Desktops forum: What should I do: upgrade my computer or buy a new one?

I have custom designed software for XP. As it would cost a bundle for either Vista (Yuk!) or 7, I will stay with XP as long as I can. I'm still getting updates from MS so...............that is if anyone bothers to read this nonsense!!

Besides being much slower than a good computer with Windows 7, you are not going to be supported by Microsoft after 2014, that's building in obsolencence.
<table class="table" summary="End of support dates for Windows desktop products"><tbody><tr><td><span class="ui"><span class="notLocalizable">Windows XP
</td><td>Service Pack 3
</td><td> April 14, 2009
</td><td> April 8, 2014
</td></tr><tr><td><span class="ui"><span class="notLocalizable">Windows Vista
</td><td>Service Pack 2
</td><td> April 10, 2012
</td><td> April 11, 2017
</td></tr><tr><td><span class="ui"><span class="notLocalizable">Windows 7
</td><td>Service Pack 1
</td><td> To be determined
</td><td> Not applicable
</td></tr></tbody></table>I FOUGHT for Windows XP for a very long time after Windows 7 - Win7 is much more powerful BUT much more resource heavy but it does so much more than XP and has many more advantages than an end of life OS.
I now feel that XP is less secure, less desirable and far faster on a DECENT (read separate video card and at least i5 or equivelent AMD processor).

Cheers!

Hey John,

I have heard it said somewhere that computing power doubles every 18 months and makes anything made before that point obsolete. Guess what. That makes your computer a door stop. I hate to put it to you so bluntly but let's be honest.

I really don't know much about computers except how to use them. My son built my present computer and I love it with a passion. If I were to give you any advice it would be to build your own. (or have it built) Why? Because, exactly like my son did for me, you can put whatever you want into it and get a computer tailor made for you and your needs.

With my limited knowledge I can only provide two or three things to think about that I consider vital:

1. What is the number one cause of failure of electronics? Heat! I asked my son to provide the best cooling possible and he put in six fans. He may have overdone things but I live with the attitude that more is better.

2. Consider putting some serious money into a power supply that is more than you will need. You don't want to replace this item after you get your new computer. (see #1)

3. Before building my new computer we had several long discussions about the processor. I wanted the newest and best Pentium with all the bells and whistles. He finally talked me into an AMD. I was a little leery of it at first but now I am glad. Smooth sailing with no problems what-so-ever.

I realize that I may not have helped your decision any. Just figured I would throw in my two cents (well 1 1/2) and give you even more to consider.

It depends on what you want to do with it. If you're wanting to keep up with the latest 3D-gaming, video or audio processing, then you might want to trade up. But if it's still running Windows XP, then since XP is still a Microsoft-supported operating system (as long as Service Pack 3 is installed), you could certainly keep it if all you need it for is listening to music, videos, internet surfing, writing documents and emails, manipulating your photos, checking email, playing simple games and doing your taxes. What it really sounds like you need to learn how to do is backup your data, format and reinstall your operating system and then reinstall your drivers and applications. If you don't know how to do that, then I certainly wouldn't mess around with upgrading the hardware yourself, and besides, I wouldn't bother upgrading the hardware until I'd cleared out the operating system and reinstalled everything anyway. Takes a few hours once you get the hang of it, and it's the best way to keep your computer running faster than it was when it was new. As for when I think upgrading my hardware would be a good idea, my rule of thumb is until the upgrade hardware becomes too hard to find online. A faster computer is always a better computer. Critical components to upgrade are the speed components: memory and sometimes the processor, not as often hard drives unless you're truly running low on space. You don't really need to bother with anything else unless you need to add USB 2.0 and firewire, etc. or possibly a wireless network card. To ensure longevity, make sure dust doesn't build up in it and keep it out of enclosed spaces to avoid heat.

Paul Ronco, Computer Technician

6 Years has been the 'magical' number for me a few times in my life for
changing PCs. So when you said '6', I say get a new one.
<div>Mine last that long because I buy near top of the line and then it lasts for 6 years...

Cheers,</div>
Tony A.

As others said, you didn't really give enough information to make a really good call on this. What do you use the computer for now? Is it too slow for what you currently use it for? Or are you looking to the future as to new apps you will be using?

The next question is, would you be doing the upgrade yourself or paying someone else to do it? The labor costs to upgrade a 6 year old PC are certainly not going to be worth it.

If you were doing the upgrade yourself, the most economical thing to do would be to add RAM. If that PC has 1GB or less, you are probably going to see a moderate increase in performance with adding RAM. The downside is that RAM for older computers costs considerably more than newer RAM technologies. With any other upgrades, you are going to be paying as much as you would for a new PC. There's always the slight possibility you could find a higher performance CPU for sale used on Ebay or something for $10, but you would have to do alot of research to make sure it was compatible with your motherboard.

Personally, I would not even put $50 into a 6 year old computer. The money is better spent towards a new PC.

My son increased my ram to 2gb from 520mb and what a difference. I was ready to get a new computer but this upgrade was easy and made the computer run almost like new.

A six years computer's upgrade options are severly limited:
1 - You can probably no longer upgrade the CPU, newer models are just not socket compatible. Even evolutions of a CPU model are not always socket compatible. If you are lucky, you may find a retailer who still have a compatible CPU, but don't count on it. You may already have the fastest CPU compatible with your motherboard and it's BIOS.

2 - If your video card is an AGP card, you'll have to search some to find one.

You can upgrade the RAM and add another hard drive.
Adding RAM can help gain some performance increase, mainly by reducing the need to access the, extremely slow, page file.
Adding another drive only gives you additional storage. Be carefull, you may need an ATA drive (whide flat and gray ribon cable with 2 connectors for the drives), not a SATA (thin cable, one per drive).


Frankly, you should instead get a new computer. It will be a multi-cores 64 bits computer loaded with a 64 bits OS. It's performance will ridiculise that of your actual computer.


As others have proposed, you can get the separate parts and assemble your new computer. In this case, you can reuse/recycle at least some components from your actual computer.
You'll need a new motherboard, a modern CPU from Intel OR AMD, new DDR3 RAM, one SSD "hard drive" where you'll install the OS and your applications and at least a conventional SATA hard drive for your data.
Also, get a 64 bits OS, otherwise you'll be unable to fully use the new hardware.
You'll be able to keep your actual hard drive(s), case, keyboard, mopuse, monitor, sound card, speakers, and possibly the power supply. You may need some SATA to ATA adaptors (attach to the back of the drive), or a PCI to ATA card if you have ATA drive(s). Modern motherboards normaly no longer support ATA.
If you have an AGP card, you need to get a PCIe video card.

It really depends on what you use your computer for. If what you do is surf the web and use MS Office, a new mother board and processor with memory may be all you need. You may need a new Power supply depending upon how strong the one you have is. I suspect this is the case since you have kept the PC for 6 years.
We also need to know a budget and how computer savy are you? If you are not comfortable opening your computer and tinkering, buy one.
Do you intend to overclock the processor and video?
If the goal is simple business applications or web surfing or home computing/email/facebook, an Intel i3 or i5 or AMD Phenonm II X2 or X4 processor with a mother board with on board graphics is fine.
If the goal is graphic intensive, yet not 3d gaming and the budget is tight, an AMD Phenom X6 1090T with an external Video card (prox. 80 to 100.00) and a motherboard using the 9900FX chip set, IMHO is the best bang for the buck.
If the goal is gaming and money is no object, go Intel i7 2600 with a high end Video Card (500.00 for the video).
With option 1, you could probably keep your existing hard drive and DVD player/recorder.
With option 2, use a Hybrid SATA III Hard Drive
With option 3, use SATA III Solid State Drive.
These are some options.
The question you asked, on the surface is easy. When you dig a little deeper, however the answer becomes complex.
Good Luck

Hi John,

I have built, upgrade a lot of desktops in the past, to my experience the best way is to buy a new one in your case, here is why:

. Regardless what make of the CPU, AMD or Intel, the new CPU all the time needs a new mother board.

. A new mother board accepts only new memory module, so your old memory sticks chances are will not fit in.

. Most new mother boards have newest slots, connectors, for example they do away with PATA for hard drive, then come SATA 2 , 3 to name a few.

. Many your old components will not fit in or won't work with the new mother board, not to mention it requires more power form the power supply.

. New CPU requires properly heat sink, cooling fan to cool it down, so you have to buy a retail version of CPU, it always come with CPU fan and heat sink and I always have to replace them, because stock heat sink and fan tend not to perform well. Then you still have to buy a quality heat sink compound or you will have over heat one day.

. In order to get all benefits from the new CPU, you perhaps have to buy a new video card, these cards some time cost the same as the CPU.

The only components you may use it again is the tower case, key board and the mouse, and the monitor or LCD flat screen and perhaps the DVD burner
.
Why are they doing that, firstly because new technology developed and secondly I believe they want us to spent more.

Many times I ended up bought a new one for my clients because they will have a newest operating system and up to date software came with the PC, I just carefully read the specification of hardware so my clients have at least a decent performance PC, you will need to do a little research, look for the review from the users, not from the manufacture sites, I am for sure you will happy with the new buy.

Thanks for reading.

It depends on whether or not your computer is upgradeable, the existing hardware is still in serviceable condition, and on how you want to spend your money. I'm still using my first-build, a 3.4ghz P4, 2gb RAM, 80gb HD, 2-DVD-R/W's, floppy drive, 256mb AGP NVidia GeForce 6600, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz,, Windows XP, my computer does everything I need it to do so I'm not buying new unless I absolutely have to. But it has to be your personal choice. Do some research, find out what your computer is capable of supporting, decide whether or not you want to upgrade and/or abandon your current computer and buy new. -kd5-

If your current PC is 6 years old than I would upgrade for sure.
By that I mean either build your own as others have said or buy a new one.
Also, depending what you plan on using you computer for, you do not need the more expensive i5-i7 CPU based computers. There are plenty of fast, good computers available that use less expensive processors, RAM, motherboards etc.
If you do decide to buy a new one, than personally, I would go online to dell.com. They have some nice systems on sale all the time, that will do you well.
Good hunting!

The sad fact - by the time a good quality desktop starts to get dusty inside, the hardware and operating system are basically obsolete. It won't be long until Microsoft abandons support for XP, and it has so many patches and upgrades now that the original performance of the system is measurably degraded. (Ironic, ain't it? OS upgrades = degradation of system speed. And most of those upgrades were patches for security vulnerabilities placed in the original system, one way or the other.)

You will find that hardware upgrade components for a 6-years-old system (like RAM) have progressed through their product cycle to the point that the price is going up, not down. They are legacy hardware, available from the junkyards or surplus houses, and the lack of demand makes them almost in the museum/collectible category. The rate of change in hardware formats is FAST - difficult for occasional DIYers to keep up.

Shop thoughtfully for the new system - get one that might be reliable (not easy for even experts to guess, unfortunately.) Get one that is faster and bigger (RAM and Drive) than you think you might need (considering the requirements of the new operating system and your software.) If you might ever want to upgrade it, get one that is not too proprietary - in other words, lots of sources for upgrade components that install easily and work without tinkering. Ask a trusted expert for the brands that might be upgradable and repairable without a dispensation from the chief engineer on its' design team. If I bought a new desktop, I would consider a SSD (solid-state drive) for the operating system and frequently-used software and data, with a whopping great hard drive (maybe 2T?) for the archive - data, photos, videos, and backup images.

You should probably build /buy a new one and repurpose the old one into a NAS with the FREENAS operating system. If you work it right you you might be able to use the DVD drive in the new system if needs be or just buy everthing new for the new system because that's what I'm doing with my 11 year old system.

I don't see the point in buying brand new if it's slower AND more expensive.

As long as the CPU you buy makes at least a score of 2500 on Passmark, the rest of the system should be in line with it. 4GB of RAM is a minimum and don't bother with a hard drive under 500GB. You should also get a keyboard, mouse, and DVD burner included. Displays aren't often included with new PC's nor are speakers. Logitech S220 costs $40 or less and has plenty of good sound. Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Samsung displays are good and cheap and easily bought separately. I'm partial to the ASUS VH242H which is 23.6 inches and sells for $179 or so. My wife has the 27" version of the same, I think it's a VQ276 something.

Dell Outlet has some of their latest model Inspiron 620 (not the 620s slim case, you can't upgrade those as easily) with 2nd gen Core i5's available. $459? What more could you need? Same system new is about $550-$600.

A lot of people think computers are expensive. Sure, in 1995 you could walk into Montgomery Ward's and drop $1000 on an IBM Aptiva or a Macintosh Performa 630 and that was slow and painful and just wrong. In 2005 when you got your machine, you got what you could afford although it might have been 1998 technology in a 2005 case. Make sure when you get your 2012 computer that it's current technology. Do your homework. Find out the date that CPU was released from Intel or AMD. If it's 2008-2009 or older, think twice and recheck that Passmark score. You don't want to buy a new desktop with say, an AMD E-450 processor. They score lower than some Pentium 4 chips. It may be a new chip but it's old technology. If you see nVidia 6150 graphics, run away, this means an older motherboard design which won't take advantage of a faster processor. I have an older eMachines desktop that was painfully slow. I upgraded it from 2GB of memory to 4GB and swapped the single core 1.6GHz CPU for a dual core one that runs at 2.3GHz. The computer no longer freezes up all the time but it's really not as fast as it should be because it has that old tech motherboard in it. Gave it to my 4-year old. She loves it. Plays Angry Birds in Chrome just as smooth as silk. Don't try to play GTA IV on it, though...