IS MY COMPUTER OBSOLETE????

Based on a connection speed of 2.53Mb/s, how do you rate this speed?

  • Amazing!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Decent

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • Poor

    Votes: 2 15.4%

  • OBSOLETE

    Votes: 6 46.2%
  • Total voters
    13

Charizard632

Now a great Touhou addict
    • 105
    Posts
    15
    Years
    • Age 29
    • Seen Jul 6, 2012
    Right now, I'm using a Dell XPS 400.

    MY LITTLE BROTHER WILL NOT USE ANY OTHER COMPUTER EXCEPT FOR THE DELL INSPIRON 1500, which is the default kind of computer I use.

    HE SAYS THAT EVERY COMPUTER IN MY HOUSE IS OBSOLETE!!!!!!!!!, BECAUSE IT'S TO SLOW!!!
    (Yes, I am stressed!)

    So anyways, I took an internet speed test for my obsolete? Dell XPS 400, and its download speed is 2.53Mb/s.

    But still, my little brother says it's OBSOLETE!!!

    Am I using an obsolete computer?
     
    [PokeCommunity.com] IS MY COMPUTER OBSOLETE????


    Anyway. Internet connection depends on you ISP, Internet Service Provider, not what computer you are using. Tell your brother to stop being stupid and to actually learn about how the internet and computers work.

    Also, a Dell 1500 isn't exactly an Ailenware. It is a pretty bog-standard laptop that can't really do much more past playing videos.
     
    After a quick google it seems that the XPS a little slower in the CPU department. The graphics is so poor on both that it's irrelevant. XPS should come with 3GB ram standard, as opposed to 2. They're about the same, to be honest. The difference is that you can chuck a decent graphics card in the XPS, which isn't an option for the laptop.
     
    i have no idea if its obselete, but tell your little brother to actually learn about computers(has he even used it?!@#$)
     
    https://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/desktops/xps_400/pd.aspx?refid=xps_400&cs=28&s=dfb

    If you haven't done any upgrades to it, it's... pretty darn bad. You should look into getting a better computer, or upgrading your current one, as soon as possible. Simply because you'll enjoy using it more.

    My first recommendation if you want to upgrade is to upgrade your RAM. Your RAM seems to be the worst part of your computer by a long shot. 512MB? That was decent about a century ago.

    On the bright side your processor is actually decent.

    But yeah, seriously. Your computer is capable of going up to 4G of RAM and RAM isn't that expensive. Go upgrade it. You'll be glad your computer isn't as slow.
     
    PkMnTrainer Yellow said:
    https://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/desktops/xps_400/pd.aspx?refid=xps_400&cs=28&s=dfb

    If you haven't done any upgrades to it, it's... pretty darn bad. You should look into getting a better computer, or upgrading your current one, as soon as possible. Simply because you'll enjoy using it more.

    My first recommendation if you want to upgrade is to upgrade your RAM. Your RAM seems to be the worst part of your computer by a long shot. 512MB? That was decent about a century ago.

    On the bright side your processor is actually decent.

    But yeah, seriously. Your computer is capable of going up to 4G of RAM and RAM isn't that expensive. Go upgrade it. You'll be glad your computer isn't as slow.
    Click to expand...

    For those older laptops, RAM is actually pretty freaking expensive for what you get.
     
    While the whole 4GB of RAM would end up wasting a chunk of money for the performance gain you'd end up with (not to mention bottlenecking elsewhere) even doubling from 512 to 1GB of memory would make a big difference, and 2GB would result in further benefits.
     
    donavannj said:
    For those older laptops, RAM is actually pretty freaking expensive for what you get.
    Click to expand...

    Well, it looks like a desktop to me. $20. Maybe less. I've turned computers that terrible into decent gaming machines for well under $200 by just replacing the RAM and Graphics Card. Dimension 9100....ever heard of it? Yeah, it has very similar specs. That thing came equiped the then pretty decent ATI Radeon X300 card and lasted about until.... 2006'ish.

    Some RAM later, and a new graphics card, and it could play anything on the market and was pleasant to use.

    The 100 Mega Shock said:
    While the whole 4GB of RAM would end up wasting a chunk of money for the performance gain you'd end up with (not to mention bottlenecking elsewhere) even doubling from 512 to 1GB of memory would make a big difference, and 2GB would result in further benefits.
    Click to expand...

    That depends completely on what he uses his computer for, and even then there's future proofing. 4GB is hardly a "waste".
     
    PkMnTrainer Yellow said:


    Well, it looks like a desktop to me. $20. Maybe less. I've turned computers that terrible into decent gaming machines for well under $200 by just replacing the RAM and Graphics Card. Dimension 9100....ever heard of it? Yeah, it has very similar specs. That thing came equiped the then pretty decent ATI Radeon X300 card and lasted about until.... 2006'ish.

    Some RAM later, and a new graphics card, and it could play anything on the market and was pleasant to use.


    That depends completely on what he uses his computer for, and even then there's future proofing. 4GB is hardly a "waste".
    Click to expand...
    Pentium Ds are getting old. 3.2GHz D is about the same as a 1.7GHz Core 2 Duo. Which is not really enough to cope with TF2 or Bad Company 2. The second problem is that the power supply is only 375W. Which means you'd bet away with a card in the range of a 5650/430, which is pretty poor. Sure, you can upgrade that too, but it's very likely that (a) it is a proprietary shape, so a new PSU will not fit. Dell will be Dell. or (b) After you spend $50 on a new PSU and $60 on ram, $130 on a decent graphics card, you've just spent $240 on a machine that is still slow. You might as well fork out the extra money on a new H55/i3 system that can be upgraded much further. It might game, but there's no way in hell it will be able to run anything on the market.

    Also, if they're not doing anything particularly intensive, such as heavy Photoshop use, video editing, VMs or gaming, 4GB is absolutely a waste of money. Where the hell are you getting DDR2 RAM for $20? Unless they're 1GB DIMMs.

    OP, what do you want to do with it?
     
    Last edited:
    how old is the computer, what year?
    let me seaRCH SOME FACTS...........

    its not that bad....but not really good.
    the facts:


    NEW Intel® Pentium® D Processor up to 840 (3.2GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB) with Dual Core Technology.

    Operating Systems

    Chipset
    Intel® 945P chipset

    Office Suites & Productivity
    Learn More
    Standard:
    Corel® WordPerfect®

    Optional:
    Microsoft Works Suite 2005
    Corel® WordPerfect® Office 12
    Microsoft Office 2003 Basic Edition
    Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition
    Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition

    Memory
    Learn More
    512 MB dual channel DDR2-533MHz SDRAM standard, upgradable to 4 GB1 dual channel DDR2-667MHz SDRAM
    4 DIMM slots

    Drive Bays
    Externally available:
    Two 3.5-inch bays for an optional floppy or 13-in-1 media card reader
    Two 5.25" for CD, CD-RW, DVD or combination drive

    Internally accessible:
    Two 3.5-inch bays for hard drives

    I/O Ports
    Video: 1 VGA connector, 1 DVI connector
    USB: 7 USB 2.0 ports - 2 front/5 back/1 internal
    7.1 Channel Audio: 5 miniature jacks for line in, line out (front, rear and center) and two front panel connectors for headphones/microphone
    Network: Integrated 10/100/10002 Ethernet
    Optional: One 9-pin serial port (optional)
    Optional: 2 PS/2 ports (optional)

    Slots
    3 PCI slots
    1 PCIe x 1 slot
    1 PCIe x 4 slot
    1 PCIe x 16 (graphics) slot

    Chassis
    Quiet, silver and white chassis with black accents features:
    7 USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 5 back) and front headphone jack
    Color coded ports and internal cables simplify service and set up
    Dimensions (H x W x D): 17.5" x 7.4" x 17.5"
    Weight: 34 lbs.

    Power
    Output Wattage: 375 Watts
    Input Voltage (auto-sensing): 90 to 135V at 50/60 Hz; or 180 to 265 V at 50/60 Hz
    Heat Dissipation: 1280 BTU/hour (fully loaded computer without monitor)
    Backup Battery: 3.0 V CR2032 coin cell
    kinda long....

    its not that bad....but not really good.
    the facts:


    NEW Intel® Pentium® D Processor up to 840 (3.2GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB) with Dual Core Technology.

    Operating Systems

    Chipset
    Intel® 945P chipset

    Office Suites & Productivity
    Learn More
    Standard:
    Corel® WordPerfect®

    Optional:
    Microsoft Works Suite 2005
    Corel® WordPerfect® Office 12
    Microsoft Office 2003 Basic Edition
    Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition
    Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition

    Memory
    Learn More
    512 MB dual channel DDR2-533MHz SDRAM standard, upgradable to 4 GB1 dual channel DDR2-667MHz SDRAM
    4 DIMM slots

    Drive Bays
    Externally available:
    Two 3.5-inch bays for an optional floppy or 13-in-1 media card reader
    Two 5.25" for CD, CD-RW, DVD or combination drive

    Internally accessible:
    Two 3.5-inch bays for hard drives

    I/O Ports
    Video: 1 VGA connector, 1 DVI connector
    USB: 7 USB 2.0 ports - 2 front/5 back/1 internal
    7.1 Channel Audio: 5 miniature jacks for line in, line out (front, rear and center) and two front panel connectors for headphones/microphone
    Network: Integrated 10/100/10002 Ethernet
    Optional: One 9-pin serial port (optional)
    Optional: 2 PS/2 ports (optional)

    Slots
    3 PCI slots
    1 PCIe x 1 slot
    1 PCIe x 4 slot
    1 PCIe x 16 (graphics) slot

    Chassis
    Quiet, silver and white chassis with black accents features:
    7 USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 5 back) and front headphone jack
    Color coded ports and internal cables simplify service and set up
    Dimensions (H x W x D): 17.5" x 7.4" x 17.5"
    Weight: 34 lbs.

    Power
    Output Wattage: 375 Watts
    Input Voltage (auto-sensing): 90 to 135V at 50/60 Hz; or 180 to 265 V at 50/60 Hz
    Heat Dissipation: 1280 BTU/hour (fully loaded computer without monitor)
    Backup Battery: 3.0 V CR2032 coin cell
    kinda long....

    at least you have a computer.
     
    Last edited:
    PkMnTrainer Yellow said:
    How EXACTLY is future proofing a waste of money, or using any adobe product which are all obese, video gaming, or video editing? These are very popular passtimes/things people to do.

    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...300&cm_re=2GB_ddr2_ram-_-20-141-300-_-Product
    $16.50 per gig
    Click to expand...
    Oh, per gig. Well that's not too bad - and I fully support dropping in a 2GB stick. But another reason that I don't like the idea of putting too much into that system is that I'm pretty sure it's pseudo-BTX. So if the motherboard fails, you're NOT getting a replacement. Coincidentally, I have personally seen two Dell BTX mobos of that era fail in the last year. The same goes with most proprietary systems. There's just little point upgrading them that far, because if the power supply or motherboard go, you're screwed.
     
    You can't "future-proof" computers, let alone one that's already so old. Eventually you're going to hit performance problems that can't be resolved by adding more RAM, and I wouldn't say there are that many ways you can use such a computer where adding over, say 2GB of RAM is the answer to a performance issue.

    (You never asked him if he was running a 64-bit OS, either)
     
    The 100 Mega Shock said:
    You can't "future-proof" computers, let alone one that's already so old. Eventually you're going to hit performance problems that can't be resolved by adding more RAM, and I wouldn't say there are that many ways you can use such a computer where adding over, say 2GB of RAM is the answer to a performance issue.

    (You never asked him if he was running a 64-bit OS, either)
    Click to expand...
    I HIGHLY doubt that they're running a 64-bit system. The Pentium Ds were really early in the x64 adoption and XP Pro x64 was a dog.

    With the machine in it's current state, the best option is to put in another 1GB or 2GB of ram and do a fresh install of XP. A bloated windows install will bring any computer to its knees. (ie. someone who uses limewire, AVG, Norton, McAfee, driver helper software and other useless wastes of space which load on start up. Not to mention the viruses that any of those AVs will let through)

    Whereas I have a 1GHz Pentium 3 rig that's running XP quite happily, because the install is clean and well optimised.
     
    Purple Materia said:
    If I may ask, how? Manual fine tuning, software?
    Click to expand...
    There's not a lot to it. Making sure that no services/programs that don't need to be there are loading on startup. A lightweight AV/other software also goes a long way. Eg, most browsers are obese these days. Even Chrome. Something like K-Meleon would be wonderful if it looked a little better.

    So many people have installs of XP (partially because it's older, partially because it's less secure than Vista/7) that run like crap because they have all sorts of mess installed. Don't get me started on Virus infections. "But it's okay, I was using Norton. My uncle's vet says it's really good because it came with their computer." Wrong. Many of the popular AVs, in practise, are useless. Norton, McAfee, Trend, all bloated horrible crap. I'd also like to point out that CA Antivirus is potentially the most disgusting piece of software I have ever seen running. MSE and Avira are very light and effective. Oh, and they're both free and more effective than the big two.

    That reminds me. OEM preinstalled software is usually bloatware. Toshiba, Sony, HP, MSI are the biggest culprits of this. Lenovo, Dell and Asus generally aren't too bad. Although Asus is hit and miss.

    Printer "helpers" are a big one. They sit in the tray and suck memory for the once a month that you might scan something in without doing it the proper way (via the Printers and Scanner menu). This also only applies to Vista and 7, but the desktop gadgets are horribly bloated. Google's are even worse. Don't just no choose any, disable them.

    You can also use a tool called nLite to slim down the installer disc, but I find that's too much hassle when you can do most of it post-installation. Before I finish, I want to remind everyone that Service Packs will slim down the installations. XP SP0/SP1 is bloated, but SP2 is much better. SP3 is a slight improvement. Vista SP0 was a mess, but SP1 fixed a lot of things, SP2 really isn't much different to Windows 7.
     
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