Mine was a Dell Dimension XPS-T450, 450 MHz PIII, 384 MB ram.  Started
getting more unstable over the last year or two.

The software firewall feels like a big drag; I guess I operated a year
before I found out what a firewall was and that I needed one.  Mozilla 1.6
is [very]stable, but it's a lot bigger than the original Netscape 4.7x.
Antivirus software has gotten bigger, and there's a couple of anti-spyware
programs running in the background.  Anyway, the computer has to do a lot
more today than when I got it in 1999.

New hardware is cheap.  (dell.com/tv)  Old hardware can be a money pit.
It's hard to determine when it's no longer worth supporting the old
computer.  Therefore, I will postpone that determination until next month.

As for this month, I got 768 MB of ram from eBay for $75.  (Lucky purchase,
but I wish it were shipped in silver static-shielding bags instead of pink
static-dissipative bags...)  So I maxxed out my ram.

And I got a 1.4 GHz Celeron upgrade (PL-ip3/T) from Powerleap for $120.
Actually, I got that on eBay from Technologyroad for $105, including
shipping.

The ram was to help reduce crashing.  The uP was to increase WUs.

The Powerleap assembly is a pc board with the Celeron and a CPU-fan,
pre-mounted for your convenience.  They take care of applying the heat-sink
compound.  All you have to do is swap plug-ins.  There's an extra power
cable coming out of the board needed by the newer uP that the original
socket doesn't supply.  The Powerleap power cable connects to an unused
CD-drive power cable; and they supply a Y-adaptor if there is no free
CD-drive power cable.

Taking out the old CPU and putting in the new assembly was very easy,
although I only give a B- for their instructions.  (On their website, they
have a streaming video available of the installation procedure that was most
helpful - http://powerleap.com/PL-iP3T.html.)  However, they didn't confess
how hard you have to push for the new board to seat properly.  The first
time, the computer didn't boot up.  So I pushed the board in harder, until
it went "Crack!," and then the computer booted up.  I disavow any
responsibility for your computer, blah blah blah.

Instead of a single beep, it boots up with a Morse code "B."  Dah-di-di-dit.
The CMOS says I'm running a "Pentium III 1@@@" MHz (One-at-at-at), but that
doesn't seem to cause a problem.

Anyone want to buy a 450 MHz PIII?

Most importantly, my Seti-Classic WUs went from about 20 hours each to about
7 hours each.  (18 and 6 hours, respectively, if I don't use the computer
for anything else.)

My Win98se has "resource" issues.  (No laughing, please.)  According to the
book, adding more ram is NOT supposed to have any affect on resources.
However, I'm able to open more windows and applications, and according to my
Resource Meter (rsrcmtr.exe), the resources do not fall as fast, and they
replenish themselves more effectively with all that additional memory.

In addition to the programs running in the background, I can run Outlook
Express, I.E., and Mozilla, with a little Winamp streaming tunes in the
background.  (These are the good ol' days.)  I can run the computer all day
without being forced to reboot, just like when it was new.

However, it takes forever to boot up -- probably checking all that memory.
I have the pretty CMOS-setup ram-counter turned off, but I guess the POST
(Power On Self Test) has to make a quick check of all that memory, anyway.

Aside from SETI crunching about 3x faster, M$Word starts up about 3x faster.
Otherwise, no other improvements come to mind regarding the faster speed.
But SETI was the important thing.  I needed the ram, so that was worth it.
And crunching WUs faster was worth the new uP, so that was worth it.

Thinking of building a new computer, and turning this one into a dedicated
firewall-router.  With the new hardware, it's probably a little
overqualified for the job.  But at least it's still usable as an operating
computer until then.

Thanks,
             -Neil-