To upgrade/rebuild or go new?

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
What is the best price you've found for the DDR2? Prices on Newegg.com for DDR2 kits weren't all that great in my opinion. I realize the DDR2 is an older standard, but the prices were still higher than I expected.


The cheapest I think is online forum (anandtech) / craigslist / ebay for used RAM.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Believe it or not, used DDR2 on eBay doesn't seem to be that cheap.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

2gb up from 512mb under Vista should make a huge difference.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144157 is the kit of 2 recommended from Kingston's site for the W3615 which should be a near-identical PC with just a slightly different spec. They don't list a W3616.

And if you feel like messing with it, chances are good that http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116391 would drop right in place of the single-core Celeron D.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
What is the best price you've found for the DDR2? Prices on Newegg.com for DDR2 kits weren't all that great in my opinion. I realize the DDR2 is an older standard, but the prices were still higher than I expected.

I'm curious as to what you were expecting. DDR3 is the new standard and dirt cheap but I wouldn't call $25 for 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM all that expensive.

 

[PandaBear]

I wouldn't buy a new processor for that machine especially it can't even support Core Duo or newer. A used one with the right price, maybe.

http://dexplor.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7748225

This list says that the case is mATX, so you can buy a new motherboard, CPU, RAM and turn it into a completely new computer instead and last another 4-5 years.

If you absolutely have to buy a CPU upgrade but not motherboard, I'd use a Prescott (Pentium D) instead just to be safe.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
I'm curious as to what you were expecting. DDR3 is the new standard and dirt cheap but I wouldn't call $25 for 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM all that expensive.


I'm probably expecting the older and slower RAM to be cheaper in today's market. And that's probably unreasonable to expect.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
I'm curious as to what you were expecting. DDR3 is the new standard and dirt cheap but I wouldn't call $25 for 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM all that expensive.


I'm probably expecting the older and slower RAM to be cheaper in today's market. And that's probably unreasonable to expect.


As soon as they are no longer used in major OEM, the major production stopped. There is a window of time for clearance / close out price but after that it will stay while the new standard's price decline as technology advance.

 

[JHZR2]

Funny how that works. I had a 1 GHz PIII Xeon in an older machine, figured Id buy a second as prices dropped. They never really did.

That was an $$ machine though, rambus and 10k SCSI drives and all.

 

[MrHorspwer]

If anybody wants some DDR2 RAM, I have four 1GB sticks of Corsair XMS. It's just taking up space in my work bag and I was contemplating throwing it out.

You pay the shipping and they're yours. PM me.

 

[wander2039]

I'll never upgrade a store bought pc after the one I have now. Bought a HP back in 07 and it turned it more into a headache than it was worth. Oddly enough though the only things that have failed is the original WD hd and CD drive. The upgraded video card with HDMI I did have to engineer a fan on it to keep it from overheating. Upgraded to the faster RAM and currently running 64bit Linux Mint and it runs like a charm, same as Windows 7. But I'm a IT guy and regular end user it would of been thrown out long ago.