Processor speed, etc. - how do I find it out?

Question

I have an old 8Gig Compaq Deskpro PC with Windows 2000 Professional, but can't figure out where it tells me its processor speed. Can you help. please?

I'm also thinking of attaching a 250GB external hard-drive, but don't know if that will have its own processor speed.

I'm asking all this because no-one will buy me any Xmas presents (boohooo), and I want to treat myself to a PCI tuner board that needs 500GHz or greater. But I'm not even sure what the PCI thing is. Am I wasting time and money here?

Can you turn my boohoo into wooohooooooo please?

Thanks folks (and sorry for sneaking in those extra Questions). If you need more info., I'll put it as an edit to the Q.

Answer 1

Go to control panel and double click system, there it will tell you the processor speed and the amount of ram.

If you want more detailed info, download CPU-Z, (http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php) its free and will tell you pretty much everything about your system.

Answer 2

I'm just going to take a guess here and say that your 8Gig Compaq PC running Win2k is not going to run a tv-tuner very well. I'd actually recomend running at least a Pentium4 processor. Doing tv processing is actually really computationally expensive and might hickup on a slower machine if you're actually trying to record it. If you just want to watch it live but not record, a 1Ghz is probably the minimum I'd use.

To find the CPU speed of your computer you can do two things, firstly you can go to compaq's website and do a search for the model # of the computer and see what its got inside. Secondly you can go to cpuid.com and download their program that will show you the current clock speed of your processor.

The 250GB external hard drive will not have its own processor speed, as its not a computer, its just a hard drive. :)

I've included a link to the google images search for 'pci slot' & a link to a website that shows you what a PCI slot looks like, so you can open your computer and see if you have a slot like this open to use.

Edit- Under WindowsXP its possible to go into the system tab and see the processor speed, but not under Windows 2000.

Answer 3

I have a couple of suggestions that may work for you.
First try this: Explore your boot drive (usually c:\) and open the Program Files folder. Look for a folder called Direct X, open it and next open the Setup folder. Run the app DX Diag. Chances are this will tell you how fast the CPU is. Other than that, there are many small benchmarking programs out there on the net, like CPUid and others that also may help in that regard.
Processor speed is all about the motherboard CPU, or Pentium, Athlon, etc, your ext hard drive doesn't have a processor. It usually works with USB 2, your USB ports.
Before I forget, there's also a program called System Information under the Accessories/System Tools menu in 9x/Me, or you can Run msconfig.exe from the Run menu in 2k/XP.
One other place the CPU speed can be seen sometimes is by right clicking the My Computer icon and hit properties.
Hope this helped

Answer 4

you've got 2 choices

1) In control panel on Windows (Start > control panel > System)
It should tell you the specs there.

2) If it's capable of accessing the Internet, run the system optimisation checks at this site, and it'll tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the system: http://www.pcpitstop.com/pcpitstop/default.asp

NOTE: If the system is so old, and ain't been hooked up to the internet for ages, and still has Internet Explorer4 or whatever running on it (like my old laptop was the other week when my main PC self-destructed, and was waiting for my new desktop PC to be completed), you'll need to upgrade the browser as alot of sites don't like IE4 anymore (not strong enough security encryption, etc)............. I suggest Mozilla Firefox2 if this is the case, improved my crappy old laptop's internet accessing abilities no end.

Answer 5

i used to have a deskpro en and it was 866mhz(pentium 3),it was a bloody good little system in its day
to find out yours simly right click my computer and select properties,you will then see system properties,at the bottom of the general page you will see your processor info and your system memory
a 250gb external hard drive will be compatible with most systems,including yours and with regards to the p.c.i tuner board,i presume you mean a t.v card,if this is the case you would be much better getting a usb digital t.v adapter,take a look at this...http://www.misco.co.uk/categories/~371~/TV%20Cards%20.htm
you can simply insert these usb digital devices into any spare usb port and you have digital t.v,and you dont have to open your case,you can even attach a outdoor aerial if you need,a really good investement
another good upgrade for anyone wanting to improve their p.c,s performance is a memory upgrade,256mb ddr ram can be bought for around £18
good luck

Answer 6

It depends on what operating system youve got but you go to control panel and find system.

Answer 7

go to control panel

select system

general tab

all your info will be there.