On 30 Dec 00, at 22:37, Paul Weiner wrote:

> I  have a tower computer that is just under 3 years old with
> Pentium 1, 200 MHZ, 64 MEG RAM, 3 GIG Hard Div, Windows 95. I am
> connected to Road Runner with TCP/IP & I access AOL as I am a
> Community Service Leader on AOL.

> I been adding software as I go along & recently purchased Dragon
> Point & Speak. When I received it, I found that I needed 266MHZ, so
> now my question. Is it feasible to upgrade my system or replace it
> with newer & better system? Which ever might be the better way to
> go, can you give me some idea of cost?

  A relatively inexpensive upgrade (~$100) may be possible if your
motherboard can support an AMD K6-2 or K6-3 CPU.  These may have
special voltage requirements, though, so it will be necessary to
determine what make/model of motherboard is in your system.  This can
often be determined from the BIOS version information displayed when
the machine boots -- unfotunately, that information is often visible
only for 10-20 seconds....
  The information is also often printed on the motherboard itself,
but it may be in a position where you can only read it after
disassembling the machine.

  Failing that, you'll need a new motherboard.  MOST Pentium
motherboards from 3 years ago were "AT" style, and with a bit of
searching you may still be able to find AT-style "Slot 2"
motherboards (~$100) supporting certain Celeron/PII/PIII CPUs
(~$150).  Depending on your mix of peripherals, you may want/need to
move up from PCI to an AGP video card (~$50-250, depending on
features), and you'll probably need to replace your old RAM (FPM or
EDO) with SDRAM (~$50).

  You'll have a much greater range of choices in current motherboards
and CPUs if your existing case and CPU are "ATX" form rather than
"AT".  Cost will probably be similar, though -- what you save on the
motherboard, you can spend on a faster CPU.  Or you may choose to
spend ~$50 or so for an ATX case and migrate your existing drives and
peripherals into it.

David Gillett

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