Test "from extreme to extreme"

Introduction

Hello!

Recently, I wrote here http://habrahabr.ru/post/183794/ about the tests that I am going to conduct on computer hardware of different degrees of old age.
So, today's test was made at the request of the Disasm user on the launch of such programs as modern browsers, QT Creator, Skype and Dropbox on not very powerful machines with not the largest memory capacity. I combined this with the review I was going to do on my own, and this is what came of it. The sequence of actions may be broken, but the essence remains the same.

Part 1: Celeron 300A and 640 MB, which is enough for everyone

It was started back in early May, when I went to the store for two cases for computers, it was unbecoming for them to lie out of the way. Today, finally got his hands, and a month has passed since writing the previous one, so it's time.
')


Of course, the P-II 266 MHz is specified in the minimum system requirements for vinHR, but in fact the Celeron 300A specified in the subject is not enough, just monstrous. Working on it, even in the old opera 9.23, is catastrophically difficult, the pages flip through only with jerks.



But, quite naturally, only the 9th opera was more or less tolerable. It loaded less than 20 seconds even, and the tabs opened better. Then I put a 12.15 opera, and my computer liked it a lot less. A modern browser requires more resources, of course.



When scrolling through the page load on the processor increases thorough. Now you usually do not notice this, but 300 MHz is not very good at this. In the background is loaded QT Creator, through the opera.



If you close all unnecessary and restart the browser, then the memory memory will decrease significantly, you can work with this more or less, but still, you want to sit down again on some Celeron D.



Then QT Creator was established:



And after the launch immediately flew:



Skype also had to download, because I did not have the current installer. He started and didn’t even blunt much, but he suddenly didn’t like my sound card.



Yes, it turns out, the Yamaha card is not a sound card. I had to put the good old Sound Blaster AWE32 PnP and try to connect with the voice test. The computer, of course, leaves much to be desired, even according to Skype.



And the test call failed.



In order to test chrome, I need to download it. I tried to do it through the 9th opera.



Funny picture, to be honest, because obviously it will not be faster. But, on the other hand, chrome worked well, on the same level with opera 12.15 and ate about the same amount of memory.



There is almost no fundamental difference between them on the Celeron 300A, at least, I haven't tested very far. Listening to music from the same Vkontakte is equally difficult, I did not even try to watch the video.
Heavyweight Firefox started the longest and ate a record amount of RAM.



And he worked as if it was necessary to manually turn the starter curve in the cargo "lawn" by hand. Red fox put relatives of the second Pentium on the shoulder blades.
Dropbox downloaded, installed and started normally. In principle, I did not expect anything else that the processor would not like again. All goes indexing.



Uploading files requires less memory.



At the end, everything worked fine, and I consumed about 25 megabytes of RAM for the dropbox. He didn’t influence the work very much and was sitting quietly in the corner.



It was the turn to test minecraft, the Kubach would not start himself.
And he got the idea!



Only loaded for about three minutes, and then for another two minutes, I tried to take a step forward. This is not a game, of course, I could not even start the task manager, the processor was devoured completely.
Then, after all the operations, I decided to turn on the music. The media player chopped off half the processor itself.



But the music worked fine, only the player itself braked.

The first part of the tests is over.

Part 2: Celeron 1100 and RAM

I initially took the most powerful of what I had to see how it would affect. Of course, at 640 mb it ran and worked fairly well, and it was not interesting. I armed myself with a memory stick of 16 mb and tried to start the car. Could not, the computer cursed at the memory and said he did not want, I had to put 32 MB of pc66 memory. VinHR booted and cut in 15-17 minutes, by eye. I'm tired of waiting for everything else to load, and I slammed the dropbox, Java and stuff.





And it looks unappetizing. At 32 MB of memory it is impossible to work in principle! It all turns so slowly that it took me almost titanic patience to at least cut down the computer and not go to the kitchen for a beer. He cut down another five minutes.

The next memory level is 64 mb. Download without all the excess.

And then with everything included.



Here, if you look at it this way, the performance was similar to the 300th Celeron, only the system was loading slower and it worked faster. About 5 minutes of downloading all together, counting dropbox, java and google update. Browsers are loaded as slowly as on the 300th, but they work faster. Loading time of the opera and chrome with a page with a habr - about 1 minute completely. Mozilla again ate a lot of memory and booted in three minutes.
Skype earned. He liked the computer with a low memory size and the brighter process.



And he even let me have a test call. It worked much better and faster than 300A, and we understood this a long time ago.

The next step is 128 mb.

The system was loaded for half a minute, apparently, 128 MB of RAM - this is the necessary minimum for working on XP. Browsers run for 20-30 seconds before the end, Mozilla started in one minute. QT Creator still crashes and seems to be crashing. Work in browsers is normal, even the pages are smoothly flipped through, you can listen to music, surf the Internet, launching dropbox in the background. Not that very comfortable, but quite tolerant.
Kubach tried to start, but could not.



Little memory. Such are the voracious cubes.
Even Half-life 2 was launched and went on foot on this config. Sometimes it was loaded, but otherwise it worked fine. The GeForce 2 video card allows you to run halva on low and play.

Next stage - 256 mb

The system boot time is about 10-15 seconds, i.e. with memory doubled, the system booted twice as fast as possible. True, we have here only dropbox, java and google update, nothing criminal. Browsers, all as one, are loaded quickly (as far as possible on the 1100th Celeron), and I did not even notice much of a difference in speed, except that an opera with chrome can argue. Mozilla started up as always slower, but not as noticeable as before.
Departing QT Creator crashes. Apparently, it is something else.



Skype still says that the computer is slow, but it also starts up significantly quickly. If the system is not dirtied, then it is even more or less tolerable to work at 256 mb of RAM and winXR. Music and a browser with a bunch of tabs do not particularly slow down, although this does not mean that it works perfectly. After two cores, two gigabytes, a gaming video card seems unpardonably slow. And what to say, 256 MB of memory is still actively found at work. Feels like Celeron 1700 works much worse than the 1100th, there is no longer a matter of gigahertz, you see.
Skype works well, the voice test turned on very quickly and spoke cheerfully.



In minecraft still can not play.



He has little memory, you must have at least 512 mb, and still it will be impossible to play.

Something like a conclusion

Actually, 256 MB of RAM can be considered as the amount of memory with which some kind of comfort begins when working, you do not have to wait long for downloads and endure constant suspensions. Of course, for serious work this is not enough, especially in our time, when programs are eating their gigabytes. And for the office and the Internet with music, and this will be enough.