10 Mar
2000
10 Mar
'00
8:06 a.m.
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 16:51:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list(a)wfi-inc.com>
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Kids computers
Reply-to: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Seriously, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that
the current crop of
educational materials available for kids (which are, IMO, vastly superior
to their predecessors) *do* require a pentium. I think the requirements
for the last Reader Rabbit CD I bought was a P75 with 16 megs of ram.
Actually, former machine was Am5x86-133 which is hidous than
P5-75 and no cache, too small ram 20MB also. The proper kids machine
is more of P5 100 w/ L2 cache minimum but best is 133 or 166,
40~64MB, 2GB minimum, 6 ed programs do push the capacity of hd.
Older 16 bit sound card, 8X minimum cdrom. I just finished working
on like this.
Correct these current ed. kids programs demands that much in hardware
area that Aaron noted. Last thing for kids is problems; ie too
small HD and slow, and cpu & tiny ram lousy performance, ie: long
pauses than some software's built in does.
Aaron
> Whats wrong with an old 386 or 486 box? I have a 386sx/16 running W95
These chips do fine with matching older software from that time.
DX2 66 w/ 16MB is pushing the limits on 95.
> When did pentium become the required cpu?
Bloat and more fancy graphics in latest software in general.
95/98 generally are more reliable at least 40 to 64MB. I'm running
64MB and that is what 9x needs except for ram hungry software like
graphics work ie: photoshop.
> Allison
PS: Win 2K is expressly designed for slot 1 and A, socketed cpus
above 500MHz and mid to high end HD. Be it IDE or SCSI, either
5400rpm and 7200rpm, 8GB+, 128MB or more, proper video card not ATi,
Trident and half-assed video chipsets.
Wizard