Upgrade/Buy

[Ion Kenshin]

My current PC is pretty old. It is a Dell I bought way back in 02 or 03. It doesn't run completely terribly but it doesn't run at its best either which I guess could be said of any pc after that many years. I have reformatted it once a few years ago and was contemplating doing so again. I was wondering would it be better to just wipe everything clean and then upgrade my pc little by little or just buy a new pc altogether money wise that is. Finances as we all know arent that great so I am looking for the cheaper option. I am also looking to buy a laptop but that comes later down the road. If upgrading would be the way to go what be optimal components to buy. I bought a DVD burner a while back and installed it but it did not work. My pc did not recognize/acknowledge it. I would like to upgrade my memory make my pc work more efficiently and faster etc, etc. Any thoughts, feedback, or questions are more than welcome.

 

[Alistair]

Kenshin,

I would suggest a upgrade, a lot of technology has evloved since then. =P The choice is...do you want something that stays the same for the most part but is portable, or something upgradeable that has a lot more power, and cheaper? That's what I would think upon first, IMO.

Plus, how long are going to keep the latest one, and when do you want to update it?


Let us know, I'm sure we can help ya more when ya come to that conclusion.

G'Luck,
Ali

 

[D-Man22]

You left out the option to Build.

 

[black_dust]

I bought a DVD burner a while back and installed it but it did not work. My pc did not recognize/acknowledge it. I would like to upgrade my memory make my pc work more efficiently and faster etc, etc. Any thoughts, feedback, or questions are more than welcome.

A pc from 2003 should be more than capable at running a dvd drive, maybe you did something wrong in installing it, cable not in right, jumper pins not set correctly ect....



Id just build/buy a new one it would be better in the long run as your motherboard might only take 2gb of RAM where the new ones are 4 pushing 6 gb for the maximum

 

[Ion Kenshin]

Kenshin,

I would suggest a upgrade, a lot of technology has evloved since then. =P The choice is...do you want something that stays the same for the most part but is portable, or something upgradeable that has a lot more power, and cheaper? That's what I would think upon first, IMO.

Plus, how long are going to keep the latest one, and when do you want to update it?


Let us know, I'm sure we can help ya more when ya come to that conclusion.

G'Luck,
Ali

I'd like to keep it as long as possible. It is a desktop computer. Would definately like to keep it on the cheaper side and gradually work my way up

You left out the option to Build.

A pc from 2003 should be more than capable at running a dvd drive, maybe you did something wrong in installing it, cable not in right, jumper pins not set correctly ect....



Id just build/buy a new one it would be better in the long run as your motherboard might only take 2gb of RAM where the new ones are 4 pushing 6 gb for the maximum

With the dvd burner I'm pretty sure that's what the problem is I'm gonna try again. Roughly how much would it cost to build up a pc. I know it's not incredibly difficult to do.

 

[black_dust]

I'd like to keep it as long as possible. It is a desktop computer. Would definately like to keep it on the cheaper side and gradually work my way up



With the dvd burner I'm pretty sure that's what the problem is I'm gonna try again. Roughly how much would it cost to build up a pc. I know it's not incredibly difficult to do.

Depends what you want the pc for! if its bog standard internet browsing no more than $200 - $300, and Malice just built a uber gaming pc and i think that was over $1000

 

[Ion Kenshin]

yea i dont need a gaming pc i am not much of a pc gamer

 

[D-Man22]

^Well you can easily build a system for the 200 - 300 price range mentioned above and since you already have a monitor from your old system it will even be cheaper. You can also pull out your hard drive and cd rom drives and reuse that in the built PC as well reducing the cost even further. So with all that cost reduction you might end up just having to purchase the case, cpu, memory, motherboard and thats it. Most cases comes with the power supply built in already.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

Okay that doesnt sound too bad. I just need to find some good sights to price those things

 

[Malice]

Spend 1200 and you get this cool monster...or BEAST as its called...

Front

Side

Open Side

 

[Ion Kenshin]

Nice. But I don't have that kind of money

 

[D-Man22]

Spend 1200 and you get this cool monster...or BEAST as its called...

Front

Side

Open Side

Heh. I was thinking about buying that case awhile back but its pretty expensive. It was that or the Thermal Take Armour.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4546367&CatId=31


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4555136&CatId=31


Some barebones pc's i am checking out. Any thoughts?

 

[Mixairian]

You're still short a hard drive, a power supply, DVD drive, and an operating system disc. If you're familiar with building and want to, this is a quaint way to approach. But for the same price and low specs, you could just buy a pre-built online for cheaper and still get some type of coverage. If you know how to run tech support if your hardware fails and are willing to do it and use each items warranty to replace, then go for it.

If you're getting the Vista OS, you're dropping anywhere fro $150 to $250 and you'll have a computer that can just barely run it (need a GPU.) If you're dropping on XP that'll be around $200 to $300.

 

[Alistair]

Kenshin,

If ya build, I would suggest research before ya buy. Check out newegg out as well. sometimes they have some pretty impressive sales for system builders. The only thing I would check out, is make sure your socket is the same, the board can fit the case factor and all of that stuff.

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a prefab but it all depends on what you wanna do. But if you wanna build, overall get the better deal, last longer, but you also get the frustration if something doesn't go right to figure it out. If get ya get it going, it's a rewarding experiance. Just depends on what your using it for, and the cash you wanna spend. I guess the question is...what's your price limit?

How much do you wanna reuse, and how old is some of this stuff your talking about? Your DVD Drive that you have was IDE, correct? Also, like someone said check all your cables and that drive is enabled in the BIOS. Does the BIOS read it on start up? That's the most important step, if BIOS sees it then Windows shouldn't have an issue with that drive.

G'Luck,
Ali

 

[Ion Kenshin]

Thanks for all the help. I need to look into that when I get home. I would love to stay within the 200 dollar range if at all possible

 

[Franklin Richards]

Ok guys. My video card went out on my Laptop. It still runs VGA but I can't game with it anymore. Therefore...


I'm looking to buy a prefab that's a decent gaming desktop. This time though when the warranties are up or if I want to upgrade later, I'll be better off. So...


Any suggestions on what system will be the most bang for my buck? A system that won't die in a year. A capable gaming PC. Maybe not as good as Malice's but upgradeable if I get a wild hair.

And I prefer Vista so the specs need to be appropriate.


Thanks.

 

[black_dust]

Ok guys. My video card went out on my Laptop. It still runs VGA but I can't game with it anymore. Therefore...


I'm looking to buy a prefab that's a decent gaming desktop. This time though when the warranties are up or if I want to upgrade later, I'll be better off. So...


Any suggestions on what system will be the most bang for my buck? A system that won't die in a year. A capable gaming PC. Maybe not as good as Malice's but upgradeable if I get a wild hair.

And I prefer Vista so the specs need to be appropriate.


Thanks.

Look for one with 2gb RAM to start that is upgradable to more in the future, a PCI-Express socket for your graphics, and a dual or quad core processor, SATA hard drive(s)

For a gaming pc its all about the graphics card really what i normally do when making a new pc is look at the specs for the most recent high spec game out, and go as much as my money will allow higher than what it is.

 

[wiegeabo]

Spend 1200 and you get this cool monster...or BEAST as its called...

Front

Side

Open Side

That computer made me happy in my pants.

 

[Mixairian]

Ok guys. My video card went out on my Laptop. It still runs VGA but I can't game with it anymore. Therefore...


I'm looking to buy a prefab that's a decent gaming desktop. This time though when the warranties are up or if I want to upgrade later, I'll be better off. So...


Any suggestions on what system will be the most bang for my buck? A system that won't die in a year. A capable gaming PC. Maybe not as good as Malice's but upgradeable if I get a wild hair.

And I prefer Vista so the specs need to be appropriate.


Thanks.

Gaming PC.
Processor: Core 2 Duo or Quad Core.
RAM: 3-4 gigs
Graphics: Geforce 9000 series. I'd recommend 9600GT or up.

This is of course assuming desktop.