Upgrade or by again?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alison J.
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A

Alison J.

Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?

Someone said buy a new one but it's a waste of an old PC. Good parts
but out of date. I have to by parts in Oz but how do I fit them.

How to decide?

AJ
 
Alison J. said:
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?

Someone said buy a new one but it's a waste of an old PC. Good parts
but out of date. I have to by parts in Oz but how do I fit them.

How to decide?

AJ
Click to expand...

Do you have a specific need for something that the existing pc doesn't
have/can't do?
Does existing pc have a problem?
If neither of the above why ug?

If performance is a problem, perhaps a good clear out might be an option. By
that I mean both physically (remove 5yrs accumulated rubbish) and by
software (remove 5yrs accumulated rubbish). IE., a very thorough spring
clean.

Doesn't matter where you buy parts but it is important that those parts fit
and are compatible.

HTH

Nick.
 
Alison said:
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?
No.

Someone said buy a new one but it's a waste of an old PC. Good parts
but out of date. I have to by parts in Oz but how do I fit them.

How to decide?
Click to expand...
Its obsolete. Everything in it has been superceded. Memory is now a
different type, hard drives use a different interface, graphics cards
use a different slot.

Sure you could upgrade but 1GB of DDR memory that your computer will be
using costs two or more times what 1GB of DDR2 memory costs due to it
now being obsolete and low volume sales.
 
On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:29 +0000, Conor wrote:

[...]
Its obsolete. Everything in it has been superceded. Memory is now a
different type, hard drives use a different interface, graphics cards
use a different slot.

Sure you could upgrade but 1GB of DDR memory that your computer will be
using costs two or more times what 1GB of DDR2 memory costs due to it
now being obsolete and low volume sales.
Click to expand...

1GB DDR = 31.04UKP
1GB DDR2 = 19.54UKP
(Crucial)

Surely it depends on current spec, and intended use?

A five-year old machine might have an Athlon XP 3000, or a P4 2.4GHz,
perhaps with only 256MB of RAM. If the intended use is the usual web
browsing/email/light office, such a machine, running XP, would be
perfectly usable with 1GB of RAM.

The cost of 1GB of RAM is going to be perhaps one tenth of the cost of a
new machine...

Chris
 
Chris Whelan said:
A five-year old machine might have an Athlon XP 3000, or a P4 2.4GHz,
perhaps with only 256MB of RAM. If the intended use is the usual web
browsing/email/light office, such a machine, running XP, would be
perfectly usable with 1GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

Yeah those netbooks with 1.6ghz Atom CPUs are actually slower then a P4
2.4ghz but that has not stopped them being useable as Internet-books this
past year with only 1GB or RAM (and XP of course) and a new range of
notebooks based on ULV cpus has been released and they are actually slower
then the 3 year old Core 2 Duo 1.66ghz T5500 not by much only 0.4 on the WEI
but still slower.

What does this tell you? people are still prepared to pay top dollar for
machines with 3-4 year old cpu performance of course this is mainly in
netbooks or notebooks but that performance of 3-4 years old is not any less
decent then it was 3-4 years ago.
 
Alison said:
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?

Someone said buy a new one but it's a waste of an old PC. Good parts
but out of date. I have to by parts in Oz but how do I fit them.
Click to expand...
Buy a new PC and keep the old as a spare or sell/donate it.
Almost nothing from a 5 year old machine would be useful or even useable
in a modern machine.
 
In message
Alison said:
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?

Someone said buy a new one but it's a waste of an old PC. Good parts
but out of date. I have to by parts in Oz but how do I fit them.

How to decide?

AJ
Click to expand...

By the time you've replaced the motherboard, the CPU, the memory, the
HDD, possibly the graphics card and probably the power supply there's
not a lot left of the old PC...
 
Surfer! said:
In message


By the time you've replaced the motherboard, the CPU, the memory, the
HDD, possibly the graphics card and probably the power supply there's
not a lot left of the old PC...
Click to expand...
I would recommend hanging on to the old machine as long as possible,
then buying a complete new system. As others have said, a lot of the
technology in a five year old machine has been superseded.

I would also consider hanging on to the old machine and networking the
two. The old machine can be a file-server for backups and a print-server
to take some of the load off of the new machine.
 
Alison said:
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?

Someone said buy a new one but it's a waste of an old PC. Good parts
but out of date. I have to by parts in Oz but how do I fit them.

How to decide?

AJ
Click to expand...

This is my personal, arbitrary rule of upgrading -

"Will this upgrade, double the speed of my machine ?"

If I'm gonna waste money on a machine, I want double.

If you give some details about your computer, like the make and
model number of the computer, maybe what speed of processor it is,
then someone may be able to comment on what options are available
to you.

Paul
 
you are kind. health and wellness to you.

I see what you mean about I have to replace everything. can I give
the old system (I call her Sandra) to a good cause where it will
still be used? I mean I've used it so much and and not to throw
it away. do you know what I mean?

I've looked after it so long and it's taken effort and want others
to benefit from my good old pc. is that being too sentimental?

I would recommend hanging on to the old machine as long as
possible, then buying a complete new system. As others have
said, a lot of the technology in a five year old machine has
been superseded.
Click to expand...


I have to get a new machine. I won't buy it to be future proof
next time. that was a con when I bought this machine!

I would also consider hanging on to the old machine and
networking the two. The old machine can be a file-server for
backups and a print-server to take some of the load off of the
new machine.
Click to expand...

thank you for everyone's advice.

I want a steady workhorse system that's not underpowered. No games
or films.

what is a good middle-power processor to go for in a desktop?
Nothing flashy or just released or with a dead-end upgrade path!!!

celebrate good health in mind and body.

Alison
 
I've looked after it so long and it's taken effort and want others
to benefit from my good old pc. is that being too sentimental?
Click to expand...

Not at all. Just make sure all of your personal data has been
overwritten, multiple times.

If you are not planning on giving away a copy of whatever operating
system you currently have installed on the pc, I'd suggest booting
from a linux live cd/dvd, opening a terminal, and then running a
command such as "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=4096", to wipe
everything from the hard drive.

If you want to leave the os on the hd, and don't have an install
cd/dvd to install it with, delete all "personal" files, from the
hd, and then run one of the programs such as pgp, that can wipe
(aka overwrite multiple times) all of the free space on the drive.

If that's out of your skill set level, I'd suggest removing the
hard drive, and then using a hammer/bonfire to destroy it.

Regards, Dave Hodgins
 
Alison said:
you are kind. health and wellness to you.

I see what you mean about I have to replace everything. can I give
the old system (I call her Sandra) to a good cause where it will
still be used? I mean I've used it so much and and not to throw
it away. do you know what I mean?

I've looked after it so long and it's taken effort and want others
to benefit from my good old pc. is that being too sentimental?




I have to get a new machine. I won't buy it to be future proof
next time. that was a con when I bought this machine!



thank you for everyone's advice.

I want a steady workhorse system that's not underpowered. No games
or films.

what is a good middle-power processor to go for in a desktop?
Nothing flashy or just released or with a dead-end upgrade path!!!

celebrate good health in mind and body.

Alison

--
Healthy mind and body!

http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq2.html
http://www.usenature.com/crystal_healing.html
Click to expand...
A wonderful idea. If you can't find a local non profit to give it to I
would suggest you try this Freecycle .http://www.freecycle.org/
This is a group with chapters all over the USA. Find a local one join it
and then post the machine. People with no computers and needs
will send responses. You can then pick one and they will come and get
it. very satisfying. I've been doing this for the last 6 years. Freecycle is
for anything that is usable to help keep your unwanted/needed
items out of the landfill. No cost to you and a needy family is helped.

There are groups all over the US Canada and the UK.
 
Alison said:
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?
Click to expand...

What do you use your computer for?
What do you have now?
What do you plan on getting?

If you use your computer only for Internet and business, a 1.5 GHz CPU
with 512MB - 1024MB of RAM will seem as fast as anything else. OTOH
for games you may need to upgrade the CPU, motherboard, and graphics
card, but I don't know if it's cheaper to buy those components or buy
a whole computer with comparable components.

If your current computer has only SATA I hard drive ports (150
megabytes per second maximum speed), you may have problems with
Hitachi or Samsung drives because they don't have a jumper to select
between SATA I and SATA II, unlike Seagates and Western digitals, and
some SATA I motherboards don't handle SATA II properly. Intel's do,
but apparently Nvidia's and VIA's do not. A PCI SATA controller card
can get around this, but PATA-SATA adapters that go between the drive
and existing controller aren't very reliable.

Another thing to consider are the conditions of the fans (in the power
supply, CPU cooler, and graphics card cooler) and electrolytic
capacitors (PSU, motherboard, graphics card). Japanese brand
capacitors that old tend to still be in good shape, a bad batch of
Nichicons being a famous exception that plagued Dells and Macs made
from about 2003-2004. But Taiwanese and Chinese caps tend to fail a
lot sooner, so you should look for any that are bulging or leaking
(see www.badcaps.net). That's not easy to do with PSUs unless you
open them up, which you shouldn't do because there's high voltage in
them, sometimes even after they're unplugged. OTOH even lots of new
products are made with junk capacitors and will probably fail before
old stuff containing good caps (like my TV from the 1970s that's had
only two original caps go bad)
Healthy mind and body!
http://www.usenature.com/crystal_healing.html
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
Click to expand...

Why don't you just use one of those healing crystals on your
comptuer? ;)
 
you are kind. health and wellness to you.

I see what you mean about I have to replace everything. can I give the
old system (I call her Sandra) to a good cause where it will still be
used? I mean I've used it so much and and not to throw it away. do you
know what I mean?

I've looked after it so long and it's taken effort and want others to
benefit from my good old pc. is that being too sentimental?

I would recommend hanging on to the old machine as long as
possible, then buying a complete new system. As others have
said, a lot of the technology in a five year old machine has
been superseded.
Click to expand...


I have to get a new machine. I won't buy it to be future proof next
time. that was a con when I bought this machine!

I would also consider hanging on to the old machine and
networking the two. The old machine can be a file-server for
backups and a print-server to take some of the load off of the
new machine.
Click to expand...

thank you for everyone's advice.


I want a steady workhorse system that's not underpowered. No games or
films.

what is a good middle-power processor to go for in a desktop? Nothing
flashy or just released or with a dead-end upgrade path!!!

celebrate good health in your mind and body.

Alison
 
I bought Acer notebook to use it on a trip. I will use it for down load
photos and internet. The only advantage of notebook is that is small.

Boba Vankufer
 
Is it worth upgrading a 5 y.o. PC?
Click to expand...

Yep, ever since axes were invented, provided it is yum-cha(non-
proprietary). The case is the real problem and the power supply(correct
and sufficient connectors)

Lol, by the time you upgrade mobo, cpu and ram, it is almost like a new
one anyway.
 
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