Upgrade!

There's some awesome deals on new computers out there.

Oh, I ment Upgrade the system by buying a new computer.
[Edited 7/16/06 14:12pm]

Buy a new one... I build the things and you are absolete before you start... It is as such so much cheeper just to let them do it these days!

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

Are you drunk?

okay, let me explain--the entire text of what i typed in the initial post got wiped, so there's more to this

i've always been slow to jump on new bells and whistles, but it may be time. i have an old dell optiplex gx1, upgraded to pentium III about 4 years ago. it has a cd writer i installed, but no dvd rom/writer. it's still running on windows 98 and i still use dial up. some of the programs that i am interested in now (like converting my music files to an mp3 player) require at least win 2000 to run it. i saw copies of win 2000 for between $75-$150, but for $300 more, i could just get a basic new computer/laptop from like walmart with the program already installed, plus the other features i want. my desk is rtaher large, so i could house 2 computer easily.

i hope that narrows the scope

meltwithu said:

Honestly, you probably ought to just go for the cheap, complete system. You'll most likely get a combo drive or DVD burner AND Windows XP AND, you didn't mention it but, a bigger hard drive - I would assume.

If you already had XP then a barebones upgrade might be worth it but XP sets you back $90-100 right off the bat.

Alternatively, you could by a low end Mac mini and run OS X and Windows XP both on it. I believe clubmac.com sells them with XP already installed.
[Edited 7/16/06 14:40pm]

jtfolden said:

thanks!

I would sell off your older system and use the money to build a new system. You don't need to go all out on it, but select a motherboard that you can lowball the processor and RAM and put in what you need at the moment so you can upgrade again in the future. If you buy a new one that's complete, chances are that you're going to get screwed in some way, shape or form by either inferior parts, not getting what you really need, shitty customer support, being overcharged, etc. I've seen a lot of computers from manufacturers who put in a piece of crap video card or insufficient RAM while trying to make everything else look good.

Buy a new one. For the money you would pay for all the parts and having someone install them, you could buy a whole new system. If your system was only a couple years old, I would consider upgrading a few parts, but if it's that old, and already been upgraded once, it's time to let it go

Thanks meltwithu and all the advice! I've been contimplating the same thing. Except my computer is 5 years old.

Tom said:

However, if he knows what he's doing, he wouldn't need to pay for someone to do it and save money that way. The parts he'd need to buy would more than likely be superior to those in a pre-assembled system, plus you wouldn't be at the manufacturer's mercy when upgrading. Dell and others were and probably still are propriatary about the RAM that you can upgrade with, so you can't just go out and buy RAM from Best Buy or whereever and expect it to work. Buying used parts from reliable sources or people that haven't overclocked their systems is a great way to go as well. I spent roughly $400 on my last system which has a P4 2.4GHz socket 478 processor, 1GB of PC3200 RAM and a GeForce 6600 GT 128MB AGP video card. The only new components in that one were the motherboard and case, and it's been running great with no issues.

TMPletz said:

Actually, you can... None of the manufacturers I know of use proprietary memory these days (and usually haven't for years and years) except for in select, expensive business class systems that won't be an issue here. Walmart often has some great deals on Compaq/HP AMD Athlon based systems. They use industry standard parts for memory, hard drive, cd drive, etc... it's easily swappable/upgeadable. These days, most manufacturers can't afford to use a lot of proprietary parts if they want to keep the price down. The case, and maybe a slightly tweaked motherboard are about it.

It's, also, FAR FAR more of a machine than meltwithu has already been using.


As a side note: I wouldn't wish a Dell on anyone, however. Their satisfaction ratings among personal customers is going down rather noticeably.
[Edited 7/17/06 13:07pm]

Upgrade if it's a mac.
If it's a pc.....new one.

Please don't forget that Windows is comming up with a new OS soon.


What I would do if I were you would to go buy as much computer as you could.

Well that's what I did anyway.

DVD DL burners, soo cool.

You can get a brand new Dell setup for fucking 399.

Graycap23 said:

I'd be broke beyond words if I did that every time.

TMPletz said:

ONLY upgrade when u HAVE 2, not because some new thing has come out. I still have 3 old mac's employed in the studio from 9 years ago.

Graycap23 said:

And I've upgraded my PC three or four times over the last 5 years and have just about broken even after selling the old parts and buying the new parts. I don't upgrade because it's the latest thing. I upgrade when it's necesary or there's a VERY good deal out there. Two of my other PCs are following in the same footsteps as my main PC, and I've hardly had to spend anything.

TMPletz said:

Cool.....that's the way 2 do it.