Is this old computer good for casual use?

My uncle is finaly putting behind his cheap ways and is getting Internet. He has an old tan computer he wanted to use but I told him house Windows 98 will not cut it these days. As the family techie , I need to tell him wether he should buy one or use my grandfathers old computer. The old computer has these specs:

Windows XP Service Pack 3, 1.8 GHz Processor (intel), 256 Mb of RAM, Nvidia GeForce MX/MX400 (32 or 64 Mb not sure), Realtek rtl8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet, Integrated sound, USB 2.0

Is this computer good for causual use (School Research, Email, Flash Games, Wathcing Youtube) or should I make his buy a desktop? If he should buy, tell me what you sugest.(Keep it cheap)

Thanks for the Help

school old windows desktop computer internet casual

asked Sep 17 '10 at 16:10

TehPendleton
11●3●3●4

14 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

12next page »

2	A Ram upgrade would be benificial, but other then that it would do most basic tasks. answered Sep 17 '10 at 20:46 Emily 631●2●4●20

1	It should run fine. I would not use Windows, I'd install something like Puppy Linux. It will handle your power better. answered Sep 17 '10 at 16:34 Liam Quade 7.4k●92●121●197

Considering who is using it and he's a tightwad,why not put some memory in the box and turn him loose. How much RAM can the board address and how is the board configged ? There is nothing wrong with Windows XP. Its a utility machine, if you like. Use it until it DIES.

answered Sep 17 '10 at 17:12

NoncDavid
406●7●14●24

I would agree with most here that a RAM upgrade might be necessary. Flash games and videos can be surprisingly processor-intensive, but I think that a 1.8 GHz Intel would be fine (HD videos however, particularly HD Flash videos, are out of the question).

While downgrading the system to SP2 would give a performance boost (as was mentioned), I wouldn't recommend it as it's not supported by MS any longer (or MS will be dropping support very soon?) so security would be a problem.

answered Sep 17 '10 at 17:43

AlanStryder
2.0k●8●20●42

edited Sep 17 '10 at 17:44

I agree with most of the comments been made here, but the ram needed to upgrade and with the age of your computer, it's not going to be cheap. As Ram models change over time, the older units get dearer. So be prepared to pay more for your ram. Possibly best bet would be to try to get some on eBay.

answered Sep 17 '10 at 22:48

Geenome
2.3k●41●50●72

well if he is used to 98, this will be a step up, upgrade ram and make sure you clean it off... but for his needs it should work fine...

and here i thought an XP computer was old... but i guess there are still older machines hiding about these days

answered Sep 17 '10 at 23:34

trueb
15.4k●53●104●260

0	I think it's fine for doing those things. Have him try it out first and see if he likes it before buying something newer. answered Sep 17 '10 at 16:13 IamTechCrazy 4.6k●76●99●144

You can't really do much with 256MB ram can you? Even for home use...Can you? But still good for general use.

answered Sep 17 '10 at 16:32

Database
4.2k●126●157●199

You really can, I worked for a company up until the summer that had roughly 20 pc users and 256mb was deemed all the RAM that was needed to run xp efficiently.

But I do agree uprade the ram at least to 1gb

(Oct 26 '10 at 05:33) paddyt007

Those spec are a lot higher than both my systems, I would consider my more than a casual user and between the two of them I manage.

answered Sep 17 '10 at 17:22

markd12
3.6k●91●114●152

Consider a RAM upgrade or lower the system to service pack 2

(Sep 17 '10 at 17:23) markd12

lowering to service pack two would leave him susceptible to viruses because you wont get updates from Microsoft unless you run SP3. Please don't give users information that could cause them to make their computer worse by allowing viruses. Which could end in identity theft if the bank on their computer.

(Sep 17 '10 at 17:29) TheTechDude

I'm just giving him all the facts the machine will perform better on service pack 2 and if you surf sensible you wont get infected anyway.

(Sep 17 '10 at 18:25) markd12

It should be fine. All he'd really need is one or maybe two gigs of RAM.

I'd suggest just one gig of RAM as a minimum & two if he'd pay for it.

You should run a thorough scan disk & disk defragmenter to clean the system up as well as a deep, thorough virus scan to ensure no crud crops up on him in the future.

answered Sep 19 '10 at 04:35

BlazeEagle
1.1k●7●12●26

12next page »

Your answer

toggle preview

community wiki

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

*italic* or __italic__
**bold** or __bold__
link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
basic HTML tags are also supported

learn more about Markdown

Join Us in the Chat Room

Tags:

windows ×1,947
computer ×1,416
internet ×893
desktop ×380
school ×182
old ×145
casual ×2

Asked: Sep 17 '10 at 16:10

Seen: 1,818 times

Last updated: Oct 26 '10 at 08:06

Is this old computer good for casual use?

Follow this question

Related questions

Lockergnome.net

Lockergnome