ncmark wrote:

I guess this computer does not feel that "old" to me. And I have a hard time getting my mind around the fact that a 2 gigahertz cpu, 2 gigabytes of ram, and a video card with 128 megabytes of RAM is not good enough to surf the web 🙁

That's reality, unfortunately. I had to do the same with my P4 Northwood rig - a 2.4GHz CPU, 2gb of DDR-333 ram and 256mb GF6600 AGP video card just didn't cut it by 2013, ended up building my current Core i5 to replace it.

ncmark wrote:

Thanks for all the replies.... you guys have given me a lot to think about

I think I had it right to begin with... end of the road.... for this system. I was looking at graphics cards.... I am restricted to AGP on this board.... so I think that any CPU upgrade would be marginal at best (and not long before back to the same problem)

I guess this computer does not feel that "old" to me. And I have a hard time getting my mind around the fact that a 2 gigahertz cpu, 2 gigabytes of ram, and a video card with 128 megabytes of RAM is not good enough to surf the web 🙁

I think it all depends on usage - the "modern web" (like youtube) is a bloated mess that really needs GPU acceleration and/or faster processor(s). 2GB of RAM shouldn't be a problem (one of my Core 2 machines had 2GB of RAM in it up until very recently, and it comfortably ran Windows 7). For (older) gaming or non-"modern web" stuff though, your machine is probably still AOK. IMHO I'd probably just get a new CPU with IGP and 4-8GB of RAM and be done with it - no need for a fancy modern discrete card if you aren't running fancy modern games, and if you've been living with an AthlonXP for this long, even a lower-end APU or i3 will likely feel like a rocketship by comparison.

^+1 you can build a really nice cheap system that will be 100x faster than your current machine.Heck if you want to be quick and dirty do something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … 495&ignorebbr=1 I would go for something with higher specs and a little bit more money but it goes to show you how cheap a web browsing machine really is anymore. It costs $100 to buy a OEM copy of 7 HP if you wanted to upgrade your current machine to 7, compare that to an entire refurb system for $100-250

That Lenovo ThinkCentre M55 looks like a great del.

It needs an E6700 2.66 GHz CPU ($10 -$15 on Ebay, do not confuse it with the newer E6700 3.2 ) and a low profile video card, perhaps a Geforce GT 640/730 for ~$60 and you have a nice low end gaming machine.

Edit: It looks like this machine do not have a PCI-E 16x slot so perhaps there are better choices.

Not end of the road, unless you don't want or can't upgrade.

PC prices are much cheaper than when the Windows 9x systems were sold.

If cannot afford yet, may opt for a used system.

It's time to move on. Keep the older systems for hobby/tinkering/vintage enthusiasm.

So how well would win7 run on my computer? Would the video card still be a limitation?

I think I answered my own question... part of it at least. Seems like a Radeon 9600 with Windows 7 is questionable at best.

With regards to my current Linux system...... it is not as if the OS does not support it. The OS itself seems to... the errors are with Firefox. When I got to "troubleshooting information" it says:
Adapted description: GLXtest process failed (exited with status 1): GLX version older than the required 1.3
WebGl Renderer: Blocked for your graphics card because of unresolved driver issues.
GPUaccelerated windows:0. Blocked for your graphics driver version. Try updating your graphics driver to version <Anything with EXT_texture_from_pixmap support> or newer.

OK so.....could this be fixed with a driver update? Or with an upgrade to a more recent Linux version? Or would I be faced with the same problems?

Is the MB and CPU too old for a better video card? Where would I go from Radeon 9600? I have **no** experience with Nvidia at all.

If switched to XP would I be faced with the same problems.... that is, unable to run a modern enough browser?

By the way I am not getting "browser not supported" errors with youtube 🙁

Don't use an outdated Linux distribution. Upgrade it.

I have a PC with P4 HT 3.0GHz, 2GB of RAM and Radeon 9550. It's running Antergos Linux (a rolling release distro based on Arch Linux) with KDE. It works just fine.

tincup wrote:

On the subject of restoring XP, a good solution is to image C: with something like Acronis Home Image. Restoring an image is fas […]
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On the subject of restoring XP, a good solution is to image C: with something like Acronis Home Image. Restoring an image is fast and easy without the need for a tedious fresh install and Windows activation. Save the image to another partition or drive and If/when XP gets hosed or infected boot off your recovery disk and restore to a clean backup - voila. Acronis v10 works well with XP. Image restore sidesteps the need to Activate each time unless you change hardware in which case it *may* request activation.

Make a few OS image at different stages: fresh install+Activation, +drivers, + some goodies, +plus all the goodies etc.

This all works best when you only install the OS and a limited selection of critical programs on C:. The image footprint is small, speeding up backup and recovery time. A typical full restore shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes this way.

Only if your drive is screwed his data, you also been screwed as well..

ncmark wrote:

I am just curious what you think about this. […]
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I am just curious what you think about this.

I am afraid I may have reached the end of the road. I ran windows98 until I could no longer surf the web with it (still use it on some machines).

Then i switched to PCLinux.... have been running that for a couple of years on an Athlob XP2400. I have gone as high as Firefox 14. But I am beginning to notice that some websites don't work.... and everything seems S-L-O-W. Seems like ever page you go to now is trying to load video - and not just banners. And I am kind of getting tired of Linux.

I was actually thinking of trying XP. But would that be a mistake? How bad would the security be? I do not plan to enter ANY private information anywhere - I do not order online or bank online. The only issue is email. I can't help but think the risks are being overplayed to push people into Windows 7/8 But I could be wrong. And that would probably be good for what - maybe a year or two before back to the same problem?

I could try to run Win7 on this machine but In think that would be pushing it. This may be the end of the road for this machine. I have been wanting to build something a little more modern but I have not even begun to acquire the parts.

Upgrade to a xp-m 3000+ or xp 3200+ barton for $15( AXMA3000FKT4C: http://www.impactcomputers.com/axma3000fkt4c.html, http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Athlon-XP-3200-2- … =item3f381d9236)

The mobile version is the same chip with the FSB set lower by default. +200 stock mhz, double l2 cache, and higher overclock than your 2400+, I think it's a decent boost for $15. You might even defer some of that selling the 2400+.

Bonus, you'll be able change the multiplier on the fly at the desktop for speed sensitive games, underclock down to 500 MHz: http://www.cpuheat.wz.cz/html/AXP_multiplier/ … _Multiplier.htm