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Hardware Tips
Muscle Up Your Multimedia
The holidays are coming, and I'm going to be running a lot of music, graphics, games, and other multimedia programs. I have a 400-MHz Pentium II system running the original version of Windows 98, and I'm on a tight budget. Are there any inexpensive hardware upgrades or free software updates that will improve my system's multimedia performance?
Nick Norman, Baltimore
You'll get the most bang for your buck from more RAM, new speakers, and a new graphics card. Also, make sure you have the latest drivers installed for your graphics card and monitor, and that you are using the latest version of DirectX (8.0a, as of this writing), which is the part of Windows that controls your PC's multimedia operations. Download the most recent release. If your PC is running games or graphics software written to take advantage of the latest DirectX, you'll probably notice a boost in performance.
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