Is this old desktop PC powerful enough?

GreyQueen

Good morning all, I'm a stray Old-Styler wandering into the Techie boards so I hope I'm not going to make too much of a fool of myself by asking some really stupid questions.

I have a 10 year old desktop PC running Windows XP. It's a 1.8 Ghz AMD Athlon XP2200+ processor, 80 GB 7200rpm UMDA 100 hard drive with 2MB buffer, came with 2 x 256 MB RAM (PC2700) and got pimped up with an additional 1 x 512 MB chip.

I've been on dial-up internet the whole time I've had this PC and the service is going to be withdrawn at the end of Feb so I'll be switching to broadband.

:question: Is this PC powerful enough for a broadband connection?

I'm 200 metres from the BT exchange and have a BT landline. Bearing in mind that my internet usage consists of MSE, reading a few blogs, and that I'm not interested in downloading music, films or playing games, what sort of broadband deal would be the best? I'm imagining that I'd only need the most basic service?

Thanking you in advance, GQ.

PROLIANT

Short answer is; yes.

SteveJH200

As your computer is just used for extremely basic tasks then go for the cheapest broadband package from Plusnet (approx £6-50 per month) and they will give you a new wireless router as well. Much cheaper than dial-up too!

They have even got a deal on at the moment - go for the broadband only package http://www.plus.net/

robmar0se

There are lots of XP PCs around with 1gb RAM doing sterling if simple tasks, most of which are on broadband these days. (incidentally when you added the extra RAM did you upgrade the virtual memory?)

It may be worth doing a system clean-up at some satge - you can see a sticky up top about speeding up systems...

NB broadband speeds are still the slowest part of computing on yr system, so there should be no direct consequence other than making the net experience more enjoyable.

One last piece of advice - make sure your AV is a good one and fully upto date. (people on here like Avast, but I use another free AV and in my opinion is just as good - personal thing really)

m5rcc

robmar0se wrote: »

One last piece of advice - make sure your AV is a good one and fully upto date. (people on here like Avast, but I use another free AV and in my opinion is just as good - personal thing really)

Avast #laughable

robmar0se

m5rcc wrote: »

Avast #laughable

Explain, would be interested in your views..................

m5rcc

Explained on other posts already, but, like AVG, they aren't quite as effective in finding viruses and malware, and both have their own bloat and annoyances (like Avast's once-a-year registration requirement).

The best free Antivirus is ironically Microsoft Security Essentials

I personally use Kaspersky (and no I don't pay for it)

robmar0se

m5rcc wrote: »

Explained on other posts already, but, like AVG, they aren't quite as effective in finding viruses and malware, and both have their own bloat and annoyances (like Avast's once-a-year registration requirement).

The best free Antivirus is ironically Microsoft Security Essentials

I personally use Kaspersky (and no I don't pay for it)

Thank you - obviously a Barclays customer! Though I do like Kapersky, if one does use a free AV (when not a Barclays customer) then I think your comments could be argued - I use Virus Total quite a bit, and it is amazing what is not picked up by various AVs including MSE - "one man's meat" comes to mind. As long as one has a good AV, and keep it upto date (together with Windows Updates etc); no AV is 100%.

m5rcc

robmar0se wrote: »

Thank you - obviously a Barclays customer! Though I do like Kapersky, if one does use a free AV (when not a Barclays customer) then I think your comments could be argued - I use Virus Total quite a bit, and it is amazing what is not picked up by various AVs including MSE - "one man's meat" comes to mind. As long as one has a good AV, and keep it upto date (together with Windows Updates etc); no AV is 100%.

Not a Barclays client, no.

Whilst what you say is indeed correct regarding AVs, silly issues like the aforementioned one should not occur.

GreyQueen

robmar0se wrote: »

There are lots of XP PCs around with 1gb RAM doing sterling if simple tasks, most of which are on broadband these days. (incidentally when you added the extra RAM did you upgrade the virtual memory?)

It may be worth doing a system clean-up at some satge - you can see a sticky up top about speeding up systems...

NB broadband speeds are still the slowest part of computing on yr system, so there should be no direct consequence other than making the net experience more enjoyable.

One last piece of advice - make sure your AV is a good one and fully upto date. (people on here like Avast, but I use another free AV and in my opinion is just as good - personal thing really)

I haven't a clue. It was done by a techie pal who suddenly-decided to see if another chip would fit on the motherboard and I just let him get on with it. He's a freelance IT gypsy so might be anywhere in the world right now. I shall email him and see if he can remember- it was nearly 2 years ago.

Re anti-virus; I'm using Microsoft Essentials, would the opinion up here be that this is inadequate if you have a broadband connection? I had Norton until about 18 months ago but got p'ed off that it was using up to 100% of the CPU at times. Any advice welcome.

m5rcc

GreyQueen wrote: »

I haven't a clue. It was done by a techie pal who suddenly-decided to see if another chip would fit on the motherboard and I just let him get on with it. He's a freelance IT gypsy so might be anywhere in the world right now. I shall email him and see if he can remember- it was nearly 2 years ago.

Re anti-virus; I'm using Microsoft Essentials, would the opinion up here be that this is inadequate if you have a broadband connection? I had Norton until about 18 months ago but got p'ed off that it was using up to 100% of the CPU at times. Any advice welcome.

i think it's the best free one out there. Microsoft Security Essentials solves every problem you've ever had with antivirus. It's super lightweight, easy to use, and will update and scan without you ever knowing it was there. Its interface is dead simple to use, so you can set up schedules and change your settings when you want, but you really don't need to do much. Set it up, forget it, and stay protected. It's amazing it took antivirus apps this long to get this simple.