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So you’ve bought a new Pentium III-based machine and ready to play it with your favorite 3D games. While you’re playing, you’ve notice that the graphics are poor, slow execution and you’re hard drive just kept on reading and
making angry noises. Then you’re system goes to a halt, and then it hangs. And there’s nothing to do just to press that Reset button. You try to run it again but still same results. Then you’re wondering why does it happen to you’re ‘fast’ Pentium III-based machine. Here’s the real deal.
Many local computer makers, or OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), have brochures that contain a product PC list like this one…
Pentium III 866 MHz
PC133 Motherboard
Built-in 4MB video and audio
64MB SD-RAM
20 GB Hard Drive
1.44 / 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive
14" Colored Monitor
Amplified Speakers
Windows-Compatible Keyboard
ATX Casing
Free Mouse with Mouse Pad and 500watt AVR
…of their ‘top-notch’ computer systems with a ‘cheap price tag’ ready for the budding PC consumers. If you’re a first time computer buyer, you don’t know anything about that list. Instead you’ll just say to the store salesman that you want to have a PC for the kids that fits your budget. Other consumers know some parts like the processor’s speed and brand name and the hard disk’s capacity. Still they do not know other stuffs beneath. This is why PC makers do not include the brand name of each of the parts on the list because most consumers do not know or doesn’t care about it. They just include the processor’s name and speed and hide other not-so reliable parts. Just like a book that has a beautiful cover but has a boring content.
Think of a car that has a top class engine that is designed for speedier rides but has a wheel the size of a basketball. Even though it has a good engine still it can never go faster if it doesn’t have a good set of wheels. Same thing as on PCs. Sure you can buy a Pentium III or even a Pentium 4 based PC at a lower price but it doesn’t mean that the overall performance of you’re PC is speedy. Not! There are many factors involved to make your PC run smoothly.
- Faster hard drives helps your processor finding files more efficiently thus lessens the straining of the hard drive. UDMA/66 or UDMA/100 drives are faster than UDMA/33 ones
even though it has a 7200 rpm speed!
- Higher amount of memory. 256MB or higher if you’re a gamer.
- 3D accelerator cards for intense gaming.
- CD-ROM drives that has a faster seeking time not how fast it can spin.
Even an Intel Celeron based PC that has a Riva TNT2-based or GeForce-based
graphics card and a higher amount of RAM is faster than a Pentium III based system with a
64MB of RAM and a 4MB 'who-knows' video card low-end setup.
Avoid of being fooled again. Go to the PC Works site to pick up the right PC
Solution build list. They are a bit pricier but it’s worth it.
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