To upgrade or to build ?

K

Kilauea

banned
Hello,

I have been looking at the forums for a few months now and have learned a lot... I have had my computer for a while and I find it works... but its not always pleasant to use, although most of the time, it is bearable. I feel (or maybe wonder) that my use of it has adapted itself to its limitations. For instance, I no longer game or do anything that uses the cd-rom drive.

I use the computer for surfing the web, listen to music, downloading movies and dealing with my pictures mostly. I hardly ever mod my pics because that is quite something... I find the computer has problems dealing with more than one of these things (sometimes surfing the web with a few pages and listening to music isn't working great).

So, I wonder... Should I upgrade (I thought of my ram), would I see a good difference in perfomance ? or should I simply build a new one ? If I were to build one, I'd go for a Core 2 Duo (possibly E6750)... If needed, I have enough budget for that, but I'm a bit cheap and I keep asking myself if I can stand my computer for another 6 months (and in 6 months I'll ask myself the same question)... So ya... I'm kind of looking for your input on all of this, should I upgrade (rig in sig) or just build a new one ?

If I were to build one, I would keep doing the same things, but possibly add some mild gaming.
 
That system is really out of date, even upgrading to the most your motherboard can support wouldnt be close to what you could build from scratch. I would bite the bullet and buy a new desktop.
 
ya I know my system is really old and that building from scratch would give me blazing fast performance compared to what I have. I also know that if I do, I will ask myself how I could live with that old pos for that long... Its like TV or telephone, u wonder what people would do without them...

So ya, upgrading would be a temporary fix... a year ? maybe more... but then again what you say makes a lot of sense, cuz this computer also has the problem of rebooting or blue screening me out of the blue, usually in the 1st hour it is opened... It used to do it AT LEAST once a day, now its kinda decent, 2-3 times a week... LOL, when I write that I'm sure you'll be thinking I'm totally crazy to think about upgrading this piece of junk...

Edit: to add to the insult... when I really want to play games (like now), I just go back to my old computer which I got in 1997 because it plays game a lot better and is so much more reliable...
 
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That computer would really benefit from a RAM upgrade. Even if you added just another 256MB of RAM, you would see very noticeable improvement. At 256, you are probably having to use the HD cache all the time. At 512, your HD cache use should drop to almost nothing.

Even if you do decide to build, adding some RAM will make your current machine able to function very well as an internet/mail/office app machine for a few more years. I like having a second computer around.
 
upgrading the ram would really help but make sure you get the right type i think it is sdram but check, ultimatly a new build is the way to go .
 
Build a new one, i was in the same situation (no blue screens but needed a upgrade seriously, cuz i had 512mb ram, an AMD barton 3200+ and integrated video ) and in the ended decided to build a new machine, i still don't get use to have so much speed on games, but is good to have enough resources to play without lagging graphically
 
Kilauea said:
ya I know my system is really old and that building from scratch would give me blazing fast performance compared to what I have. I also know that if I do, I will ask myself how I could live with that old pos for that long... Its like TV or telephone, u wonder what people would do without them...

So ya, upgrading would be a temporary fix... a year ? maybe more... but then again what you say makes a lot of sense, cuz this computer also has the problem of rebooting or blue screening me out of the blue, usually in the 1st hour it is opened... It used to do it AT LEAST once a day, now its kinda decent, 2-3 times a week... LOL, when I write that I'm sure you'll be thinking I'm totally crazy to think about upgrading this piece of junk...

Edit: to add to the insult... when I really want to play games (like now), I just go back to my old computer which I got in 1997 because it plays game a lot better and is so much more reliable...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why your current comp(I looked at your siggy) has any problems with minor gaming. Sounds a bit like this comp (Not the one in my sig, about 2x better) but with a processor in the ghz and the broken CD drive, like this one. So I'm a bit lost there, you have the same RAM amount too...
What are the specs for the 1997? Because you are really freking me out, except for seriously corupting my 1997(guessamite baised ofn RAM date) it worked beautifully as far as I cared.
 
Not too sure what you mean Del, my old computer is

Pentium 2MMX 266Mhz
It has a 7gb HDD, tho I used another even older 1.something gb HDD from another computer.
256mb RAM (I think 128 was added along the way)
24x cd-rom drive
ATI Rage Pro Turbo (Not sure if that is it)
I know it had a 3D accelerator (I think that's what you call it) too, Diamond Monster 3D is the name I remember.
Its running on Windows 98, but originally it was 95

As for the original question, I'm still undecided, tho I am leaning towards a new build.
 
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