and slots for that matter, especially the parallel and the pcmcia. I have no intention of using a usb connector for those. While I like their plug and play capability, I find the ports themselves to be flimsy and some of the things to which they connect don't always work. For example, I have to use one for a compact flash card reader on my desktop. There are times when it works perfectly, but more often than not, I have to keep unplugging and replugging them in. The only serial divice with which I've ever had that problem is my Braille Note with Active Sinc. If anything, I'd like an abundance of pcmcia slots so I can connect various cards with ports and/or information to them. But it's always better to have the ports built-in, especially if I want to partition the drive to work with XP and DOS.
Actually, now that I think of it, some were selling at $150 or so. Most below that were lacking an opperating system or other essentials like a hard drive or they were newly listed so probably shot up the price range by now. I did see a few for over $300 but those mostly had Windows 7 which doesn't really interest me.
For the applications key, use shift plus f10.
That works in most cases, but not when deleting Firefox bookmarks. I have no idea why.
Firefox, saddly in your case, has moved on, so some things might not work well with XP. Do you have service patch 3 installed? If you pay over 300 spend a bit extra, ditch the fact you want a serial port, and get a new machine? You'll enjoy it better.
But will it have a pcmcia slot? I'm not buying a machine without one.
Many will. As a matter of fact, I have 2 laptops, one from 2010 and 1 from 2009 that both have PCMCIA. Just look around.
I don't mean to burst your bubble Tifanisa my wife's computer has lets see 3 USB ports, 3 gigs of ram and a micro SD card slot. Her's has a 250 gig hard drive and is an acer. It cost 350 with tax 400. So yourgoing to have to look around fore the spects you want. I know when I was searching I found some referbished laptops using google.
Spoken like a pro shopper. Smile. Computers have come down in price so greatly and processor speeds and ram are powerful even on the cheaper models. In fact Dell puts ram that runs at 1333 on all their computers. 3 GB seems to be the deal, and for most users that's spanking. Get new. Go to Windows 7 and never look back again. You'll lofe the changes.
I'd need to see what these changes are before I jump in and upgrade. I don't want to be stuck with something I hate. I also don't want a cheap Chinese etc. import that will break on me in a year or two. I would want this to last at least five years minimum if I were to buy it new. If Mom buys it for me, I might look at ones over $300 but definitely not if I'm buying it for myself.
here is what I don't understand.
why a compact flash slot? I just got a thinkpad x201 (it was one of the lower-end models, but even for $600 it was well worth it as I still get the great IBM quality)
it has a core i3-370m CPU clocked in at 2.4 GHz (multithreaded + 2 cores), 4 gb ram, and runs windows 7 64-bit (something I'm not a huge fan of, but have to deal with). The CPU gets a rating of 6.6 out of 7.9, and unlike with my macbook pro (which my girlfriend uses most of the time now anyway), I have my dedicated home/end keys and a 6-pack keyboard. even a scroll-lock and pause key!
It does not have any of the things you are looking for, though - they've moved on to express card but it does have an sd slot.
I also have an old x60 (thinkpad x60) here from 2006. That has a dual-core yonah CPU (which means no 64 bit capabilities), 3 gb ram and a 160 gb hdd. This one has a PCMCIA slot (only 1, the upper slot is actually an express card one) but again, no lpt port.
So. if you consider that even braille notes have an sd slot, you could probably buy a few sd cards for $10-20 total and ditch compact flash. Really, sd is smaller and also more efficient.
The only reason I had to get this new computer was that my Macbook didn't cut it for me. It didn't have a microphone jack (the 2010/11 macbook pros have a combo jack so I'd need to use a USB microphone, which I refuse to, or a crappier Apple microphone), the keys were great but I had to press fn keys to access my home/page up-down keys and delete, and, the macbook lost sound a lot of times when using bootcamp to run Windows. It also got dented in my bookbag, which made me really depressed.
The old IBM would have been a good computer. Accept Windows 8 won't come in 32-bit (and 32-bit is being phased out in Mac OS lion if I'm taking a hackintosh route) and the fan had something in it.
Overall, some computers today still offer legacy port, as said before. Not many though, and it's kind of a drag that IBM/Lenovo has abandoned them now too. The keyboard is still great and full sized, the chassie is still durable and rectangular, but it only has a few ports. I was a bit disappointed in that. Oh, and no stereo mix/what you hear output, something I hated about my macbook pro running Windows as well. I wasn't a fan of using 3 keys to navigate Mac OS, but that's going off topic lol.
Tomi, you'll never talk her out of it, any more than I could put my 70-something-year-old mother on any other cell phone than a Jitterbug.
To theJournalist: Holy shit! No way am I paying $600 for a computer unless it's custom-made or straight from Japan with no less than a three-year warranty and tech support. The Mac was over $1,000 in 2009, but that was a gift from the family and had the Apple Care program. Good thing, cause it went there at least four times!
I want a compact flash slot and/or a pcmcia slot because I save all of my information on compact flash cards and hate the stupid usb readers that are hit or miss. I also like the idea of buying devices that hook up via pcmcia if they're not available in parallel or serial. To be honest, I was satisfied with the Acer Aspire One, until it broke, of course, with the 1.6ghz processor and the 1gb (not sure) of ram. But of course, it had no optical drive and lacked the ports that I wanted, all of which annoyed me. On the up side, it had a built-in microphone, which I used frequently, and a webcam, which I covered and used to make Youtube videos. I never even understood the purpose of the scroll-lock and pause keys. What are they?
A 64 bit machine wouldn't be good for me, as now that I thought of it, I want something that could run both Windows and DOS. No sense in getting two separate machines. I could be wrong, but I don't think you could partition the drive on one of those to 32 or 16 bit. Why do you refuse to use a usb microphone? Thanks for the cons on using Boot Camp. I was thinking of possibly trying that. I don't like the VoiceOver interface either, which is why I pretty much only use that machine for making and posting videos on Youtube.
To LeoGuardian: Perhaps, your mother might like the Motorola Motofone F3. It's not nice and big like the Jitterbug, but it's insanely simple, it has a great battery life, can be used with multiple providers for alot less money than the Jitterbug and I hear that the screen is easy to see. The buttons are flat, which sucks, but they're real and they have lines between each row for easy identification. Then, there are the Doro Handle Easy phones, which are large and simple as well. Only I don't think they have great battery life, which is why I chose the Motorola.
Oh, and I forgot to ask. What's so inefficient about compact flash cards? I can certainly understand it if you said floppies and cd roms are but I've never had any problems with my cards other than the fact that the dedicated slot to it has a very slow reader. But when I use one with the adapter in the pcmcia slot, or even when I use the usb one on the desktop, it's fast.
For 600 my computer would smoke as it idled on the desk. Lol Probably an intel I7 and about 6 to 8 GB of ram, with the new 3.0 USB ability, and no, not custom built. Cheaper to go with the marketers, and you get 2 years woarren on it, and can add the 3rd for maybe 60, or just by talking the sales person out of it. Way to much computer power for a blind person that doesn't have to use intensive video, but just knowing you have it! MMM It have a full standard keyboard with back lighting too. I could even pick a special color. Grab a portable flash drive if you must, and you got something. Yep!
I'm glad that you're happy with your system. I'd rather not spend the extra money to get something that I don't need. I'm a casual home user not one in business or industry and just want something that will work comfortably, not fly me over the moon and break the bank.
um.... just um... my wife's computer could squash some of the spects you put up on this board Tiff. Also I just paid 350 plus tax on my sweet hearts computer. Actually sd cards are nice so are the adapters that can take a micro SD card and allow you to use them in a SD card slot. Currently I am doing that now with my Acer.
My specs, aside from the ports/slots, were what I would accept at a minimum. But I have other things to buy aside from a computer so don't want to spend such a huge amount on one.
Well back to the topic. Spend a bit more cash and you are set. I don't have an I 7 yet, but.... Like the pro shopper here says 350 gets it done, so why buy a used machine? It is just the way of tech that things change, so if you are wanting something you can use for some time to come and you are going to spend your money on it, and you are buying it to work for you, not as a hobby computer, then move up. Microsoft is slowly, but continuing to faze programs and such out for XP, so soon it will be like Windows 2000. Sure you can use it, but it limits you.
I use what works for me, and so far, I have no problems with programs and the like. Right now, I'm looking at basketry supplies, caning supplies, broom making supplies (the latter in the summer), money to pay my teacher for my training, a standard corded desk phone with bell ringer, and on the less urgent but still necessary side, a washer, a dryer, a wash tub and a clothes wringer. In nonessentials, I want a computer microphone, a webcam, a treadle sewing machine and a vhs camera. Someone also offered to sell me an ID Mate Omni, in mint condition, for $250, plus I want the compact flash reader and cd with the extra items on it. Mom said that she'd buy the Omni and accessories for me, so I don't think it would be right to ask her to get me a computer, as well. True, I could get the computer and one of the $75 bar code scanners. But where on Earth will I ever find an ID Mate Omni so cheap again, particularly when their manufacturer still has accessories for it?
That said, if I did get one of these new machines, in what sizes do they come? How heavy are they? Do they have optical drives and how is their battery life? If, for some reason, I get a Windows 7 machine, can I still use XP programs on it? All I really use is NVDA, Notepad, Wordpad, Firefox, Windows Media Player, Live Messenger (never worked out with Miranda), Stepvoice Recorder, Skype (not as accessible in the new version), Debut Video Capture Software, and less often, Accessible RSS, Accessible PDF, Kurzweil 1,000 (I think version 7), though I'm not opposed to trying something else for scanning, JFW (the latest demo if NVDA can't do something) and Real Player 8. I also occasionally play some of the free games that I found at audiogames.net. Considering that, do I really need the extra power, an os upgrade and to spend more money?
What a list. Are you asking for donations? Just kidding, but you did post you were looking and posted 300, so. Yes Windows 7 does all of your programs listed, and why is Skype not as accessible? The latest version setup correctly with the Skype talking or Jaws scripts, and better with both is completely accessible. I posted a board someplace here that helps with that. Even works with NVDA great, so.
I second this fore real! seriously my pour win7 laptop has been used quite offten, oh also if win7 attempts to crash "you should see this in action" it does not need to bee told to load the most recently system point that is useable, it just does it. Let me tell you go try that with xp. Probly can bee done but if I remember right you have to tell it to do something like that where with win7 its done already. That, is what, I love about win7.
lol Donations are cool! *smile* But honestly, I posted all that to show that I've already got a lot on my plate and really need to be careful how much I spend. I'm naturally very frugal as it is, so this doesn't make things any easier for me. I can't say that I've experienced a crash as you've described, at least, not that I can remember. I'd definitely be interested in help with Skype. Maybe, it's the layout that confuses me. The previous version for Mac was very simple and easy to understand. I can certainly use the new Windows one but the older one was simpler. On the bad side, it didn't work with NVDA, so I always had to turn on JFW. Very annoying!
If we are talking Skype Skype talking was created specific for people that don't run Jaws, and NVDA is one of these programs. Find that board, or ask me and I'll send you the posting, so you can install it if you don't know were to get it already. Read the help file that comes with it, and set your Skype up ad the instructions for the Jaws scripts dictate.
Forgot to say all the Skype programs work great with XP as well.
I love this kind of debate, as it provides more fuel for me to study my major...
To clarify on some posts:
* Yes, RAM has speeds, just like CPU's does. The other factors to consider are hard drive speed, length of time you've used your computers until now and any temp files that needs to go.
* Part of the failure of USB is old port and power supply issue. if a device attempts to draw power from a UsB port and if the port cannot do it, then the client device will not work. Another thing to consider is driver issue, but since the majority of the scenario is hardware releated, so I put more weight on the age of the port.
* I personally use Windows 7 Pro 32-bit not only for braille access through JAWS, but also for writing code for desktops and PDA devices (which is something I'm experimenting with). Thesedays, 32-bit is somewhat rare, but it is still around. However, I expect 32-bit to phase out once 64-bit transition is complete (I agree with the poster who said this).
* As for DOS, one can indeed use DOS on a 64-bit machine, provided that if you can partition a hard drive (and yes, it is safe to do so). However, some older technology will not work, as AMD and Intel (which based their designs from AMD) removed some older features from X86-64 CPU's. When using older programs under suitable conditions, these CPU's will behave like 16 or 32-bit models, as it supports these code natively. Under Win7, it will not work, since the required components used to run DOS apps does not exist for 64-bit Windows environment.
* As for cost, I think it'll be better to go with a new computer than spending money on fixing old components, although with careful tuning, old computers can perform almost the same as newer models. I'd say go with some low-end computer with about 2 GHz processor and about 1 or 2 GB of RAM.
Good luck...
I actually have a program called Clean Up! (exclamation mark in name) that does a wonderful job of ridding the computer of cookies, temp files and other things. Plus, I defrag every so often. As I've said, I had a nice time with the Acer Aspire One as far as speed. So whatever it's configuration is as far as ram and drive speed was enough to satisfy me. The processor was 1.6ghz and the ram was 1gb, but that probably won't help in determining it's speed. I'm not sure about the IBM Thinkpad X32, the HP Pavilion Ze5385US or the Dell Latitude D610. But if you'd like to look them up so we can do a comparison that would be great. This is way above my knowledge. Still, I would like to know the minimum speeds that I could tolerate if I do get another machine.
My problem with usb is that it's so fragile and breaks easily. The issue with the one in my IBM, for example, is that it somehow got bent and now mostly doesn't recognise things that are plugged into it. I've never had that problem with parallel, serial or pcmcia. The one on the desktop works, but for some reason, the compact flash card reader isn't always recognised. So I have to keep plugging it in and removing it or removing and reinserting the card.
I'm curious as to the differences between Windows 7 and XP but will make a separate topic on that. Glad to know someone who's learning about computers who knows about DOS! I was under the impression that the bios of a machine needed to be DOS-compatible in order to work with the operating system. What about sound cards? I would definitely love to have sound on my machine if possible. So basically, 7 is out if I want to run DOS. This is good to know. What programs would give the computer trouble due to components being removed? Have you ever used Enhanced DR-DOS or FreeDOS? If so, how well did they perform with screen readers like VocalEyes, ASAP, JAWS etc? If I get a computer without a serial port, would DOS recognise a one using a pcmcia adapter? Wow! That got way off-topic. I should have written some of this in the "How Much Would This Cost" thread.
The component is called NTVDM (NT Virtual DOS Machine), a software which emulates an old computer running DOS so that apps for it can run. I think you still need a serial port if you wish to use DOS with synths.
To stay on topic, it's really up to you to choose a computer based on your needs. Thesedays, a computer is most likely to come with at least a 1.6 GHz dual core CPU and at least 1 GB of RAM, with high-end models coming with a 3.2 GHz Core I7 with at least 8 GB of RAM (and several Terabytes, or thousands of GB of hard disk space). My current laptop (a Toshiba) has a 2.4 GHz CPU with 3 GB of RAM.
For differences between Win7 and XP: there are tutorials out there which explains Win7 from XP users' perspective. Sources for those include Blind Cool Tech and Blind Geek Zone for blindness perspective, or various YouTube videos if you wish to find out some new features. I'd say, however, that you learn some new features from XP to Vista, as most of the features from Win7 come from Vista, such as search box in Start Menu and reorganized Control Panel.
Ah, I see. I'll keep a look out for that. I don't want to run a software virtual machine, though, as I want to run the os natively. So this hardware component must be there. So it seems that I would need a native serial port and couldn't use a pcmcia one. That's a disappointment, as I was hoping to be able to do that. Perhaps, I can put it on the desktop, since it has one. Then, if everything works out, I can get a laptop for it. There's also the possibility of buying the adapter for my IBM Thinkpad 310, which has Windows 98 on it. I've heard I can get into real MS-DOS 7 with that. It won't hve all the advantages of the newer versions but it's a step up from 6.21 and will allow me to try various things and learn more about my favourite opperating system. since EDRD is supposed to be MS-DOS compatible, the commands shouldn't be terribly different, and I can always check them with the user's manual which I bookmarked.
Considering that I still haven't filled up my 40gb hard disk, I have no clue what on Earth I would do with one containing terrabytes of space. I think 60gb would be fine. I'll check into those blindness resources to see what they say. Thanks for the tips.
In this case seems like the bottom line was she was spending 300. If had only 1 300 dollars, was looking for durability, was not adapt at computer repair, and wanted that same machine to last in to the future, I'd spend my money, plus a few more dollars on a new machine. If the old machine stops in say a month she's got to have it repaired, but with the new machine, if she shops right she's got a year on her money, plus the ability to use her other devices.