Friend's girlfriend gave me a computer. She didn't want it because she said it was ancient history, only collecting dust in the basement. So I went ahead and took it. I'd love to use it as a second computer. Here are the specs:

Pentium 100MHz Processor
32MB of RAM
2Gig Hard Drive

I fired it up, and it works fine. No OS though. What can I do with it? I appreciate any advice.

It'll run 98 (and lower), although 95 would perform a bit better - so I suppose it depends on what you want to do with it.

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I'd mainly like to use it for email, IM, and internet browsing. I have a Win98SE CD laying around. Would the computer run that OS ok? is there anything I'd need to upgrade (RAM, processor, etc.)?

It'll run '95 very well, If it wew me I would use it to play some of my older games (StarCraft, Deer's Revenge, Deer Hunter 1, Risk), you can also surf the 'net with it.

Customer: Do you have any mouse pads?

Salseman pointing: Over there.

Customer: Great!, will they be comadible with my computer.

98 would perform poorly unless you up the RAM to 64Mb - that CPU is pretty slow. It should be possible to install a better processor, but (depending on the board) 233MHz would probably as high as you can go, if that much. With 64Mb and a faster processor it'd run 98 fairly well - as it stands, you'd be better off with 95

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jboy, My grandparents ran '98 very well on Pentium 133 w/ 32Mb. RAM, I wouldn't imgine that a Pentium 100 would be too much slower in performance. The now run '95 'cause my cousin crashed it and all I have is '95, WFW 3.11, and Win 3.1. (lol)

Customer: Do you have any mouse pads?

Salseman, pointing: Over there.

Customer: Great!, will they be comadible with my computer.

Thanks for sharing. You should write a book

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I have to say, I am really impressed! This computer has some kick! Well, I went ahead and installed Win98SE on the machine because it was the only OS I had. However, I took jboy's advice and beefed things up a little. I was able to put a 166MHz Processor on the motherboard and bump the RAM up to 64MB. I could've put a 233MHz processor in the machine, but I couldn't find one. The performance was pretty amazing. That computer does everything I need it to and a bit more. It even plays MP3's through Winamp at 320Kbs. With a 56K Dial up connection on both my computers, I can't tell the difference on the internet. The 166MHz machine surfs just as fast as my PII 400MHz machine. Totally awesome! Thanks guys for all your advice. I now have a great second computer for my home.

That's great.

Sure, you can run 98 on less, but I've found performance really does suffer. Once you begin opening apps, the system uses the swapfile since there is no free RAM to speak of. Processor is less important, but every little bit counts.

Video might be problematic

Official min req for 98 is a 486DX66 w 16Mb - hard to imagine - I guess it would run, but not much else

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Recommended is Pentium 133 with 32MB RAM. I have a no longer used pentium 233, but I don't think it's worth the postage costs!

I run Windows 98SE on a 486 100mhz with 48 megs of ram and it does not lag at all and runs well. Do a custom install and leave out all the junk your not going to use and all runs well. It does not run poorly.