upgrade old or get new

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Well its time to face it .My computer is stone age.I bought my daughter an IPOD tonight for Xmas and my computer cant run it.It calls for Windows XP or newer,256mb of ram or better and 1GHz processer to operate. I have Windows ME,128mb ram and 933mhz processer.Am I gonna be better off paying someone to upgrade my computer with these things or just buying a new one.If buying a new one any recommendations.I have a Best Buy and a Circuit City close to the house.
 
Well its time to face it .My computer is stone age.I bought my daughter an IPOD tonight for Xmas and my computer cant run it.It calls for Windows XP or newer,256mb of ram or better and 1GHz processer to operate. I have Windows ME,128mb ram and 933mhz processer.Am I gonna be better off paying someone to upgrade my computer with these things or just buying a new one.If buying a new one any recommendations.I have a Best Buy and a Circuit City close to the house
 
The easiest option is probably buying a new system. If you keep your old monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc, you can buy a system with 512 meg RAM and 2-3 GHz for $200-300.

You could try upgrading if you like... in fact I was using Windows ME and just upgraded last week. But I imagine your motherboard won't support modern processors, so you'll need a motherboard plus CPU plus RAM plus a copy of XP (or Vista). Very likely it will be a bit cheaper and a lot simpler to just get a new system.

If you really want to pinch your pennies, I would guess that your processor would still work OK, regardless of 1 GHz "requirements", so you can probably just add another 128 meg RAM and get a copy of XP. No guarantees though.
 
You've gotten your money's worth out of your system. You'll always be behind the curve no matter when you upgrade. Mr. Bill will assure that you'll be dragging your knuckles eventually in performance.

Here's the refurbished page at Pricewatch.com It's a good place to compare prices with whatever you run across somewhere else.
 
933MHz is enough to run XP, 128MB is not; if you have to pay someone for the upgrade it will not be worth the money.

I would avoid the Big Box stores unless they will custom config a machine; if they don't you will get marginal memory configurations.

I would not recommending buying a machine with < 2Gb memory at this point.
 
therealdeal770,
If you don't mind me asking, where in Georgia are you located at?

The cost to upgrade may not be worth it on that old of a machine. RAM would be ~$50, Windows XP would be ~$100-200, and if your motherboard could handle the processor, a processor could be around ~$50 as well. Those are just rough estimates, and I could be off by a little. Older technology parts have decreased in price, but if you upgrade everything it could be that price or more.
 
Quote:
I would not recommending buying a machine with < 2Gb memory at this point.


What do you run that requires 2GB of memory? I just upgraded two laptops to their MAX 1 GB of memory and they aren't more than half a generation old.

Even a $3000 Toshiba doesn't come with 2GB of memory.

You've got to have some high end graphics interests or multimedia use of the thing for those demands. My upgrades from 512MG to 1GB provided marginal improvements to anything I use it for.
 
How much are you willing to spend?

ME - wow. I used that for years. In 2005 I gave up, rather my PC gave up the ghost.

I say just shop the ads. I'm now partial to HP. I've had all sorts of homemades and some scattered Dells. You will need 3 GB RAM minimum for Vista. Don't fret, it's not that expensive.
 
Quote:

What do you run that requires 2GB of memory? I just upgraded two laptops to their MAX 1 GB of memory and they aren't more than half a generation old.

True, but my assumption is any purchased machine will have Vista.

This is just my personal approach to hardware purchases. Had he purchased more than 128Mb initially he wouldn't be buying new hardware, just an OEM XP disk for the upgrade, so my approach is to buy what you may need for the life of the machine, touching it later is always "not worth it"
 
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I agree to some extent. Some business users found that it was better to buy "state of the art" than it was to save the $$ with "last Gen" cheaper offerings due to obsolescence. The $$/hours was lower. My personal experience, since I can't afford to stay "leading edge" and have few demands for the added features of those systems is that I save plenty on staying one or two generations behind. Aside from the Vista sidewinder curve ball (and similar former offerings) that Mr. Bill seems addicted to for the good of MS and co-beneficiaries like Intel, the divisions between evolutions have a pretty pathetic ROI in terms of performance. It's only when some major "new demand" comes into the picture where this becomes a sensible jump forward.

I'm waiting for the compute evolution that allows it to run as fast as the day you bought it ..until the day that the next evolution makes it incompatible with "something new and revolutionary". Right now the format is throw in a bigger engine and then do everything you can to make it anemic and underpowered ..then move to a bigger engine. You really don't do any "more" with it.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
You will need 3 GB RAM minimum for Vista.

Are you serious? I knew I needed more than 1 GB, but I thought I could get by with 2 GB. Is Vista really such a resource hog?
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
Quote:
I would not recommending buying a machine with < 2Gb memory at this point.


What do you run that requires 2GB of memory? I just upgraded two laptops to their MAX 1 GB of memory and they aren't more than half a generation old.

Even a $3000 Toshiba doesn't come with 2GB of memory.

You've got to have some high end graphics interests or multimedia use of the thing for those demands. My upgrades from 512MG to 1GB provided marginal improvements to anything I use it for.


About three months ago I purchased a Toshiba laptop and an HP laptop. Both came with two gigs of Ram. The combined purchase was about $1700. It is almost a must now when running Vista.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Pablo
You will need 3 GB RAM minimum for Vista.

Are you serious? I knew I needed more than 1 GB, but I thought I could get by with 2 GB. Is Vista really such a resource hog?


It is a hog, but show me a next generation OS that doesn't use more ram than the old stuff. 256K used to work and we thought 4 MB was HUGE! It's not like Bill Gates doesn't warn us. At least 5 years ago he said we would be talking, GB's of RAM (if not 100's of GB's). RAM is cheap, I don't see it as a big deal. Seriously if your system as 4 slots just do 4 GB. No big whoop. For a few bucks your PC will be much quicker. Don't turn it into a hate on Vista thing. Frankly it's a pretty good OS.
 
Sorry ..I went upon this as my guide. I just went expensive and looked for a ram reference. Further examination does show 2 GB ram.

This is $2999

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The last time Mr. Bill came out with a major memory hog, it was to get the consumer market to make hardware capable of running his NT/workstation software. That's allegedly all that 95 accomplished.
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
1GB Intel® Turbo Memory* boosts system performance,


My computer experience shows that anything named "turbo" doesn't do anything for speed, it's purely marketing.
 
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