Please don't laugh, but I am still using a Pentium 1 (233MMX) machine as my main everyday computer (running Win98SE). I have made several attempts to upgrade to P2 and P3 over the years, but each time I have had to go back, because the P1 always seemed much faster online (dial-up), even when the upgrade was to a machine running identical software and the same external modem.
The P1 is rapidly dying, and less and less of its software is working, so I have set up a Pentium 3 with Win 2000 Pro and all software installed. I did careful tests this time, checking download speeds on zip and jpg files (to check actual speed) and large html-only files (to check compression), and found the Pentium 3 to be as good as, or a bit faster than the P1.
I made the change-over yesterday, but as soon as I go to eBay pages, for example, it is "watching paint dry" time! In every test (clearing the cache between each one) the P3 is 25% to 95% SLOWER than the old machine. I've checked and double-checked that all relevant settings are the same, and tried every tweak I can find, but no matter what I do, the old machine is ALWAYS faster on real-world web pages. My browser is SeaMonkey on both machines, though on previous attempted upgrades it would have been Internet Explorer.
This makes absolutely no sense to me, but unless I can find out what the problem is, I am just going to have to stick to the Pentium 1, for online use at least. Can anyone suggest a rational explanation?
The P1 is rapidly dying, and less and less of its software is working, so I have set up a Pentium 3 with Win 2000 Pro and all software installed. I did careful tests this time, checking download speeds on zip and jpg files (to check actual speed) and large html-only files (to check compression), and found the Pentium 3 to be as good as, or a bit faster than the P1.
I made the change-over yesterday, but as soon as I go to eBay pages, for example, it is "watching paint dry" time! In every test (clearing the cache between each one) the P3 is 25% to 95% SLOWER than the old machine. I've checked and double-checked that all relevant settings are the same, and tried every tweak I can find, but no matter what I do, the old machine is ALWAYS faster on real-world web pages. My browser is SeaMonkey on both machines, though on previous attempted upgrades it would have been Internet Explorer.
This makes absolutely no sense to me, but unless I can find out what the problem is, I am just going to have to stick to the Pentium 1, for online use at least. Can anyone suggest a rational explanation?