how do you find out how much....

postingalwaysposting

hi canny, when i do the first thing the box has short cut/general tabs at the top?

when i do the second one it has these no - used 6.29gb - free 21.6gb - capacity 27.9gb.

so does that mean i have 27.9gb, so when looking for a new computer will 80gb do?

sorry

albertross_2

you have a 27.9gb hd, and you have only used a quarter of it sofar.. why do you want a bigger hard disk?

Why don't you just buy some more ram for your existing PC, and save yourself some money?

How old is the one you have got?

postingalwaysposting

i dont....i have a laptop, its about 1 year and a half old but really want a computer and there is one in the dell sale that i like. I would never sale/give/throw away this laptop as it was a college 'passing out' gift but i just fancy a pc....

postingalwaysposting

didnt think you could upgrade lappys?

albertross_2

It sounds like a 80GB disk will last you years, unless you fill it up with 1000's of sounds and video files. If you do fill it up in a years time, then a bigger hard disk will probably be about a tenner, at the current rate of hard disk price deflation.

Ram is more important for the smooth running of the PC. For XP, 512Mb-1Gb+ is a good amount to look for.

albertross_2

laptops are harder to upgrade, but ram and hard disks are easy to do. It sounds like you have a spare slot for the ram, so you could just buy another RAM stick to boost it's performance (if it is getting sluggish). The hard disk can usually be swapped easily, just by undoing a screw or two, but as already mentioned, your have only used 25% of the capacity, so currently there is no need..

This bit of your report is slightly confusing:

192 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' has 256 MB
Slot 'M2' is Empty

192MB total, with a 256 MB chip?

postingalwaysposting

i have no clue what ram does so thats another world to me sorry

i was lookin at the dell DimensionTM 1100

postingalwaysposting

albertross wrote:

This bit of your report is slightly confusing:

192 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' has 256 MB
Slot 'M2' is Empty

192MB total, with a 256 MB chip?

I know strange isnt it, it went for repair before xmas (cd/dvd drive was faulty)and since then has been rather slow ish

albertross_2

RAM is the working memory of the PC, if you run 20 programs at once, the ram will fill up, and at that point your PC will grind to a halt..

Having enough ram is the most important thing you can do to improve the performance of an old PC.. But 1.5 years is not old, mine is 7 years old, and still running fine..

albertross_2

try doing start, run, winver, and report back what is says..

are you fancying a desktop, because your laptop is slow (because that can be addressed (probably), or do you just want two?