Maximizing System Unit Speed

Not much yu can do with the system unless you are going to add a faster precessor which will max out at 233mhz
Being the hogs the programs are you will need to upgrade memory which is the only thing that you seem short on and memory prices being what they are,yet it would help
The minimum I think would be 128mb
www.tomshardware.com is a good upgrade site to check out and also their are tutorials on upgrading that you can read using search and typing upgrdes to computer

A faster processor will not be cost effective.
There is only a few percent gain from 166 to 233 MHz.
The memory ugrade will really help.
Office 2000 is a RAM hog.
You can see this by running MemMax or CacheManager. (Both free downloads. Try www.zdnet.com )
A video card upgrade will help, but not as much as more RAM.
If these PCs are networked, with no CDROM installed, a slight gain can be achieved by putting the HDs on the two separate IDE Channels, with TEMP and Virtual Memory on D: .
Do not do this if a CDROM is installed.
With a CDROM, put the CDROM on IDE 2 and both hard drives on IDE 1 .
Regards, Chris

Try www.winboost.com for some software,
also try Ram Idle or Max Mem for your memory,
Cachman also helps, adding more memory, as stated..will help! search zdnet.com for the software. You could also see if your current systems will support overclocking, BUT be careful!
For Win 98, download the IDE HD cache manager
upgrade from the product support site.(also install the VM (virtual machine upgrade)
You might want to upgrade your video card to a 4 meg or better(this will help a bit also).
Keep your Icons (desktop and taskbar to a minimum) Use defrag to keep it fast too.
Hope this helps...
teki

I second answers 2 and 3 in that order. There are few other things such as DMA access for the drives and ata drives etc. but now we are into more complicated stuff which you should research and study.

I hate to say it but upgrading in parts is not the best option for you. Buy new! You see updating the processor will only net you a little since your on board bus spead can't go any higher, so a faster CPU of 233 is way less than the 300 that officerecomneds.

Ram - 32 is not going to cut it. 64 meg in the next upgrade of any software will be to small. Check your mother board specs to see how much ram they can handel and what type. if they are 30 pin, 72 pin simms or what. if they aren't DIMMS the 168 pin type then you can't use the RAM in the new computers, most likely.

Hard drive space. Full install of win 98 is 250 mb, Office 300 mb (I think may be more), visual Basic (with help and such) 500 mb. So with swap file, temp directory,student files, work space, etc. the 4.3 GB drives may be to small when all is said and done.

Video Card. Since the computers are not ment for game playing, and windows 98 still support the 1mb ram for the 256 colors, you may be able to do 16-bit or maybe 24-bit at 640x480, but I doubt much higher. Sould be ok.

If you plan internet access and such my suggestion still stands. Get new Equipment the 500$ jobs that are out there. 128mb ram, 4+ mb video, 10+ GB HD, etc.

Sorry but the facts are the facts, upgrading old equipment is not a good option, since you will not get the improvement you want or the "I want it now" generation can stand, I had some one complain that they had to wait 1 minute for a 1 page print out of a picture come out.

So I say Upgrade one computer and see how big a change happens, you will most likely say "This is no good". Try and let me know.

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