Old computer question

[Jim]

I just bought a 2nd hand computer real cheap. It has a (super 7?) FIC
motherboard (PA-2013) supporting an AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU and 256megs SDRAM at
100mhz FSB speed. The usual periphials include a sound card, video card,
modem, etc. It's running Win98SE. So far, it hasn't crashed on me yet.

How does this computer compare with Intel Pentiums? Is it on the same level as
a Pentium II? or III? Or is it closer to a Pentium I with MMX technology?

Can it run Win2000 or Win XP? And if so, would it run better?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

p.s. I know I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about but I figure if I
post this question on this NG, I'm hoping to get some intelligent answers.

 

[Ancra]

I just bought a 2nd hand computer real cheap. It has a (super 7?) FIC
motherboard (PA-2013) supporting an AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU and 256megs SDRAM at
100mhz FSB speed. The usual periphials include a sound card, video card,
modem, etc. It's running Win98SE. So far, it hasn't crashed on me yet.

How does this computer compare with Intel Pentiums? Is it on the same level as
a Pentium II? or III? Or is it closer to a Pentium I with MMX technology?

Can it run Win2000 or Win XP? And if so, would it run better?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

p.s. I know I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about but I figure if I
post this question on this NG, I'm hoping to get some intelligent answers.

K6-2 is somewhat comparable to PII. I think I, at the time, picked up
that it runs old 16-bit code a teeny bit faster than the PII.

But main difference is floating point performance, which is kind of
weird. K6's fp unit is not piped. For single fp instructions it's
faster than PII, but fp usually comes in sequences, like in a matrix
mul to calculate vertex coordinates in a 3D projection, jpeg encode,
or in a fp benchmark. So here it suffers by comparision.

AMD came up with an instruction extension, for vectorized single
precision fp, '3Dnow' that improved K6-2 low performance on 3D gaming
and media, provided code supports it.

I was all into Intel in those days, but some friends have some K6s,
using them still. And as far as I know, they have always been
troublefree and working well with w98.

Consider NT (smaller foot print) rather than xp or 2000, if you want
an alternative.


ancra

 

[Mr. Slow]

I just bought a 2nd hand computer real cheap. It has a (super 7?) FIC
motherboard (PA-2013) supporting an AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU and 256megs SDRAM at
100mhz FSB speed. The usual periphials include a sound card, video card,
modem, etc. It's running Win98SE. So far, it hasn't crashed on me yet.

How does this computer compare with Intel Pentiums? Is it on the same level as
a Pentium II? or III? Or is it closer to a Pentium I with MMX technology?

Can it run Win2000 or Win XP? And if so, would it run better?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

p.s. I know I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about but I figure if I
post this question on this NG, I'm hoping to get some intelligent answers.

This system is probably at least as good as most P2 and even early P3
systems. Obviously, it is showing its age now but should continue to give
good service for office applications or web surfing etc. My strong advice
however is to stick with Win 98SE, although I know of a K62 500 running Win
2K quite happily.

 

[philo]

I just bought a 2nd hand computer real cheap. It has a (super 7?) FIC
motherboard (PA-2013) supporting an AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU and 256megs SDRAM at
100mhz FSB speed. The usual periphials include a sound card, video card,
modem, etc. It's running Win98SE. So far, it hasn't crashed on me yet.

How does this computer compare with Intel Pentiums? Is it on the same level as
a Pentium II? or III? Or is it closer to a Pentium I with MMX technology?

Can it run Win2000 or Win XP? And if so, would it run better?

I use an AMD-450 as a second machine...
as long as Win98 is running OK I'd leave it...
though your machine copuld run win2k /XP it would be slower...

 

[~A_Sammy]

I have xp running on a P2 350 with 256 megs ram with no problems at all.

You can run XP if you want. If you deside to do that, run the hardware
wizard and find out if there are any driver issues. If you have to get new
drivers then you have to deside if that's worth the hassel or not. I
decided to go for it because I really like the plug and play capabilites
that xp has. I use those little usb flash drives to move files around
between systems and not having to load drivers ala win98se, is a real
blessing.

 

[jeffc]

I just bought a 2nd hand computer real cheap. It has a (super 7?) FIC
motherboard (PA-2013) supporting an AMD K6-2 500mhz CPU and 256megs SDRAM at
100mhz FSB speed. The usual periphials include a sound card, video card,
modem, etc. It's running Win98SE. So far, it hasn't crashed on me yet.

How does this computer compare with Intel Pentiums? Is it on the same level as
a Pentium II? or III? Or is it closer to a Pentium I with MMX technology?

Can it run Win2000 or Win XP? And if so, would it run better?

I think it would run slower. I really don't see the point. Is there
something about 2000 or XP that you need?