OT: computers

tesco samoa · #1 April 5th, 2003, 06:15 AM

Since a personal upgrade is out of the question.

Perhaps you should narrow your choices down to the dell route or perhaps a local mom and pop who has a good reputation.

Trade in your old puppy for some money off on the new one...

Or as a third option

keep the old guy around and play with it... and learn how to build and destroy computers...

But I would save the 20 gig drive.... it will come in use ....

Just remember that you do not need the high end CPU, just get a good motherboard.

THe only things you could salvage would be the harddrive, floopy, cdr , and perhaps the sound card.....

Good luck... keep to your budget.

512 megs ram
1800
nvida 2 chip set with onboard nic , ( perhaps onboard sound card )
dvd / cd / cdr combo oem ( lite on or some thing like that )
60 gig hard drive
video card ( Geforce middle of the pack one ) oem

soundbLaster oem
your set....

Will not rob the bank and next year you can upgrade the cpu or memory when things slow down abit... which i doubt they will...

Wardad · #2 April 8th, 2003, 09:19 PM

Hunkapapa,

How is it hanging?

Hunkpapa · #3 April 8th, 2003, 11:24 PM

Still mullying over my 2 choices, would like to have the future upgrade available, don't want to get stuck topped out like I am currently.

I am definitely buying a pre-made now, but I will seriously be considering building my own in the next 3-5 years.

Must importantly I cleared it through the boss (wife).

the old one is being donated to a family member

Thank you all for your help.

[ April 08, 2003, 22:26: Message edited by: Hunkpapa ]

Wardad · #4 April 9th, 2003, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hunkpapa:
Still mullying over my 2 choices, would like to have the future upgrade available, don't want to get stuck topped out like I am currently.

Shortly after I upgraded from the AT to the AT-X hardware the Pentium P4 hit the market. ARRGH.... My case does not have the four screw studs for the P4 cooling fan, but my power supply does have the extra P4 connector. Although the P4 hardware is standard now, I bet some AMD and Celeron based systems have cut costs. So some of these systems will not be easy to upgrade to P4.

AMD: Great products but the company is sitting on a mountain of debt.
Will they be in buisness when you want to upgrade?
Can they afford to keep up with Intel?

Intel: Sitting on a mountain of cash.
Will the next P4 or P5 be compatible with your current hardware?

rdouglass · #5 April 9th, 2003, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hunkpapa:
Still mullying over my 2 choices, would like to have the future upgrade available, don't want to get stuck topped out like I am currently.
...

Unfortunately, due to the laws that govern the computer universe, the only way to avoid this is to never buy one...

Thermodyne · #6 April 9th, 2003, 11:49 PM

The upgrade path is different today than it was in the past. Memory is evolving just as fast as
CPU�s, so the benefit of reusing the motherboard are greatly diminished during an upgrade. These days we are often finding that a replacement CPU is a cheap upgrade, and cost effective for a one or two year SLE. We can flash the BIOS and the replace a 500mhz PIII with a Celeron getting a 100% increase in speed theoretically. Add a new hard drive and we have less than $150 dollars in a system that we expect to get 3 more years out of. CD and floppy readers get pulled or disabled so no troubles there. We run Citrix, so CPU speed was not a big issue, but now that we have rolled out with a compliant serverbased antivirus system, the older workstations are beginning to really suffer. We have some 400MHz Deskpros that take 16 minutes to boot and scan a 20Gig drive.

Also, someone posted about AMD being the inexpensive upgrade path. Need to look at the
price sheets again there. Amd has started a campaign to regain profitability and XP�s are priced right up there with P4�s these days. Performance is great on both brands, so it is a case of preference these days.

raynor · #7 April 10th, 2003, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Instar:
Not to say you're wrong Wardad, but you can redrill the holes on an AT case to get an ATX case, and the AT PSU can be rewired as well... but I would not want to do it, and I am good at computers!

Necessity really *is* the mother of invention.

I can't say that we've ever done this where I work. But I can remember cutting off part of the I/O shield to make it fit a slightly different case design.