Whoosh! or crawl?

January 7, 2006 9:05 AM

To upgrade or not to upgrade ...

I'm running a 5-year-old bog-standard Packard Bell PC, XP Home, with a 1.50 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4 processor and 256K RAM.

At the moment I have a 2Mbps broadband connection, which suits me just fine, but for an extra fiver a month I could have 8Mbps.

But because my computer is, by today's standards, practically hamster-powered, will I get any benefit out of the faster broadband connection?

I don't intend to change this computer for the foreseeable future - I've only used 25% of the disk capacity, and it does what I need it for - email, surfing, the occasional download (well within the 10GB per month cap on my broadband account).

So, would 8Mbps make a significant difference on what is essentially a slow-ish computer, or would I be wasting my money?

posted by essexjan to Computers & Internet (23 answers total)

Yes, you should see the difference.

The only way you wouldn't is if the broadband adapter is some internal PCI thing (or external USB) that offloaded all of the conversion for signal to bits up to your PC processor, and it was too slow to decode at that speed. That seems unlikely to me.

But 1.5 GHz is not that hslow (they really made that 5 years ago, and Packard Bell was still around?). You will notice the 4-fold increase in bandwidth, at least sometimes. Many web pages and such, for example, might already be tapped out in the amount of bandwidth they can give you now, but you could run more simultaneously.

How does the connection from the internet get to your computer? Is it ethernet, or some USB thingy, or an internal card?
posted by teece at 9:15 AM on January 7, 2006

You'll be fine with more bandwidth. For five a month, go for it. Many LAN network cards today are gigabit, so 8 megabits isn't going to saturate your computer. Don't worry.
posted by voidcontext at 9:17 AM on January 7, 2006

Even USB 1.1 is around 12 mbits per second. If your computer can handle a USB connection, it can handle what you want to do.
posted by voidcontext at 9:19 AM on January 7, 2006

Response by poster: How does the connection from the internet get to your computer?

I have a USB modem to connect to the internet.
posted by essexjan at 9:20 AM on January 7, 2006

You will be able to see a difference in tests and large file downloads, but you probably won't notice the difference in practice. Most of the time delays in web page loads are at the server side, or on the network as a whole, not at your local connection point.

Upload speeds are normally caped much lower than download speeds. You might find that the upload speed improvement, if there is any, is useful - if you send a lot of multi megabyte emails, or something.

There is no chance I would pay it.

Note: Your computer is better than you think, but consider a memory upgrade.
posted by Chuckles at 9:27 AM on January 7, 2006

Best answer: Also, think of upgrading your memory. For a five year old computer, for $50 you could probably triple the memory in it. It will feel brand new. Those are the only two upgrades I'd ever recommend to anyone, more bandwidth or more memory.
posted by voidcontext at 9:27 AM on January 7, 2006

Response by poster: Dammit, I just checked on my ISP's website and my local BT exchange hasn't been enabled for the 8Megs yet.

But thanks for the replies, Voidcontext and Teece, I'll upgrade when BT gets its act together.
posted by essexjan at 9:28 AM on January 7, 2006

Best answer: If you're not downloading more than 10GB per month I don't think you need to worry, honestly.

There isn't really much observable difference between 768Kbps (let alone 2Mbps) and 8Mbps connections when it comes to simple web-browsing. It's when you're downloading larger things - Linux distros, porn, warez, game demos/betas, what have you - that the 8Mbps really becomes useful. Ask yourself - is there anything that I'm downloading on a regular basis that I'd pay an extra $5 to speed up by a factor of four?

If you're really keeping your monthly bandwidth use down to 10GB then odds are the answer is probably not. Still, I have to admit that I would probably do it myself on sheer principle and 'just in case I need it.' It's only $5.

Your hardware will almost certainly handle the extra bandwidth just fine - you can easly put that much through a Pentium 1 300MHz with a $10 network card (exactly what I use for an OpenBSD firewall here). That's not really a question. However, just as an aside, you'd be smart to grab another 256MB RAM stick. Outside of that your machine is fine for what you're doing.
posted by Ryvar at 9:28 AM on January 7, 2006

And on failing to preview I see that everyone else suggested the RAM upgrade as well. So . . . yeah.
posted by Ryvar at 9:30 AM on January 7, 2006

Response by poster: OK, now somebody point me to an Idiot's Guide to Installing More RAM ...

Actually, the scary bit (for me) is done. With the help of MeFiers, I fitted a new PSU a few months ago when my old one died. The new one is bigger and I couldn't get the case back on, so I've run the machine since then with no sides on it (and found it runs much better and doesn't get above 43C).

I almost passed out in terror when I had to take the cover off, but from what I understand, installing new RAM is something I, as a non-techie person, could probably do myself.
posted by essexjan at 9:47 AM on January 7, 2006

OK, now somebody point me to an Idiot's Guide to Installing More RAM ...

(1) Read your Owner's Book of Words to see where your RAM slots are, nudge nudge say no more. If you don't have said Book of Words, it's almost certainly available for download. If you can't find it after a thorough googling (phworr), open up your motherboard and describe it to people hereabouts and someone will help you identify where your RAM is.

(2) Open up your machine and look at the RAM slots. Are they all full, or are there open ones? If they are all full, you'll be throwing away your RAM and buying replacement RAM. If there are open slots, you'll be filling them. Don't worry if you have to throw away and replace; RAM is very cheap about now.

(3) Go to crucial.com and go through their Memory Adviser thingie, which will tell you what kind and speed of RAM you need.

(4) Ask someone else who is good to buy RAM from in the UK, and buy some from them.

(5) Go back to the Owner's Book of Words and follow their instructions for installing (and removing, if needs be) RAM. It's not tricky -- it's a matter of moving a couple of little tab things, and pulling out the old RAM (if you need to), and shoving the new RAM into the slots. The only thing is that you have to push the RAM strips with a surprising amount of force before they click in all the way. Everything is set up so that you can only put the RAM in the correct way, and it clicks and moves the little tab things when it's installed all the way, and so on to make it dead easy.

(6) Plug the power back in, reboot, and watch the splash screens to see if the RAM was autodetected.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:18 AM on January 7, 2006

That is, open up your *case* and describe the motherboard. The motherboard you can't open up.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:19 AM on January 7, 2006

Response by poster: No Instruction Manual with this one, or at least not one that I can find now, but I just looked at a recent back issue of Computeractive (a UK computer magazine for non-geeks) which has a picture-based step-by-step to installing more RAM, so I'll compare that with the inside of my PC and see if I can figure it out from there.
posted by essexjan at 10:35 AM on January 7, 2006

Everest Home Edition can identify the motherboard for you if you can't get details. Also, check the online docs for Packard Bell.. might have some indiciation about memory specs (what specific sizes and combinations and speed your mobo can handle). Buying the wrong memory is as useful as not having the memory in the first place. If you buy online, go with a company that has a solid return policy (I prefer newegg.com).
posted by caution live frogs at 10:36 AM on January 7, 2006

The 8MB from BT is questionable -- I have it but have yet to see speeds even somewhat close to that!
posted by k8t at 10:48 AM on January 7, 2006

Best answer: I've bought ram twice from Crucial UK because they have an idiot's guide to matching ram with machine.

They also refunded the second purchase immediately (the machine it was bought for blew up).
posted by ceri richard at 11:11 AM on January 7, 2006

If you want information straight from the source, you can look up your computer on the Packard Bell website. Choose "Select a Product" on the right, with the "Other Ranges" radio button on to get the older systems as choices, then follow the pulldowns. Or use the serial number selector on the left if it works for you.

For what it's worth, it sounds like you might have an IMEDIA 5106, although there is model overlap in specs so I can't be sure. Whatever model it is, Packard Bell's site does a pretty decent job of telling what type memory your computer supports, how many slots are available, and the maximum you can go. It even has a zoomable picture of your motherboard so you can verify and see what goes where (i.e. look for the slots labelled DIMM). Memory is keyed so it should only fit in one orientation; the memory write-ups you've read probably go into a lot more detail.
posted by mdevore at 12:34 PM on January 7, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks mdevore. I looked at the case, which gave no clue, and a Bellarc run showed that it's an unbranded re-build (it was dirt cheap when I bought it, and I remember now it was a reconditioned model). Yes, it looks like it's the IMedia. Thanks a lot.

The Bellac scan shows two memory slots of 128MB each. Can I replace both with 256?
posted by essexjan at 1:36 PM on January 7, 2006

Since your case is open, look at the memory slots... I think there will be three slots on your model. Look for two long short cards running lengthwise sticking out of the motherboard.

If there is a slot free, just get a single stick of 512mb memory and use the empty slot. That'll bring you up to ~768mb. The IMEDIA 5106 supports up to 3 512mb units of memory. You don't have to get all matching amounts of memory. Mixing and matching is OK.

Most reputable memory retailers will allow you to return memory if it's not right, and you follow their selection process. Crucial is really good, at least here in the US. I don't know about in the UK.
posted by voidcontext at 2:21 PM on January 7, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, voidcontext. I've had a scout round the Crucial website and can get the correct 512 for about £66, so when payday finally arrives, I'll treat my li'l desktop buddy.
posted by essexjan at 2:26 PM on January 7, 2006

Be aware that there is disagreement online as to whether a 5106 has two memory slots or three. But worse case is you'll have to pull one of the 128M units and lives with "only" 640M instead of 768M, assuming you get a 512M module. Either is plenty.
posted by mdevore at 3:11 PM on January 7, 2006

While you're at it, you can sometimes gain some improvement by taking unneccessary stuff out of the startup folder. Also run MSConfig and uncheck anything you don't need to run all the time. For instance, when you install Quicktime, it runs at boot, and also runs the itunes service at boot. It may launch the app slightly faster, but if you don't use it frequently, it's using processing power that you don't benefit from. And, besides, it annoys me. If you're not sure, leave it alone, but lots of apps install services that run all the time. Making the service startup manual instead of automatic means that it's still available, just not preheated.

Another small way to improve your computing experience is to testdrive a new mouse and keyboard, if yours are less than wonderful.
posted by theora55 at 9:08 PM on January 7, 2006

Another vote for Crucial UK as a good place to buy memory. Free postage, arrived the next day, and their system analysis tool told me exactly what I needed.
posted by altolinguistic at 5:13 AM on January 8, 2006