Replace or upgrade

[Krill]

Hi, my computer is now 5 years old (Pentium3 450 with 128m ram and 8 gig hard drive), what I would like to know is should I upgrade it or buy new, are the discounted systems in Giant, Auchan etc any good? any help much appreciated

Happy New Year

Chris

www.vienneholidays.com

 

[Jongleurs]

Hi Chris

Suggest you buy new.  Take a look at Dell.co.uk and Dell.fr - the products are the same.  Dell France will deliver pc's with UK software and as a manufacturer they are used by many large commercial organisations. You can choose what sort of guarantee you want and the price performance is comparable with Geant etc. 

 

[Iceni]

Agree totally with Jongleurs - buy a new Dell (but like cars and actresses we all have our favourites).

Di has just bought one online (P4 but not sure of speed, 80 GB HDD. 1 gb RAM, 3 yr warranty of which yr 1 onsite) in France but box only as her screen was newish. They offerred double memory and delivery FOC so the cost was under €700. Beware the cost of software though - we have enough to sink the proverbial battleship so not an issue for us. BTW some time ago Bill Gates (who he, Ed?) predicted that within 10 years hardware would be free, you would only pay for the software - we will have to wait and see.

Best of luck anyway

John

not

 

[Mazan]

As long as you don't care about the operating system being in French (this doesn't alter the language of software that you may install yourself later) then a PC bought in a local Hypermarket may be a real bargain. I've seen really good ones go for under half the price a similar machine from Dell would cost, even when not opting for Dell's expensive 3 year warranty. Big brands like Acer sell through Hypermarkets. That said, Dell machines are very well made and are ideal if you are in France but want to buy a machine with UK software installed and with French cables.

Don't upgrade your machine. It's too old. You may be able to donate it via a charity to a school in the third world and they would be glad to have it.

[Mpprh]

Hi

not often I disagree with Mazan, but be careful of trying to mix microsoft products in one language with windows in another language.

A few years ago you could click (a lot) a message that said this software uses a different language to your operating system with the result that windows messages appeared in the other language. Not now ...... it just refuses to install the software.

The professional solution is to partition the disk with one partition for each language.

Peter (standing to be corrected by Mazan !)

[Dick Smith]

http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/

[Mazan]

I have never had any trouble installing stand-alone software in English onto a French version of Windows XP.  Nor the other way round. AOL and some others will ask if you really want to do it but I have never known one to actually refuse to install. On occasions it may change button text from "oui/non" to "yes/no" but this doesn't affect the functioning of the programme at all.

Maybe you use some very specific software that I haven't come across?

The above doesn't apply to official MS service packs, patches and upgrades, of course. For these you must have the right language version. Also for upgrades/patches to existing programmes that aren't from Microsoft.

[Patmobile]

It sounds like a perfectly good computer to me. Why do you want to change?

If you don't want it and can't find a home for it I would be happy to take it off your hands.

The problem I have found when running a French language Windows operating system is that, when you need to sort out a problem, all the help screens and all the message windows are in French. Even though I read & speak reasonable French this can render progress slow and stressfull.

Patrick

[Quillan]

Acer is a very good make, in act not many people realise they are the biggest manufacture in the world of computer equipment. How comes, well all IBM PC's are made by Acer, most of the clone laptops and they supply mother boards for HP and compaq. They also make printers, the Brother printers are made by Acer and badged Brother. I used to have a list of who they made PC's and printers for but I threw it away when I left the business but it was quite amazing.

Mazan - Windows XP is the only version of Windows that can deal with multiple version DLL's. These normally get over written on old systems because whilst say a French and English language DLL does the same thing they are of two different languages and as such are shown as two different versions. Setup programs only check to see if the version they have is the same or higher version number so if they can't find a valid version for a specific language they just ovewrite with the current and thats where the problems start. When Windows XP came out Microsoft had had several complaints from developers that their software ran only with certain versions of DLL's so Microsoft allowed multiple DLL's to reside on the same system. A by product of this is that you can install other language software on a PC with their own DLL's whilst keeping the origianl ones for other packages.

[Mazan]

Mazan - Windows XP is the only version of Windows that can deal with multiple version DLL's.

Yes. This was the basis of my comment that WinXP won't complain about software in other languages being installed. Older versions of Windows might be less happy but as we were talking about a new machine that question shoudn't arise.

[Quillan]

Mazan - If memory serves me right it's only XP Proffesional that does this, not home edition. Mind you when I did my MCP on Windows XP the home edition was never mentioned (unless a student asked a question) on the basis that it was not considered by Microsoft to be a product that should be used in a commercial environment. In fact the instructor was rather derogative about it claiming it was mainly W2K with a little XP content and a lot of multi media stuff bolted in that came from 3rd party software houses. I don't know if this is true as I have only ever worked on a home edition machine once and that was as a favour to a mate.

[Mazan]

I've always found the nuts and bolts of the Home and Pro Editions to be pretty much the same. Pro has extended user accounts, encryption, networking and sharing, and the controls that go with all that, but the basic parts aren't really different.
For business use in a server or multi-user environment, or when security is important, the Home version isn't much good due to the lack of those extended features, however there is nothing unstable about Home and there is no reason why a one-man/very small company shouldn't do all its work on it.

I'm sure that XP Home won't object much to running "foreign" apps.

[Guyk]

Actually, I'm increasingly a voice in the dark.

If you use the right (small) programs, you do not need to upgrade at all. I'm still using a Pentium 2 400Mhz machine with 128Mb of RAM. A machine with a lower spec than yours.

Because my page on this is down for at least a couple of days, I'll give the full monty here; I hope it encourages you to save the EUR700+ you were going to spend.

Getting the most out of your investment in a PC is not easy. It is constantly changing as I try out new applications to make my life easier. First a couple of pointers.

useful info to start: go to http://www.goosee.com/best/index.html for some of the philosophy, (ie the "why bother"), read http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,1583,a=12641,00.asp by Joel Durham on reducing boot time and visit http://www.tinyapps.org, from where most of the applications below have come. Miles Wolbe has put together an excellent collection of small, efficient and well-written apps.

My recommendation is to use Windows 98SE. For a home/office PC you do not need to upgrade to XP or 2003, particularly if your PC is over two years old. You should then partition your hard drive into c: for windows only, d: for applications and e: for data. I used http://www.ranish.com/part/ Ranish's Partition Manager 2.44 (60k download). This means that you can reinstall windows without having to backup all your apps and data, and by keeping all data on e:, you can easily backup, I use http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm to fully utilise my Gmail account (free 1Gb of space). You need to be invited to join Gmail at the moment, but I have six invites if anyone would like one.

Format c:, but read http://www.methylblue.com/windows/reinstalltutorial.php

first, and reinstall windows using http://www.litepc.com/98micro.html 4.7 (319k download). This wonderful piece of software is by far the most useful application I have ever bought. It nails the lie that Internet Explorer is integral to windows, and using the "micro" install option, enables you to get rid of all the "optional extras" that windows automatically loads when installing. This creates an operating system that is small (under 70MB as opposed to 125MB for a typical install), fast, stable and just works. My machine boots in 16 seconds, closes down in less than 1 second and has not

crashed in months.

Once you have your clean machine, I recommend the following apps:

backup

http://www.softlookup.com/download.asp?ID=9372&DID=4J58YURT XClone 1.3 (20k download) will clone a whole drive or directory. I have cloned a clean, fresh windows directory on to d:\clone just after doing a 98lite install and having made all the tweaks to the file system and registry. This means I never have to install windows again, I just clone from d:\clone back to

c:\windows. It takes under 3 minutes.

browser and email

http://www.opera.com/ Opera 8.0 beta (3550k download) is much smaller and faster than Firefox and IE and renders all sites perfectly (now, even secure sites). Opera has come on leaps and bounds in the past few months. The email system is excellent too. For those that know what they're doing I would also recommend Proxomitron to kill ads and pretend to be IE for those sites that insist you use it. (Ask if you want more info).

firewall

I use a simple, clean and secure firewall called http://www.looknstop.com/En/index2.htm Look'n'Stop 2.05 (473k download).

word processor

Try http://www.rssol.com/en/html/download/nova.htm Atlantis Nova 1.0.0.66 (760k download) You will be amazed at how close it is to Word without the size or expense.

spreadsheet

http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk Spread32 1.20 (490k download) is the Excel alternative that will import and export on almost all platforms. It is a fantastic achievement by the author, Stephen Bye.

zip files

http://www.freebyte.com/hjzip HJ Zip 1.0 (310k download) is the all-round archiver, unzipping beautifully and creating archives that are much smaller

the the competition.

mp3 player

http://www.mpesch3.de/">1by1 1.47 (57k download) is an mp3 player which is not only small, it plays whole directories without a playlist.

video player

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html VLC 0.8.1 (6700k download) small, fast, effective... works!

acrobat reader

http://foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php Foxit pdf Reader 1.2 0101 (893k download) I hate acrobat because it is slow, uses an unbelievable amount of resources and the later versions are full of spyware. This application is the solution. You do not even need to ever load Acrobat for this to work and it is very fast in operation.

anti-virus

http://www.f-prot.com/currentversions.html F-Prot 3.14e (1856k download) is the best anti-virus software in the world. It is free and updated religiously.

diary, calendar, address book etc

http://www.isbister.com/chaos32.html Time & Chaos 4.95 (754k download) is my fantastic PIM. The link will take you to the latest version, but I am using the 16bit version, as it is still the best PIM released and of course works

perfectly in a 32bit environment.

It is worth noting at this point that I do not necessarily use

the latest version of my applications. In small apps run by

individuals it is worthwhile as there are continual adjustments and

improvements. But for large company apps, including Windows, newer

does not necessarily mean better. I recommend you look at

http://www.oldversion.com/ to find out more. Anyway, back to the list.

IM

http://www.e-messenger.net/ eMessenger (0k download) uses MSN messaging core and operates through any browser. This is doubly great because I had previously had to load the MSHTML core in order to run Easy Message or Miranda (both excellent apps btw), but now I do not even need that.

drive cleaner

http://www.casperize.com/dustbuster/dust_en.htm Dustbuster

2.8.1 (191k download) is a garbage removal system for windows

that deletes over 1500 types of redundant and temporary files

without effecting your data or installed apps.

registry cleaner

http://www.macecraft.com/brief_rs/ RegSupreme 1.2 (745k download) is designed to manage your Windows registry. You can search for items, uninstall applications, clear histories, clean your registry and more. What I tend to do is run regseeker and then drop to DOS and run regscan /fix and regscan

/opt before exiting back to windows. This cleans, fixes and optimises the registry. (This is why my PC does not crash and why I have thankfully forgotten what a BSOD looks like).

FTP, notepad and HTML editor

http://www.editplus.com/download.html Editplus 2.11 (860k download) is an html editor, notepad replacement, spell checker and FTP client. I use it to design, build and run my websites.

So, I hope this demonstrates that you can run a Windows 98 machine for the foreseeable future. These are the apps to create and maintain my PC, and the apps I use all day, every day.

This list is not exhaustive, but if you download all of these programs, the total is 13.6Mb. This compares with a download of 19.8Mb for IE6 SP1 from Microsoft. I will leave you to make the comparison.

Guy Kirkwood

[Krill]

Thanks for your extensive reply Guyk, I only wish I understood it

[Leschenauds]

I'm no expert but I bought all the bits from www.dabs.fr and built my own which meant that 1. I got the specification that I wanted 2. I could use some bits of my old PC (Floppy drive,extra CD writer, Monitor,UK keyboard and Mouse and my existing software. So a top spec with most of the bells and whistles cost me less than 500€.

Instructions came from a website for those wishing to build their own and I did learn a lot about the inner bits of a PC. It was a very interesting, satisfying and rewarding experience.

www.leschenauds.com

[Anton Redman]

Perhaps the key question is what does your machine not do that you need it to do ? 

A more uptodate and better specified machine may not cope with Internet any better BUT may be more stable (AKA not fall over) 

If you have high-speed Internet access or need much better graphics then it will make a difference. If the hard disk is full and you have no storage the cheapest route could be deleting some stuff then defragging the disk.

For years in the UK we ran two home PCs and regularly upgraded components BUT : We always had at least two PCs at home and access to full back up devices including a Small Systems Card and software which enabled a home VCR to be used as a tape streamer. I had friends and colleagues in the industry. When we started an ACT Sirius with 1.2 KB 5.25 drives and 512kb drives was over £ 4,000 and a ram card with clock and 1024kb capacity was £ 2,000. (Double at least to get equivalent prices in today’s money) equivalent of fully loaded Vauxhall Omega. At that amount of money salvaging drives, keyboards and everything else was well worthwhile. Most of us fell about the floor laughing when the IBM PC was announced. I lost count of the number of calls from people who had moved their machine and plugged the keyboard into the cassette post.

If you go down the upgrade route you need access to the Internet and a second PC to sort out your problems. If you could not understand the posting above. I would say buy new unless you relish the intellectual challenge of finding out what it means.

 

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Having managed networks of 1000+ PCs in my previous incarnations (I remember the Sirius too) I have always avoided Macs because in those days they were never easy to integrate with the rest of the network, however just recently one of my clients has bought one for home/office use and I must say I was very impressed. So I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm coming round to Dick Smith's viewpoint - if all you want is a reliable computer with not much maintenance it's worth considering a Mac.

I use two 3 year old Compaqs with XP, by the way. Things haven't actually moved on much in that time in terms of hardware. A pentium 3 450 with a memory upgrade and some tidying up should keep you going for a while yet for home/internet use.

[Quillan]

[quote]Having managed networks of 1000+ PCs in my previous incarnations (I remember the Sirius too) I have always avoided Macs because in those days they were never easy to integrate with the rest of the net...[/quote]

Not a great fan of Mac's myself and like you having designed and implemented network rollout in excess of a 1000 PC's in a multi country/region environment I can tell you that Novell actually supports Mac's very well, always hase done from 3.11 to ver 6.1. You can eithe connect them direct or create a bridge between a Apple talk network and Novell network. In both cases their is no problem with email, file sharing and printer sharing.

[Patmobile]

I'm in total accord with Guyk on this. Don't change it unless it cannot do the job you want it to do. There's probably a lot more life in it than you think.

As I said before, your old PC sounds like a pretty useful machine. Are you sure its potential replacement will do anything better?

Patrick