Better to upgrade cpu or ram?

[Mike9182]

I have a hp that was made around 2000, which has windows millenium on it. It has a pentium 3 processor, with 256mb ram. Would I be better off to buy a bigger ram stick, or to upgrade the processor?

 

[Nitestick]

need to know what model the processor is. in my opinion 256mb should be enough for a pc like that. your problems are most likely software related as i maintain several PCs from that generation and they run superbly on 192mb-256mb ram even on Windows XP

 

[turtile]

RAM

 

[dipique]

I love Pentium 3s-- especially the later generations. I had a 1.1ghz P3 that could murder a P4 at twice the clock.

Anyways, get some more RAM, it never hurts, but the precious comments are right; your problems are likely software related.

Dan

 

[Mike9182]

ok thanks, I do think that windows millenium wasn't a very good os.

 

[Meithan]

I completely hated Windows ME. When it came out, I tried it for like 1 week and then formatted my computer. I just held on to W98 until Windows XP came out, which is by far the best windows OS to date (at least for home users).

My mother runs Windows XP on a Pentium3 500Mhz with 224MB RAM, and it's very fast. Heck, it's faster than my sisters' computer that runs on an Athlon 900Mhz and 384MB RAM.

So my advice would be to stay with 256MB RAM and install Windows XP. You'll be able to do most desktop things with that setup.

EDIT: I used to "D" word. Corrected.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

lol. yes go xp pro sp2 with all updates, and ittl be pretty fast. if u want to upgrade, go the cpu way, then ram, unless u get a new mobo/cpu/and ram