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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taylorm. who wrote (4242)	12/14/1998 11:13:00 PM
From: Gulo	Respond to of 14778

OK. I'll jump in. >as I use to have a 33.6 modem that seemed to work as fast as this new one. You may be right. Your new modem ("win cruise 56kbps v.90") is likely what is known as a WinModem. This is a lobotomized modem that requires your cpu to do its number crunching. My suggestion would to either revert to your old modem or get another - real - V90 modem. A WinModem may work fine for simple downloading, but don't try asking much of your CPU (e.g., 'bring up java charts for trading stocks' ) while using it. -ae

To: Taylorm. who wrote (4242)	12/15/1998 10:53:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

does a 17" monitor make quite a difference since I now have a 14" monitor IMO a monitor is a good place to spend upgrade $. The monitor is one of the few components that can move forward to your next computer. A larger monitor has a pseudo speed increase aspect to it<g> By that I mean you see more at once thus reducing the need for scrolling, panning etc. For example if one were editing an image in photoshop you would save time by seeing more of the image at the same time reducing the need for panning the image. With a large monitor you can keep several browser windows open at the same time..saving time minimizing and maximizing windows. Seventeen inch monitors are available at very reasonable prices. I recently upgraded from a 17 in to a 21 in. I offset some of the cost by reducing my use of the printer. ($120 for a round of color cartridges and the black always goes bad before I use it up) I used to print and read a lot of information. I now keep most of my info on the harddrive and read the monitor. I would not consider that type of use with a 14 in monitor. In short..go for the seventeen+. How much memory on your video card and can you add more? If you go for a larger monitor you may need more video RAM to support higher resolutions. Next or on a par would be the modem issue. It has already been addressed, I agree with Andrew's comments. You may gain some advantage with more RAM (64MB) and the price is right. 32 MB will get you by unless you are running NT. Don't max out your harddrive. Leave a couple hundred MB to give the OS 'room to move' Other than the above my inclination would be to hang in with the machine as long as you can and then do an overall upgrade (buy a new machine) and keep the old as a backup when you can't live with it anymore. The longer you can wait the better you will do. Zeuspaul