Upgraded 486 will never
perform like a Pentium

Question: Almost three years ago, I bought a Packard Bel lForce 715, a 486 DX/33 with eight megs of RAM, Headland VGA video card and a 340-meg hard drive.

Now that I've installed a CD-ROM multimedia kit, I've been getting so many new programs for the computer and many of these programs are getting power hungry.

For instance, I want to get NHL 96, and I tried out the demo for it, but the game was extremely slow, and the animation was hard on the eyes. Obviously, the game itself will be just as bad, if not worse. Therefore, I need to know what I should start upgrading first.

Many advisers are saying that I should get an OverdriveProcessor (DX/100 or P/83).

Others say I should upgrade my RAM to 16 megs.

And still others are saying I should get a new video card.

Could you prioritize these options and tell me what would give me the greatest performance boost?

Oh, by the way, I'm getting a new 1.2-gig hard drive, but that will need to be complemented by a good overall performance from the motherboard components, right?

Please give me any help you can.

Answer: In a perfect world the best advice is this: don't bother upgrading, save your money and buy a better machine.

Upgrading a machine as old as the one you have is a waste of money given your goals, because you are never going to be satisfied with the results.

But you probably don't want to hear that and I don't blame you. So let's make the best of the situation and look at the advantages of upgrading each component.

A typical, new off-the-shelf game these days is recommending minimum specs of a Pentium-100 Mhzmachine with 16 megs of RAM and, in some cases, a videocard with two megs of video RAM.

The first one is unattainable in your situation unless you replace the whole motherboard. That's not an option because for the cost you may as well buy a new machine. If you buy an Overdrive chip you'll fall short of the first spec anyway, so let's deal with that in a minute. The second requirement is 16 megs of RAM. That is attainable.

The best bang for the buck is always a memory upgrade, in my opinion, and it should almost always be a computer owner's first line of defence against obsolescence. RAM is cheap. In some places you can still pick it up for $10 to $15 per meg (2001 update: not anymore, it's $1 a megabyte or so). It's the most cost-effective way to extend theusefulness of your machine.

If you take only one piece of advice that I offer today, thenbuy as much RAM as you can afford and that your machinewill take.

You won't be disappointed. I just helped a close friend setup a 486- 33Mhz machine that she inherited. When wechecked out the memory, we discovered it was installed with24 megs of RAM. That was good news because my friendwanted Windows 95, which, as a minimum, recommendseight megs of RAM and a 486-66 Mhz processor. The extramemory made that machine sing.

"Memory upgrade for this system might require the reader togo to Packard Bell and get the original memory. If he islucky, he might be able to stick generic memory into it," saidMathew Fiszer, a senior support technician at Edmonton'sCompuSmart west-end store. Check with Packard Bell toget specifics on this first.

Your video card is also a bottleneck. A new, two-meg videocard is recommended, $100 and change is going to get youa slightly better card than you already have. If you spend$300 to $400 you'll get a kick-butt card that will take careof any graphics needs that you have.

The difficulty here will be to find a new card that issupported by your machine.

Ideally, you want a PCI video card, but my advisers tell meyour machine doesn't have any PCI slots so you're stuckwith searching out a VLB or ISA video card.

A PCI -- Peripheral Component Interconnect -- video cardplugs into a more advanced bus system in your computer. Abus is another way of saying the data pathways on yourmotherboard. Most newer PCs include a PCI bus inaddition to a more general ISA, or Industry StandardArchitecture, expansion bus. The VLB acronym is short forVESA Local Bus and appeared most commonly in machinesmade in 1993 and 1994.

So with the acronyms out of the way, you want to look for ahigh-end non-PCI video card.

Let's say you managed to find a decent mid-range card andupgraded your RAM by buying an extra 16 megs. You'relooking at a bill of maybe $500 to $600 after the taxpersontakes a share.

Now as far as the Overdrive chip upgrade goes, if youdecided to go with the P/83 model, you're faced with a billjust shy of $1,000. That's $500 short of a brand new$1,500 Pentium system. The Overdrive chip is undoubtedlygoing to give your system a kick. On its own, it's not worthbothering.

"The problem with all overdrives," explained Fiszer, "is thatyou will not get the true performance of a Pentium system ona 486 motherboard." Old bus architecture, even with anOverdrive chip, is still old. The data pathways are smallerand data travels around it slower than in the PCI busarchitecture on a Pentium motherboard.

Paired with as much RAM as will fit and that you can afford,the Overdrive chip may be worthwhile, but when the NHL98 comes out and recommends a loaded Pentium-120 Mhzmachine, you're going to be backed into a corner withnowhere to go.

Regarding your new hard drive, you're going to have a smallproblem. Older 486 machines don't support the largegig-sized hard drives. In fact your system won't support ahard drive bigger than 528 megs, advised Fiszer, withoutone of two modifications to your system.

• Option 1 is to install "overlay software" which will fool the machine's BIOS and enable you to install the drive. If you take this route, check with your local computer store for the software.
• Option 2 is to add an Enhanced IDE controller card. Fiszer recommends something called a GSI18 card which has an on-board BIOS.

Finally, your new hard drive, will give you lots more space,of course, and is probably speedier than your old one, but, as you suggested, its not going to improve the overall system's speed much.

If readers are looking for more information on upgrades, there are a couple of decent books out on the market that are worthwhile. Upgrade Your Own PC by Linda Rohrborough (IDG Books) has lots of up-to-date information.

For the computer buyer who wants to be educated on what's upgradeable when they buy new, try How to Buy aComputer or Upgrade What You Have by Myles White (McClelland & Stewart).

If this column still doesn't fully help you with your technical problems or answer questions that you may have, you should see our Emergency Help page for personalized help.