# A challenge for ya'll!!!



## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Okay. Here's the deal. Complete the following steps:

1.) Start up an MP3 player and start playing a playlist (one song won't be enough)
2.) Load AS MANY programs as you feel you possibly can without your computer exploding (make sure a graphics program is one of them). For NT users this should be a LOT - 9x/Me users need to watch out due to the system resource stacks.
3.) Take screenshots of your process list (you'll need more than one to get everything if you did it right )
4.) Edit them together into one file under 100k (so you can post it here)
5.) Post it here along with system configuration
6.) Tell how many times your MP3 playlist skipped throughout the process.

Okay, mine skipped ZERO times and my system config is:

AMD Athlon 950MHz
256MB RAM
40GB 
8X CDRW
16X DVD-ROM
ATI Radeon 7500 AGP
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
GVC v.90 modem

Playing music with: Voyetra Turtle Beach AudioStation

Processes: 74 (including some very big programs)

This is a good test to see how well your system is running anyways


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Cool test I'll try later, sys resourses are down to 30%. I betcha mine will choke after opening all my Office XP programs and Dreamweaver and Power DVD. BTW- My graphics program will be MS Visio Pro, which I just got today. Not really an editing program, since I only have MS Photo Editor, since I dont do much work with graphics.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Cool. It's very hard to run much with 9x/Me - even with the best tweaked system. The system gets slow and eventually crash. I could have loaded more if I could find more to load I forgot about Grokster and WMP but that's about it. 3D games are obviously not possible (only one can access the hardware at once)


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Oh, and BTW - Good Luck!


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I couldnt get a screen shot, I tried it 3 times and windows wouldnt let me take one. 

But heres my info anyways, 
On Start up sys resources 83%, Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security and Compaq Interactive Keyboard drivers are loaded in the backgroud.

I have Winamp 2.8 running playing 'Let The Bodies Hit The Floor' by Drounding Pool.

Programs open are-
MS Excel 2002
MS Access 2002
MS Word 2002
MS Outlook 2002
MS Power Point 2002
MS Front Page 2002
MS Visio Pro 2002
Corel Word Perfect 8
Corel Quatro Pro 8
Corel Presentations 8
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
Kazaa Lite 1.71
Ad-Aware Plus 5.83
Dial Up Dialog Box
System Properties

Sys resources- below 1%
Winamp still playing ''Let The Bodies Hit The Floor' no skips and freezes.

I hit Prt Scrn, close all of the MS and Corel Office Programs, go into MS Paint, hit ctrl+v, nothing happened, goto edit, paste is greyed out, repeated process 2 more times and same things occured. I was planning on take a screen shot with everything loaded in the task bar, so I would only have to take one.

Compaq Presario
-WIN98SE
-P3 700MHz
-13GB 7200 RPM HD (10GB and 3 GB factory partitions)
-384 MB SD PC100 RAM
-Creative SBLive 2000
-Compaq 10X DVD-ROM
-Philips 24X12X40X Burner
-HSP v.90 modem (I never heard of HSP before, but its the best damn modem Ive ever used )


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Not bad at all for a 98 system, but on your computer you would be far better off with an NT (2000 or XP) OS. As for HSP modem, HSP isn't a brand. It's a type of modem. It basically means crud. It means Host Signal Processing. In other words, it isn't really a modem, it's a line interface and the modem is a software program. It slows your computer down and is unreliable (I have the same type) and while they can be OKAY on our nice, fast, systems one of the things on my list of future upgrades is a real modem - they are far better and offer more reliable connections. The brand also makes a diff. The Lucent and Broadcom HSP modems are some of the best, with the PCTel ones being by far the worst (I had a PCTel modem on my old computer - I thought it was a bad joke at first!)


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Wow Thats a shock! I got the HSP modem as a warrenty replacement of a Conexent modem that went to hell a few months ago. Besides Conexent, I've used Mwave, IBM branded and US Robotics. And that thing I got now out performs them all including the US Robotics. No disconnects, faster dial up speeds and no problems whatssoever. Earthlink has a hand that too, i suppose. If I had a NT based OS I probably would have ran out of programs to run, the only others I have are Swish 2, Power DVD 4 XP Deluxe, Norton Ghost 2002, Print Shop Deluxe 11, Roxio 5 Plat. along with the basics, Like IE, OE FPExpess.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Most of those are also HSP modems. Or controllerless modems (similar, but they do an extra step in hardware. Usually lumped together. my new computer technically has a controllerless modem). Good job Steve! I ran out of stuff I could think of to run. My computer was still quite usable. It suprised me!


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