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LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
for web surfing and using it as a portable multimedia entertainment device? Do you imagine any issues with current programs like WinAmp or Windows media or the current line of codecs like xvid, etc?

Brand: Compaq
Hard Drive Capacity: 20 GB
Processor Type: Intel Pentium III
Screen Size: 12 inches
Operating System: Windows 2000
Processor Speed: 850 MHz
Primary Drive: DVD-ROM
Memory (RAM): 256 MB
Click to expand...
TIA!
 
black noise

black noise

Turbo Monkey
Dec 31, 2004
1,032
0
Santa Cruz
I have a iBook G4 with a 30gb drive, 256mb of Ram, 800mhz. It works fine for the internet and playing movies (WMP, Quicktime). I also used iMovie a few times and made some short videos. It's not super fast but it works fine.

So I'm guessing that computer would be fine if you treat it nice.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,083
15,173
Portland, OR
I have a P3 850 with the same specs, but I run Umbuntu and it is plenty fast for daily use. I can even do basic development on it and it's fast enough with only 256m of ram.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,083
15,173
Portland, OR
Sorry, I can't spell (never can).

http://www.ubuntu.com linux is very user friendly and hassle free while being free. It is Debian based and comes loaded with all you basics like Office and Firefox plus it has an auto update feature that works better than most to keep you up to date.
 
Changleen

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,729
2,712
Pōneke
Might have difficulty playing high quality .avi files - It'd be OK for music but quality video might be an issue. Web would prolly be OK.
 
Changleen

Changleen

Paranoid Member
Jan 9, 2004
14,729
2,712
Pōneke
Oh, Current version of windows media player would probably kill it. I'd stick to smaller apps like Winamp or 'Media Player Classic' that comes bundled with the K-Lite codec pack.

Damn windows media player sucks.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
LordOpie said:
as in it'll stutter while playing music and videos?
Click to expand...
It might if, as Changleen said, you're playing high quality video or DVDs.

The K-Lite Codec pack is a great tool you can download from a number of sites and contains the original version of Media Player that came with Windows 98 - it was a suprisingly good, low profile application.

It's tough to tell. If you upgraded to 512mb RAM, my bet is you could tweak enough performance out of it to play almost anything.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
If you don't mind me asking, how much $$ are you offering for this machine?

I think that slapping a 512mb RAM chip in there would give you enough of a machine to play videos/music. If you want, when you get it, I can give you some tips and tweaks to get the most performance out of it.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,083
15,173
Portland, OR
LordOpie said:
THe auction ended at $125 without meeting the reserve.
Click to expand...
I got mine for $225 about ayear ago. It took a few auctions, but I knew what I wanted to spend and I knew I could get it for that if I waited. It took about a week, so if you're not in a hurry, you can score one.
 
B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
Maybe slip another 256mb of RAM in if you want a fancy media player, but aside from that, I don't see any issues.

Linux box!!!
 
macko

macko

Turbo Monkey
Jul 12, 2002
1,191
0
THE Palouse
I've got two computers, 1 laptop & 1 desktop, which I bought 5 years ago when I was a freshman in college. I still use both and they suit me just fine. ...and both are Macs!!!

The need for a fast, up-to-date, computer is overrated in my opinion. Sure, there are professions where that kind of power is warranted but for the average user you should get by just fine with something like that.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,083
15,173
Portland, OR
blue said:
Linux box!!!
Click to expand...
Amen, brother. Toss Xine on there with a codec pack and BAM!

This HowTo turns a basic budget machine into a media madness monster. This is how I configured video stuff on my thinkpad and it is wicked sweet!
 
LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
bballe336 said:
That should be fine if most of your video is being played through VLC.
Click to expand...
did you hack my desktop? yeah, I use VLC the most, not cuz i like the interface, but it causes the least problems, seems to play the most variety of codecs without getting all pissy, and handles subtitles the best.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
maxyedor said:
20gb hard drive? That will be a little small for the entertainment you want on there. That will be like 18gb or less, formatted.
Click to expand...
Meh, he's got a DVD burner. He can store everything on DVDs if he doesn't want to fill up the hard drive. Just bring the DVDs you want for a certain trip or occasion, leave the rest at home.
 
bballe336

bballe336

Turbo Monkey
Mar 3, 2005
1,757
0
MA
maxyedor said:
20gb hard drive? That will be a little small for the entertainment you want on there. That will be like 18gb or less, formatted.
Click to expand...
Flash drive? External hard drive?

And yeah Opie, VLC is pretty nice when QT doesn't work.
 
jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
That's spec'd pretty close to my Laptop (mine has 1gig of memory, but a 15" screen) and it doesn't play DVD smooth enough for me.

Just FYI.
 
bballe336

bballe336

Turbo Monkey
Mar 3, 2005
1,757
0
MA
jacksonpt said:
That's spec'd pretty close to my Laptop (mine has 1gig of memory, but a 15" screen) and it doesn't play DVD smooth enough for me.

Just FYI.
Click to expand...
Have you tried a simpler less processor intensive player such as VLC? I suggest you try it out.
 
jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
I tried a few freebies while on vacation a couple of months ago - I don't use it for DVDs on a regular basis.

But thanks for the tip - I'll try it when the time comes.
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,165
1,261
NC
bballe336 said:
Have you tried a simpler less processor intensive player such as VLC? I suggest you try it out.
Click to expand...
Just to further this statement, VLC is available at www.videolan.org and will probably solve your video stuttering.

Also, make sure your background processes are turned off as much as possible. You can download something like TuneUp Utilities to clean up your registry and shut off startup processes:

http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

It's pretty good at telling you what a program is for at startup, and whether or not it's safe to shut off.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
43,083
15,173
Portland, OR
I run VLC to play Windows media files on OS X and it works very well. I had never tried it prior to OS X. I use it for all things not Quicktime.
 
bballe336

bballe336

Turbo Monkey
Mar 3, 2005
1,757
0
MA
jimmydean said:
I run VLC to play Windows media files on OS X and it works very well. I had never tried it prior to OS X. I use it for all things not Quicktime.
Click to expand...
It does not play WMV3 codecs or IV50 codecs (I think that is what they are called) SO I remedied that with the flip4mac quicktime plug in. But even then that won't play certain files. So I downloaded some software called Chroma. It plays just about everything.
 
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