upgrade or buy new?
 

I am sort-of happy with my computer, but lately I am so impatient with it. I was playing with my brothers computer, and his is so much faster.

Here is what I have:
17 inch monitor
IBM
Aptiva
Authentic AMD
AMD-K6(tm) 3D processor
184.0MB RAM
14.2GB hard drive (3.32 free)
386 processor speed.

Should I buy a new computer or should I just upgrade the one I have? What could I buy to make this baby go a little faster?

As always, Thank you all so much!

~ Missy

I would sudjest buying a new one. You could always do it yourself, it would be a lot cheaper. But if you don't want to do that, probably go to a computer store and buy something there.

Buy new + salvage parts of your old... namly your HDD, RAM, and CD/DVD/Burner drives you might have... Plus perhaps your processor.. might come in handy sometime..

:)

You might want to see about getting the processor replaced with the fastest your motherboard can handle. You might want to see about getting your RAM upped to 256...

Or, you can have a new computer made from parts, add the RAM from that machine to whatever the new machine has, if it's compatible, and wipe your old 14Gig hard drive clean and add it to the new computer as a slave drive.

17 inches is considered small for a monitor among us techies, but it's more than good enough for the average business or family computer, so it's a keeper.

Don't take this as advice though. They're just ideas.

Its an IMB pre-made, so you wont easily upgrade the CPU or Motherboard.

But you can up your RAM, but i dont know what OS and software you run and which concurrently.

You can free out more space. Delete or back things up.

You haven't stated which processor you have.

Analysis. The CPU upgrade for the mobo you have won't see much of an improvement, nothing more than 10 %. More ram won't speed up anything more noticable that what you see before you.

If you are gonna buy a new computer...
it might be worthy to save the RAM, if its compatiable. But im guessing its PC66 and if you add it to a new computer, it will slow down your computer. Even the Celerons are on a faster FSB these days.
Using the old PC66 ram will slow down your computer. PC66 is not upward compatible and will slow down the rest of the ram to 66 FSB.

It will, most likely, come with a DVD and CD Burner. No need to keep the old one. If you want, you can keep it, if you plan on building your own computer.

Definetly keep the Hard Drive and format it. Use it as a secondary dive. Can never have enough HD room these days.


If buggered out. Maybe more later.

if your a little savy and you wana free up some space on your drive go here: http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/content...en-files.shtml
i swear i cleared 2 gigs :eek: no lie, its kinda neat anyways.
its always fun to get new things, maybe buy a new system and keep your old one for a small server.

is it legal for MS to be able to keep your files even after you have requested that they be deleted?

If you can buy AMD K6-2+ or K6-3+ somewhere for reasonable price, that's a good choice. They are much faster than normal K6-2 or K6-3 models but aren't very easy to find.

missy,

I remember you saying before that you didn't know much about the insides of a computer, so if you intend upgrading then you're gonna have to find someone who does. The parst that you mention mean that you'll have to definitely get a new motherboard and processor, possibly a new case to hold them. The RAM that you are using will probably be too slow for the new motherboard so that will have to be replaces too. And then there is video card (AGP), sound card, etc.

To be honest, with the cost of computer parts at the moment, it would probably be more cost effective to buy a new computer. Check out the Dell or Gateway websites for an idea of prices.

You could buy two network cards and a short length of cable, and make a little computer network for yourself - you'd still be able to get online from both computers.

I know the basics of the computer, but not a whole lot. I have upgraded this computer quite a bit. It came with 64 mg ram and I added the extra ram. It also came with a 4.0 g hard drive. I bought a new hard drive and gave the old one to my friend. I cant add another h/d to this one, there is not another port for it. The tower is small and was not built for upgrades.

I guess either I will stick with this one, or start looking around for a new computer. If anyone comes across any really good deals let me know! I dont need a new computer, so I am not in a hurry, It is just another toy.

I sincerely appreciate all of your help.

~ Missy

Might be worth your while holding out until after christmas. A lot of companies such as Dell and Gateway offer special prices on stuff they have left over from the christmas market.

If you aren't really comfortable hacking on your computer, then I'd definitely say stick with the prebuilt systems.

I'd suggest that you stick with Dell for prebuilts. They are sometimes a little more expensive, but they have better support, and their systems don't suck. Of course, they are Intel's whore now, so you will have to get a Pentium 3 or 4 from them. No Athlons or AthlonXPs. :(

If you really want a good prebuilt system, you want to get an Alienware or Falcon Northwest system. Those two produce, without a doubt, the highest quality systems, prebuilt or not, that you can buy. They will cost a little more, though.

P.S. The k-6 is about on-par with the Pentium 2. It's not a 386. :)

Personally I wouldn't upgarde anything but the case and put everyting in one of these Coolermaster ATCS-210 Verdant from http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Cases_35.html (the sexy green one at the top) Not only will you love it but your brother will be envious and want it too :D

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ter_atc101.jpg
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...TC_201_FOG.jpg

schweeeeet!

The top one is ugly.

The bottom one . . . I almost want to touch myself. But, it won't look nearly as good once you yank out the drive bay covers for beige and gray drives.

i wonder how that cover works?

Re: upgrade or buy new?
 

I'd go for upgrading what you've got - you could put a second hard disk in, and up the RAM a bit more (it's so cheap at the moment, ~€60 for a 512mb stick). If you're running 95,98, or ME, then don't go over 512mb RAM, otherwise you start getting odd things happen...

You could also see what programs are running in the background, and get rid of some of them, and only run them when needed. Things like MSN messenger etc. when sitting idle in the background are still slowing up the machine.

To find things that run on startup, download this control panel addon that lists them all...

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

As regard to your processor, you need to find out which socket type the processor sits in (it should say). It's quite a simple job to get a new processor and fit it to replace your existing one, but as Neo said you have to ensure that they match.

New mb, cpu, case and mem, probably a Duron system will boost performance no end and be relativly cheep.

Just buy a new one and give the old one to the kiddies. I have an HP prebuilt that i am happy with (cept that it has 98).

http://www.insidespaces.com/dictiona.../tape-duct.JPG

+

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/pai...s/color_sp.jpg
Order this in gray/silver



TaDa!