How do i find the speed of my PC?

DonkeyKong77

Hi
Can someone tell me how to find what speed my pc is? I thought it would be in Control Panel-System, but i cant see it.

I have bought an upgrade to Windows Me, and the box says 300mhz speed is recommended,but as i bought the amachine ages ago, i think it might be 233mhz. Is this a problem? How easy/costly is it to upgrade the speed? We dont currently use the pc much other than for browsing, using office etc, and no online gaming.

Thanks

madnlooney

click to control panel then performance and Maintenance. This will bring new menu which you will see it say system. click this and it will bring you up system properties up. it will tell you there

*edit* ive just red your post again and i think you have windows Me right?? ive just described for XP sorry

Little_John

So you have an upgrade to ME which must mean your on 95 or 98, neither those 2 versions show the CPU speed in system properties it tells you the type and the amount of memory but not the speed.

To find your system speed you need to check the POST screen just after you switch the pc on, it is a black screen with white text and usually only displayed for a short time use the pause key on the keyboard to keep it on the screen. the screen tell you the cpu type and speed, amount of memory, hard drive size and a load of other bits that your not interested in. This isnt 100% accurate as most older PC's were manually set to the CPU speed where now they are auto senseing.

It is also possible on some newer BIOS versions that it will show the cpu
settings in the bios setup screens, just after switching on hit DEL a few times untill you get the BIOS screen the top option should give you the cpu speed and a system sumary like I said this is only newer motherboards that do this yours may be to old.

Sorry but I wouldnt put the upgrade on, windows 95 or 98 are much better than ME.
As for upgrading the PC hardware wise, your gonna struggle. lets assume that your pc is a socket4 pentium MMX 233Mhz it was the fastest CPU avaialable for the socket possibly went up to 300mhz but good luck finding one. the Pentium 2 staarted life at 233Mhz again you could they went up to the dizzying speed of 450mhz again try ebay to find one if your lucky. My personal recomendation would be so save up £300 and give dell a call and buy on of the Dimenion 1100's or 3100's they hade a reasonable on on offer this weekend for £299

nickmack

You can use this tool:

CPU ID

I wouldn't recommend 'upgrading' to Win ME though, it's one of the worst operating systems ever released.

Rex_Mundi

You could download EVEREST FREE EDITION. This program will give you more info about the hardware on your machine than you'll ever need to know. It works on all versions of windows.

This is a very handy program for anyone not sure of the hardware setup on their computer.

espresso

Download this free utility program PC Wizard for all the information that you need about your PC.

espresso

Rex_Mundi wrote:

You could download EVEREST FREE EDITION. This program will give you more info about the hardware on your machine than you'll ever need to know. It works on all versions of windows.

This is a very handy program for anyone not sure of the hardware setup on their computer.

Lavalys has discontinued the free edition. Although still available for download on the net, this is now unsupported and no longer updated.

Give PC Wizard a go, it's better!

ManAtHome

I have Win-ME on one of my machines - not as bad some have said (original Win98 was much worse). Having said that, if you don't need USB, little reason to upgrade (no USB support in Win95, I found Win98SE a bit hit and miss).

The 'recommended spec' for all version of Windows is usually a bit on the optimistic side - extra memory improves things more than a faster CPU.

Rex_Mundi

espresso wrote:

Lavalys has discontinued the free edition. Although still available for download on the net, this is now unsupported and no longer updated.

I was aware of this, but for what this program does. The free (unsupported) version will still give more info than anyone would need know about the hardware on their computer.

espresso

Rex_Mundi wrote:

I was aware of this, but for what this program does. The free (unsupported) version will still give more info than anyone would need know about the hardware on their computer.

Agreed for older machines but due to it's lack of updates, it will not give information about the latest motherboards, processors, BIOS, memory etc. etc. etc.

:rolleyes:

Rex_Mundi

espresso wrote:

Agreed for older machines but due to it's lack of updates, it will not give information about the latest motherboards, processors, BIOS, memory etc. etc. etc.

True, but seeing as the OP is talking about quite an old machine in this instance, it would do the job perfectly for them. It would tell them more info than they'll ever need to know about their computer hardware.