Is it time for a new computer?

[Duggo]

My Dell 4700 computer is almost 5 years old and is running fine.

Here's the problem: I went on Ebay and averaged out all the listings for my computer. The closest match in terms of matching my specs, was going for $61.00. The only difference being, he had 512 RAM and I have a GB. So hypothetically, maybe I could get $75.

All listings averaged out to $107.08. I've spent $32. on the LG CD/DVD internal drive. So, I'm left with at most $75. to play with, on a 5 year old machine. Looking at Newegg, for example, I could buy a Western Digital, 500 GB Int. Drive for 55.99; and still have $19.01 left. Is it worth it?

System specs:

It's a P4 @ 3.2Ghz with 1GB RAM The hard drive is nearly 5 years old. (Samsung) 80 GB. I'm running WinXP Home. Video is the GeForce 6800

Thanks in advance.

 

[xillion]

IMO if you want to upgrade anything on the above machine add more RAM bringing it to 2GB. Newegg has this one for a good price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220079&cm_re=ddr_400-_-20-220-079-_-Product

 

[Blue_2]

Two questions.

Why do you think its time for a new computer?

What in your computing world is being held back by your PC?


Upgrading that one isn't worth it IMO. $300 is a whole new PC sans monitor.

 

[mretzloff]

Two questions.

Why do you think its time for a new computer?

What in your computing world is being held back by your PC?


Upgrading that one isn't worth it IMO. $300 is a whole new PC sans monitor.

I think this post pretty much hits the nail on the head. $300-$500 will get you a great computer for daily use (Internet surging, word processing, etc.).

 

[Alacrity59]

I've come to the point of not wanting to move on to a next machine unless it massages my temples and whispers sweet nothings in my ear. It takes months of spare moments to move things over . . . get the environment working right installing all the software you rely on . . . setting up backup routines etc. etc.


I just had my screen replaced on my laptop. I had been looking at a splotchy dull screen for about 10 months. Previous one was damaged when my dog leaped off the couch to confront a energy contract marketer who ignored my "No solicitation" sign on my door and caught his leg on my power cord and the power cord caught on the leg of the small table on which I had a glass of cola and the laptop managed to survive the fall and whoops there comes the cola . . . and merd . . . the cola manages to land on the screen . . .

And . . . so my dog is at the door barking . . . and bleeding as my power cord has come across a large wart he has on his hind leg (vet advised not to treat as mostly it is just there and putting the dog under to take it off is a risk) my laptop has crashed on the floor and screen is wet with cola . . . and I open the door. "Hi . . . I'm just showing my associate here how we can save people money on their gas bills"


I'm not sure whether my dog or I wanted to do this person more damage.

I think I understand that sales is kinda like knock on 100 door and 1 will say yes . . . but golly there are a lot of hungry sales folk . . . knocking on doors.

I am digging a moat . . . putting up razor wire . . . tower with a machine gun turret.


Oh . . . back on topic. For me new laptops around 600 bucks have all I need. Software . . . Office is expensive but standard in business so there goes a few more hundred bucks . . . and then if you need to connect to things well business edition for your operating system is an upgrade as well.


Mike

 

[mkeyslehman]

Two questions.

Why do you think its time for a new computer?

What in your computing world is being held back by your PC?

Upgrading that one isn't worth it IMO. $300 is a whole new PC sans monitor.

+1. Says it all

Unless you're running a TON of apps at startup, most residential computers running XP will be just fine with 1Gb RAM (unless you're trying to play games). Upgrading your HD will only give you more space to store photos / music and will not increase performance. If you're looking to upgrade solely on the premise that your computer is old, your $75 would serve you better elsewhere.

 

[Duggo]

Two questions.

Why do you think its time for a new computer?

What in your computing world is being held back by your PC?


Upgrading that one isn't worth it IMO. $300 is a whole new PC sans monitor.

Thanks for posting two excellent questions.

So far, I don't have any complaints. However, I want to run/learn AutoCAD and I am not sure that, this machine as spec'd could handle it - even with my P4 with Hyper Threading. ACAD not withstanding, it fits all my needs. The internal HD is smaller than I'd like, but...

Other Thoughts

A seller at Ebay said, if I upgraded the bios, there shouldn't be a problem with installing a drive with a capacity larger than 250 GB.

And finally, in a conversation with a person at Dell he said if you are going to u/g the DVD player, Hard Drive, and Memory you'd be better off getting a new computer. (Of that "trifecta" only the DVD player was replaced with a DVD/CD combo drive.)

 

[dpm802]

My Dell 4700 computer is almost 5 years old and is running fine.

So far, I don't have any complaints.

Is it time for an upgrade? No.

As xillion suggested, maxing out your RAM is your best bet to get more performance at low cost.

I have an eMachine that I took from 512M to 1G almost immediately, and a year later, went from 1M to 2M ... the step-up in speed and performance is quite noticeable, and well worth the cost.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Heck, I'm still running an old Athlon64 box that I put together almost seven years ago. It runs Linux and seems to be holding up fine. Every so often, I get the urge to upgrade, but I might hold out another year or two. It certainly serves my needs.

I would recommend picking up a newer, bigger hard drive. 80GB isn't enough these days; I maxed out the 80GB drive on my MacBook (now 320GB) in short order after getting a DSLR. You should also consider adding RAM. It should be dead cheap these days and it'll really help things out.

But don't upgrade for the sake of upgrading. Even older machines are perfectly adequate for web surfing, email, office tasks, etc. these days.

I was severely tempted by the new MacBook Pro models, but they're pricey. Instead, I bought a 3G iPad which is incredible. 1GHz might not seem like enough, but it does everything I need quickly and efficiently. Adding the Bluetooth keyboard means that it can replace my laptop 95% of the time.

Technology has gotten to the point where I'll only replace something when it dies. I feel the same way about cars. The latest'n'greatest is (of course) nice, but will put the hurt on your wallet if you continuously upgrade. There are better things to spend money on. Or simply save the money, which seems like a smarter and smarter option as I age.

 

[razorrookie]

However, I want to run/learn AutoCAD and I am not sure that, this machine as spec'd could handle it - even with my P4 with Hyper Threading. ACAD not withstanding, it fits all my needs.

Consider this: Lets assume you can squeak by and get AutoCAD to run. AutoCAD recommends 2 GB of RAM so that upgrade needs to happen. Then you're going to be running a very hardware intensive app on the BARE minimum needed to run it. Those conditions do not add up to an enjoyable experience. Nor will it be very condusive to learning how to operate the software.

I've had a fair amount of experience with AutoCAD and other 3D CAM/Analysis software packages from my Mechanical Engineering coursework and it's not a program you want to mess around with on a computer that isn't up to snuff.

As always, if it works and makes you happy, power to ya. I'd upgrade. Hardware is cheap now-a-days.

 

[Duggo]

razorrookie,

What specs would you recommend to run AutoCAD on a new computer?

Thanks....

 

[Blue_2]

Is it time for an upgrade? No.

As xillion suggested, maxing out your RAM is your best bet to get more performance at low cost.

I have an eMachine that I took from 512M to 1G almost immediately, and a year later, went from 1M to 2M ... the step-up in speed and performance is quite noticeable, and well worth the cost.

I'm not questioning that he'd see a performance jump with the RAM upgrade. The issue is sinking $80 into a five year old machine. Any number of other components are getting into a questionable zone for reliability. If anything else dies in that computer, that RAM isn't forwards compatible with anything.

Bigger bang for the buck in a new machine.

 

[razorrookie]

razorrookie,

What specs would you recommend to run AutoCAD on a new computer?

Thanks....

Hrm... tough question. I didn't setup any of the computers in the labs at school but I can go so far as to say my laptop runs AutoCAD just fine with the following stats:

Lenovo Thinkpad T61 with integrated graphics (on the mobo), 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, 80 GB HD @ 5400RPM.

I'd just say get the version of AutoCAD that you want (presumably the newest one), install it and see if it works... If not upgrade machines or roll your own (if money is an issue, newegg always has deals for core components).

D

EDIT: I do have an older version of autocad.

 

[chfair]

from someone who upgrades parts of his computer almost every year...... if you are happy with your machine use it till you are not happy with it. there will always be a bigger better machine and they are always dropping in price. the only time you really need to think about upgrades or a new computer is when your machine can not do what you need it to as fast/well as you need it to.

on the hard drive issue, personally i would say if you are going to put money down for a hard drive make sure it is something you can move to a new machine eventually. at this point the hard drive will probably be useful longer than the computer it will be put in. what i mean to say is if it is for extra storage consider an external hard drive that is USB 2.0 that can easily be moved to a new machine or if you are inclined a decent internal if you do not mind pulling the drive later to use on a new rig (even as just an extra drive).

when i think upgrades i take into consideration each part as I build my own; so dropping $80 on a hard drive is not a waste because eventually when i upgrade i can use that drive and not have to buy a new one. for most however putting money into an old machine will not get you the performance a low to mid range new machine will for a bit more.

i get the feeling this was a long winded post that was not really all that needed but i was bored ^.^

 

[The Expanding Man]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using XP regarding it's performance as an operating system. However, the day is approaching when Microsoft will no longer support it, and most of the software and drivers won't run on it.

Your hard drive is towards the end of it's average life (about 7 - 8 years). If you haven't backed up your data, you could loose the lot due to hard drive failure (which could happen any day, and the chances of this happening increase slightly each day).

Can you transfer XP to a new hard drive? Sometimes this can be a problem if XP was pre-installed on your computer.

Having said that, if all you do is web surfing/emails, you don't really need the super power of today's computers.

 

[Duggo]

Thanks for the post, and welcome to B&B.

I want to learn, hence run AutoCAD (ACAD) on my machine. Aparently this one isn't up to spec for that. So, if it does indeed go in that direction, (lots of investigating/research to to) I'm going to need a new computer.

I don't know that you could (or couldn't) transfer xp over to a new machine. But given your argument, why would you want to?

Duggo

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using XP regarding it's performance as an operating system. However, the day is approaching when Microsoft will no longer support it, and most of the software and drivers won't run on it.

Your hard drive is towards the end of it's average life (about 7 - 8 years). If you haven't backed up your data, you could loose the lot due to hard drive failure (which could happen any day, and the chances of this happening increase slightly each day).

Can you transfer XP to a new hard drive? Sometimes this can be a problem if XP was pre-installed on your computer.

Having said that, if all you do is web surfing/emails, you don't really need the super power of today's computers.

 

[razorrookie]

It should be noted that if you purchase a new computer it will already have an OS on it. There will be no need to 'transfer' or install any OS at all unless you build your own PC or just feel the need to change what they give you due to crapware/adware that may be preloaded on any given big box purchase PC.

 

[soapbox]

razorrookie,

What specs would you recommend to run AutoCAD on a new computer?

A quick Google search reveals that, with a RAM upgrade, your machine will meet the AutoCAD 2009 specs no problem.

If you want to keep the machine, you need 2 GB of RAM and a new HD, as others have noted. You may have an IDE hard drive (it has a 3" wide thin-rectangle-shaped ribbon cable), but your machine may also support the newer SATA (small, 1 cm wide cable and small connector) drives.

Also as noted above, when people ask "do I need a new computer?" I always first ask "Can you get your work done today? What does the computer not do that you want it to?"

If your answer is merely "I want to learn AutoCAD", then you don't need a new computer right now; you need $120 of upgrades, provided everything else in the PC runs well and is dependable.

I use a 3.4GHz P4 with 2 GB of RAM as a home server and Boxee/Miro/video media box, running Ubuntu. It's very capable of handling those needs. But someday -- probably when I want to play Blu-Ray discs or 1080p high-def video -- I'll have to upgrade. Until then...I've got other stuff to worry about.