This may not deserve it’s own thread but I just had to say upgrading or building your own computer is definitely the way to go.
I upgraded my 5 year old dell yesterday. I had already replaced the harddrive a few months ago.
I got a nice case with 400 watt PS, a retail box decent mobo, OEM athlon xp 2400+ CPU, 512mb Crucial DDR PC2100 RAM, cpu cooler rated for up to 3200+ CPUs, and thermal goo for just $220 delivered! woohoo
Popped it all in the case with my existing video card, sound card, modem, and drives, and BAM it booted first try.
Everything but the case was bought by linking from price watch to Ewiz so I could get free shipping. Be sure to read the feedback before ordering anything through pricewatch though. I couldn’t be happier with Ewiz. (I’m not affiliated with either site in any way)
I see people buying equivelent machines for 4 times that, then throwing or giving away their old computer with case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, video card, sound card, LAN card, drives, etc and it just seems like such a waste.
I agree with your sentiment, I’ve built (and upgraded) my last two boxes. When you start from scratch, that first boot into the BIOS after assembly is sweet – “It’s ALIVE, my creature is ALIVE!!”
It’s also great to have a clean OS without all the rubbish that comes from a corporate build.
mhendo, you would be in the same boat as the OP and would basically need to turf everything but your video card, hard drives, and extras like modems, network cards and sound cards. Depending on your case and power supply, you may be able to make out without replacing them but I wouldn’t count on it.
Most motherboards nowadays have built in sound and network cards, so you may not need to swap those over. Depending on what you have for a video card (AGP or PCI) you may want to think about replacing that as well.
If you don’t have a lot of experience with hardware/software, then I suggest that you don’t order online and instead mosey down to your local small PC shop and talk to the geeks there. If you are having problems then they should provide good advice and will be able to test devices if you think they may be defective. For example, I recently bought an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard from a local PC shop and it was dead out of the box. Even as an experienced PC tech it took me over an hour to troubleshoot and prove that it was the new motherboard, but I could have easily returned to the store and asked them to test it for me. The other plus for a local store is that any returns are processed right away, versus the week+ wait (plus shipping charges) I would have had returning the board to an online retailer.
When (IF!) I start working again, a computer upgrade is definitely on the list! My poor little Celeron 400, with 192Mb RAM and 8 GB hard drive just isn’t cutting it anymore!
I’ll have to rip out the motherboard, get a new processor and more RAM, and likely a new HD. I know I’ll keep the sound card that I have (though maybe replace my 15$ speakers) but I’m not sure about the videocard. I don’t game much, but this one is old, so I likely will upgrade eventually. AFAIK, the powersupply on this case is good enough for most upgrades. I wouldn’t go super-powerful, but I definitely want faster than this thing!
Nice upgrades Eleusis , though I am a bit curious as to why you went with PC2100 RAM - PC3200 is less than $10 more, and would be much better if you ever decided overclock your machine; and it would be more useful if you ever build a newer machine later on.
Thanks, RandomLetters. I guess I bought PC2100 because I didn’t know any better. I kind of winged the whole thing based on the knowledge I had a 266mhz front side bus to work with, after I picked the $30 motherboard. In retrospect, faster memory would better facilitate future upgrades.
Overclocking sounds like fun, and I’d like to explore it, but I think I’d need a better mobo with more options, and then the RAM, it adds up. This was really “wife friendly” as in she didn’t freak too bad at $220. (To make things worse, I spent $600 dollars today on a complete beer/wine making setup with dual draft kegerator)
Honestly for most people upgrading may not be the way to go at all. I’m not trying to be contrary but in many case the total prices of individual components simply outruns the cost of an entirely new system from a large manufacturer. Economy of scale, after all.
I could’ve bought a Dell P4 3GHZ machine with 1GB of Ram, a 80GB HD and an Nvidia Video Card and built in sound plus CDrom and various other bits and pieces for about 640 dollars.
You can’t price that out at 640 dollars unless the parts are falling off the back of a truck!
Now mind you, if you already own a new (one year old machine) and simply want to upgrade a particular component, then yes, upgrading may very well be the way to go… but if your machine is over two years old, Odds are the cost of upgrading will be less than the cost of replacing outright.
I put in a new motherboard (Abit NF7) with an Athlon 2600+ and 512MB of PC2700 for under $300. Now, all I really need is a new power supply to top it off (looking at going namebrand and getting an Antec 400W) and maybe a new mouse (been having odd mouse issues) and it’s done.
