Is my computer optimal for website building?

[Eterion]

Just wanted to know-some people told me I would be better off with something newer... I have a laptop thats probably 4 years old now...
P3 733mhz, 128mb ram (i know isnt that sad?), 9gig hard drive. hoping I could get ad revenue once my site goes live...
does it even matter what sorta computer you have to build ur site?

[kevinpate]

For building purposes, it only matters that your available machine can run the programs you intend
to use to build and store the sitetil you upload to hosting location. Sites have been built using far less of a machine than yours (but yeah, for a myriad of reasons you ought to consider boosting up the ram level by a factor of 2 or more.)

[flood6]

Well it depends on what you will be using to design your site(s). You can probably open a new file on a text editor and upload it using a computer that's 10 years old.

If you're going to use dreamweaver or something, you'll need to check their site for minimum requirements. Same with the ftp client, graphics editor, browser to view the site, etc.

I imagine crimson editor, filezilla, firefox, and the GIMP will probably run on some old hardware. And that's really all you need to build a site.

[shigamoto]

I do a lot of web developing on a laptop P3 Mobile 850 MHz with 384 MB RAM. So just upgrade the ram if you feel like you have to..

But I do notice a significant difference in speed when I develop on my P4 2,8 GHz, so you might consider upgrading anyway.

[HughMungus]

It's fine. I'm building websites on a P3 700, still (though with twice the RAM you have because I always have a bazillion applications open at once).

[encyclo]

I am currently using a 500Mhz Celeron with 128Mb of RAM as my primary desktop machine. It is nearly six years old. It does very well for most aspects of site building. I use a context-highlighting text editor rather than a program like Dreamweaver, so a powerful machine is not necessary. I am running Linux rather than Windows, which can be customized to run fast on older hardware. The only problems I encounter are when dealing with very large graphics files, but for editing most web graphics, there's no problem.

I'm starting to experience hardware problems, but if I wasn't I would have no compelling reason for needing to upgrade.

You can build websites with any old computer, as long as you can run the latest browsers. I think the minimum recommended for Firefox is a 233Mhz and 72Mb of RAM. If you're running Windows, IE's requirements are even lower (however other Windows programs may need more power).

There are so many more important things than computer hardware that you can spend your hard-earned cash on. Especially if you're short of funds, keep your laptop and invest your money elsewhere.

[Eterion]

Cool thanks for all the advice peoples!
Maybe I'll save my hard earned money for something more important. Drop it in a CD account or something. =)