Minimum hardware requirements (Was: Old, but not "Classic"

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Sat Nov 14 11:10:34 1998

< True and that is only windows itself! To be realatisc, 12~16MB and

8-12mb is more like it. some less.

< nearly all websites demands at least netscape 3.x. That is where

If you want a viewer. If you want something to read text there les less
problem.

< this made any 286 and 386sx to throw their trowels in. Cached 386DX

386s run ok but it's not going to be fast.

< IE's but problem is how can one can read the PDF files? I have this
< problem for my low end machines but what program I can view those
< PDF's? I read them nearly daily.

Acrobat, runs on any 386 and maybe lower. Unfortunatly it's so damm big
and slow that it's painful even on high end 486s!

< memory simm slots and better support of IDE, don't have to be
< over 504MB, drives due to user-defineable and no need for

The 504MB boundary has never been a problem for me! It's a dos problem
but win31 seems to have no problem.

< setup disks, usually. Everything is easily found, working, used
< and. cheaply.

Cheap, the key word.

< Don't bother the win95 on anything lesser than 386DX 40, L2 cache
< and up with more than 16MB, good HD. CPU hungry, ram hungry and
< count on users download their favorites and quickly discover mistake
< if they didn't follow this specs I listed. Subbing cached 386dx 40
< for cached 486 or mayble low end pentium types with good hd is best
< option, but still needs some type of accelerated video card to keep
< scrolling around confortable and sane.

w95 on most is a waste.

< win98 is out it needs at least 32MB and weighs in at 200MB installed
< without anything extra just full configured win98 itself, loves
< accelerated video cards, 1< GB, at least DX4 100 and up with

W98 doesn't warrent unless you actually *need* it.


< The 8088/8086 is very weak CPU even it really strains gobbing and
< processing dir requests (watch the HD light blinks, in off states
< between flashes, it's cpu is what doing the processing work!)

It's slow that's all. A 286 or 386 at sub 8mhz is pretty poor too!

< But remember 286 boards often are found with 1 or 2MB max and
< many have SIPPS sockets, and very few actually have 8 SIMMS
< slots, 4 slots being common.

Biggest problem.

< 286 and 386sx runs about the same in
< lockstep in performance wise. 386DX 16, 20 is tagging in and just

Gads no. I have a 386sx/16 (intel inboard PC) that can march circles
around any 286. That has to be the most handicapped 386 around.

Also another area where perfomance can be bought is getting MFM drive out
of the box, generally they are slow. IDE drives are generally faster
and even in an 8088 box the difference is noticeable going from a
1002xa/ST251 pair to an IDEadaptor/miniscribe 41mb. Another area in the
286 and up machines is putting a low end 512k VGA in if possible and for
the 386 and up a 1-2m VESA or local bus can really have an impact on
winders perfomance. A lot of the older board the cpu is not maxed out
but the bus is the funnel your trying to push it through so any
improvement in the peripheral area is notable.

Oh, one trick I've ussed for even the sluggiest 386s under winders is to
have a small 40-80mb drive as D: and put the winders swap files there
it does make a difference when you swapping hard. Saves time moving the
head. Using a second IDE interface at the secondary address helps some
too.

Allison
Received on Sat Nov 14 1998 - 11:10:34 GMT