"refurbishing" my PC

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Clean those fans! They're DIRTY! :)

Forget my hard drive recommendation from earlier, that's a laptop hard disk. For some reason, I thought this was a laptop.

Western Digital 320GB ATA, retail box $74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144396
OEM (drive only): $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136109

Grab some RAM, maybe a video card, reinstall XP, you'll enjoy your "new" PC for year to come!


Look at the pictures. Putting a video card in that system is going to be difficult
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: crinkles
Does the USB speed limit the interaction speed of external HDD's?


Yes, USB is up to only about 25-30MB/S and typical HD has peak read/write of 66MB/S+, some even up to 80MB/S+, SATA transfer at 150MB/S peak but read/write depends on the drive type.

You have no PCIe or AGP slot, forget about upgrading video card. DDR ram is getting expensive as no one has been using them for years. If I were you I would buy used RAM and used CPU either locally or from ebay, and call it a day.

The biggest speed boost you can get is to reinstall windows and get rid of all the stuff that gradually bloated the OS. The next best thing you can do is to transfer the partition (via partition magic or a new HD's transfer software) to a newer, faster hard drive. I personally have a system even older than yours running actively and they are fine with windows 2000, and with extra upgrade I pick up in the used market.

But seriously, if you have limited time, get a newer computer.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear


But seriously, if you have limited time, get a newer computer.


If you can live w/o a long warranty, these HP refurb units are great. I bought a fully-decked out quad-core model to replace my wife's old PC, with a free 24" screen for $899. Bought 3 of them for my job, too. Today, NewEgg has a nice AMD-powered model for $429:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107723
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: crinkles
Does the USB speed limit the interaction speed of external HDD's?


The biggest speed boost you can get is to reinstall windows and get rid of all the stuff that gradually bloated the OS. The next best thing you can do is to transfer the partition (via partition magic or a new HD's transfer software) to a newer, faster hard drive. I personally have a system even older than yours running actively and they are fine with windows 2000, and with extra upgrade I pick up in the used market.



I agree. you can clone your HD to a bigger HD. repair windows xp install to work with the new mobo.
 
so...

If I want to replace my existing internal HDD wiht a new one, what do I need to do? unplug the old and in with the new, then boot from XP CD?

I can save all the pertinent sstuff on my old HDD onto an extrnal i'm going to use for backups anyway
 
You can use driveimage, or if you buy a WD, WD Lifeguard utils (these are just two examples; there are PILES of them) to clone your drive onto the new drive so you don't lose anything at all.
 
All retail packaged hard drive (not the one in a anti static bag only, those with a box from bestbuy or circuit city, staple, etc, have a CD that you can boot with for partition transfer. Use that to move your partition to the newer hard drive.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Or you can download that CD from the manufacturers website and save a few bucks.


How is that saving a few bucks when retail hard drives on rebates are usually cheaper than bulk hard drives? and the CD comes for free?
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Or you can download that CD from the manufacturers website and save a few bucks.


How is that saving a few bucks when retail hard drives on rebates are usually cheaper than bulk hard drives? and the CD comes for free?


I buy OEM drives at prices you won't see retail, so forgive me for thinking along those lines when trying to save somebody a few bucks.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

D
Transferring Music Files To USB: Why So Slow
2
Replies
22
Views
677
OVERKILL
sloinker
Best option for CD transferring and burning....
2
Replies
24
Views
1K
Nick1994
paulri
Windows 10, paging file, and SSD vs. HDD
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
KrisZ
ctechbob
Beelink Micro PC's (SER5 5500U)
Replies
12
Views
2K
Bottom_Feeder
GON
Uncommon operating systems/ program languages still in use that were designed in the last century
2
Replies
24
Views
1K
Touring5
Back
Top