New pc or gut the old one?

...doesn't suggest a power system, but more like an entry level system. Here, you can get something perfectly serviceable for $300 to $400.

Assuming the $400 budget you could:
Replace the motherboard, CPU, cooling fan, memory (If you're lucky, your new motherboard can use your old memory, but you likely won't see much improvement), and hardrive. You'll be able to save the case, keyboard and mouse, and the CD drive, but these are very cheap parts of the system. You might be able to re-install your operating system, but I wouldn't count on it, so add another $100.

You will, however, get to learn how to build your own computer: priceless!

the programs that you use it for will run fine on that computer. i don't think anything needs replacing, you have ample amount of storage in any case.

konny

Well, I've found in my own experience that there are some nice benefits from just gutting the old one. In fact the PC I'm using now is an old gutted one (my tower has a sticker on it that mentions 1996). If you gut it, you have a better idea where you wanna go with it. You know, look at your tower, what size board does it accomodate? Plus you have some of the groundwork already done for you. It also helps financially, being able to upgrade on a relatively piece by piece basis. The only problem you can have is compatibility, which can strike whenever you're trying to mix new parts with old ones.

Obviously, there are some good points to starting from scratch. It's all new parts, or relatively new parts, so you can have alot more confidence in how reliable it is.

If it were me? I would gut the old one. I would, and I have.

Only way I can tell you to determine what to do, is to pretty much look at what you have and determine which way is more cost effective, how much of a pain in the **** it could be, and do you feel you can make a reliable PC from an old one.

Cheers, and enjoy your new project!

Colton in the States

Based on your statement about your dad editing movies you also might want to consider getting a Mac mini or something similar.

I could extoll the Mac is better than PC argument, but I won't.

I went away to college four years ago, and took the home computer with me. As a replacement the rents got a Mac. They were a little worried at first, but eventually they grew to love it.

It sounds as if your the major source of computer knowledge in your house. Do you really want calls every week when something in Windows acts funny? Even if you don't mind, think about troubleshooting with them over the phone or having to come home because Windows lost an important file and the computer will no longer boot.

If you're still thinking PC, go with a new one. Building your own computer can be satisfying, but you don't get the service or support that comes with a new computer. If something breaks they'll be calling you.

Greetings,

Upgrading or replacement comes down to cost and features. Sometimes you may be able to replace one or two key parts of your computer to get more life out of it, other times its cheaper to just replace the entire thing.

I missed which CPU your old computer has, but in MY opinion, 512MB of RAM, 40GB of hard disk space and a CD R/RW is plenty to run Windows XP and basic applications.

(many laptops come with 128MB-512MB and 30-60GB hard disks and work just fine)

I think the key issues to your old computer "being on its last legs" is two fold:

1) its not a clean installation
2) the installation service duration is long

I recently experimented on "upgrading" a old Win98v2 desktop to XP-Pro and the resulting PC was UNUSEABLE.

**However** with the same EXACT hardware and a freshly partitioned/formatted hard disk, the PC was almost as responsive as my newer desktop.

Moral: While Windows XP can attempt to "upgrade" another version of windows, the results of doing it may not be a useable PC. Its always best to install FRESH on a CLEAN hard disk.

Secondly, over time a computers hard disk gets cluttered with old programs, service packs and all sorts of just plain JUNK (including spyware) that slows its performance to a crawl. Sometimes its a good idea to offload/remove/backup whatever data you wish to save on other media and REPARTITION/REFORMAT your hard disk and do a fresh install and fresh applicaton of the needed service packs.

Lastly, CDRW drives have come down ALOT in price since they first came out. My old desktop CDRW was giving me problems writting disks and $40 later I replaced it. A friend asked to use it and after installing it, they used a "CD LENSE CLEANER" on it. Now my old CDRW is working flawlessly in someone elses desktop!!

Moral: The LENSE on CDs and CDRW's sometimes can get dirty making them unuseable. A "CLEANER" CD can be had for $5-10 and if that does not work, a new CDRW could be had for $25-50.

You do leave some questions unanswered (like the speed of the RAM) but the minute you mention movies, that puts it over the edge. A dodgy burner, under 160GB of storage and slow CPU just won't cut movies. And as an educated guess, the RAM speed for a K6 is probably too slow as well. By your accounts of the good parts, you have an OS, good amount of RAM, two 20 GB hard drives, a monitor and speakers. Looking at that and looking at the prospect of movies, I'd definitely buy a whole new rig with the LCD that is desired.

That said, I would probably save one of the hard drives, buy it an enclosure and use it as a backup for my OS hard drive partition. As for the rest, can be made operable but will never be fast. Have your data securely wiped and look for a computer education program that donates computers to those who can't afford one. That will give a beginner a good computer and should get you a tax write-off for making the donation.

I've upgraded a lot of systems and find that usually the total level that someone can upgrade their PC too, after 2-3 years, isn't worth the upgrade. Almost to a person, they have purchased a new system within a year's time-frame.

The standards just change too quickly.

Doesn't mean it's not still a good system for SOMEONE, but if you want to do video editing and/or gaming, you'll need a beefier system.

Couple of things to note for Video editing, if you can go with the newer 64 bit PC architetures, your going to see a small performance gain now, but more in the near future. Processor speed DOES matter. As much memory as you can afford (same for your video card). And SATA disks, not IDE. 2+ disks with a RAID 0 config is usually a good idea. (Some systems now offer this as an option, if so take it!) Disks as large as you can afford.

Anyway, I hope that helps. I'm building a new system this week, so this ? was pretty fresh for me.

Have fun.

First off I don't know anything about the brand of computer you currently have but have a few major red flags to consider. Many of the major computer systems vendors do odd things to their system to try and prevent you from being able to make major upgrades to them. Their motherbooards and case designs will use non standard mounting hole layouts making fitting a new motherboard into the case a real pain. Some of the vendors use non standard motherboard power connectors in which case you might also have to replace the power supply which most likely isn't a dad idea any way with the typical OEM power supplies.

Some thing on the minus side to purchasing a new prebuilt system from a major vendor. Many (most) vendors cripple their BIOS options. That makes end user support easier for them but it also means you won't get as good performance out of the same componets as you likely would with those same components in a motherboard from one of the better known MB companies. Also you really need to watch out where vendors try to cut cost. I know of some vendors who like to brag about the fast processors and FSB speed of their systems but then in their standard configurations they install slow speed RAM that will have a very negative impact on system performance. Also you need to look closely at the hard drives they are installing. I know you are talking a desktop here but I'll use laptops as an example of where vendors screw you with HDs. Many laptops still ship with 4,800 RPM HDs standard if you are lucky you will get a 5,400 RPM drive it's very challenging to find a vendor with 7,200 RPM drives are even an option in their laptops. IF you are picky about what componets you want in a typical bargan store desktop you an figurte the price comiing out 50-150% higher by the time you specify you want to swap out the standard junk componets for goo quality ones.

At work I have no option but to use prebuilt systems. At home I've owned nothing but home built system for years. I can choose where I want to cut corners and where I want top of the line componets. A note if you are bulding your home system a good idea is to get a MB with a socket designed to take the newest fastest CPUs but then look at the current chip prices for the sweet spot where you aren't spending too much to have the latest fastest CPU. I have done this more than once and when I replaced the CPU with a faster one after a year or two my total cash outlay was a fraction of what it would of been to get the faster CPU up front. Of course then you have that old CPU and by then perhaps HDs video cards, an opytical drive, etc laying around so for a few dollars get another case and MB and you can have an extra if not state of the art system. Great for working on networking skills or trying you had at a different OS or the like. I have one old system that is pretty much dedicated to just basic scanning operations. One that has my finical records taht is neve on unless I am working with those records and only connects to the net for updates.

So I guess I would say if you like getting inside a case and your current system can be upgraded go for it. If you don't want to get inside the case then buy a system but not the typial store off the shelf one get one where you can do a custom configuration and make sure cheap or slow componets won't cripple an otherwise great system just don't be shocked if the system price at least doubles.

I would also support the idea of giving the no or low cash approach to the existing older system. Use a disk wipe utility to make sure everything is off the HD and then do a new clean OS install. I have an old PII-450 with 512MB Ram an ATA133 120MB HD that I was considering totall trashing till I did a clean rebuild going from 98SE on that system to Windows 2000 which I had an extra license for. I'm now wondering how it might run XP? I know any PIII 750MHz or faster with 512MB of RAM appear to run faster under XP than 2000. That OLD PII does a lot of web surfing. Sure it takes longer to boot and open application tha my 3.4GHz P4 but hey for basic web prowsing it's still the connection speed that limits most non streaming pages.

Good luck,

Perhaps I didn't make things clear.

My dad currently has a computer which he does movie editing on. If we get a new pc this one will pass on to me/my mum and he gets the new one.
If we upgrade, he keeps his current one, and I keep the upgraded one.

The two windows are installed on different hard disks.

The cd-rw's problem is when it cleans cd-rws it sometimes...ok...usually corrupts it. I do that on my lapop now so that doesn't matter.

I am worried about the compatability issue though.
I remember the headaches we had just putting another 256mb of RAM into it: first we bought some thinking 'that will be easy' and then it only recognised 128mb. Took the RAM back and actually took the pc into a shop and they said 'be back to you in an hour.' Took them 3 days to find RAM that would be fully recognised.

I think that's covered everything...I am drifting towards new because of the compability thing though.

Because of fast technology advances, clean gut might not work for you. First of all, your motherboard probably won't support new components, and your FSB might be too low for newer CPUs. You may need to stick with PATA hard drives and missed out on the new SATA150 or SATA II HD. I recommend keeping the CRT if it doesn't bother you too much because CRTs still have the best image out of all displays.

If you want to keep this thing, install Linux on it instead.

To make my answer short, the money you would save by gutting the old system and replacing the mainboard and such is very negligible. Also, older computers tend to have lower wattage power supplies which will not do well on the new mainboards and the requirements and upgraded computer may have. So, it's best to just replace, even if you build it yourself, which would also save money. Buy a good tower case with a power supply of at least 350 or 400 watts (American scale - not sure about British range) and purchase a motherboard/processor/memory full kit (that way everything is compatible) and install them into the tower, and you'll be up and running... (well... with your old hard drive and CD/ROM, etc.).

Send me an email at cowboytech@cowboytechsystems.com if you need more advice.

alright, honestly when it comes down to it, you may as well put together a new computer whether or not u can upgrade from the old, as opposed to buying a ready one.

First off as others have mentioned, you get to customize, choose where you need to spend your money most, as opposed to having the dealer stick you with a 400 gig hard drive and a celeron processor. Cheaper? Worst case scenario you'd pay close to a dealer's price, but cheaper nonetheless...

Granted, you will need to do some research and select the best combination of components for the job, but honestly its all part of the fun... plus you can't always expect the dealers to line them up very well anyway...

Now, in your case, you can still re-use the optical drives (CD, CD-RW), as well as the hard drives. Although going for SATA hard drives might be something you may want to look at, the old hard drives will serve you well too... the RAM is likely not going to be compatible with the new system, nor is the board or cpu... periphals like speakers, monitor and printers should be fine, power supply may need an upgrade.

Basicly, the main components you will need: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Power Supply (maybe), Video Card (unless you get it integrated in motherboard, but those aren't too good), and possibly a case incase the one you're using is not compatible...

if you need any help or advice on selecting your components, you can always email me at yoni45@gmail.com

good luck =D

the computer world is a world that do not ask for upgrades, but for new technology and it is what it's all about nu processors nu main boards, nu video cards etc ... so before thinkin' bout keepin' your old pc think 'bout getting a new one!!!!
cause the cost is always going down!!!

i think you're better off buying a new PC. a new Compaq desktop with Intel Celeron processor's only about $400-$500 here in Canada. if desired, you can get some real cheap Pentium 4 computers from Dell or other companies for like, $700. i'd say its better also because the newer ones use less electricity, saving bills, and also they come with the latest softwares that saves you work, or works better than the older ones. (you can, for instance, install Windows XP on Win Me computer, just like my old one, but i think its unstable and its lots of problem if you need to restore it.) Newer games, like Halo 2 works only with sufficient video memories, and those video memories cost like $200 for a 128MB one, so i think its not worth it to upgrade a old computer. buy a new one!

First off, does the computer do what you want it too? Then why upgrade? Assuming it is too slow for you, my suggestion is to buy a newer used system. A system that is only a few years old will probably be better than what you have.
While I build my own computers, I do not advise that for everyone since it takes some thought and time.
The biggest problem with what you have, and I am making an assumption here, is that you have a "ka-chunk" power switch, that is, a push-on (and the button makes a click and stays in.
If you have this type of machine, best to get a newer one instead of upgrading. If you have a momentary-on mains switch (click and the switch comes back out) then you probably have an upgradeable system. This is the biggest determining factor since the newer machines use a different power supply and mains switch.
Having to power off a machine after is says "Windows is Shut Down" is a pain and wastes a lot of energy if not actually shut down.
Newer used machines can be found for cheap and work very well. Like you mentioned, a machine from '02 would be a fine upgrade and perfectly useable!

If Dad is editing video, sounds like he could benefit from a new power system ($$$). But if price is the issue, I'd be looking at what you can do to improve the old one. If you've been looking at some of those pre-built systems advertising between $350 - $400 including Monitor & printer, look very closely at what come inside. I've watched too many friends buy these things against my advice, only to be disappointed in less than the first month. They get a Celeron processor and not enough Ram to adequately run the OS & OEM software that came installed. They probably give you a smaller hard drive than you would have picked (Need lots of HD storage for video) and most come with all the adware you would ever want already preinstalled. I've seen some of these things come out of the box with components that were not compatible - even worse, the manufacturer was aware of the problem, but kept telling the buyer they were doing something wrong, (until I took the phone and set them straight). They already had a fix for it, but did not want to tell the person about it. That's "Buyer Beware" at it's worst! And that free printer comes with a "starter" ink cartridge - not full. So when you go to buy ink, you'll find out why the printer was free!

If reformating did not remove Windows ME, you didn't really reformat. I'd start with a bigger, faster hard drive - 80 gig or better, and do a clean install of XP on the faster drive and convert one of the 20G to a slave drive or remove both altogether. Replace the CD-RW with a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. You have plenty of Ram. I just don't understand a computer that recent being "on it's last leg". I fix up old computers that people throw away all the time and give them to kids, who otherwise would not have any technology. The two biggest problems I see most often are dust (clogged fan & vents, dust build-up on cpu & other components causing them to heat), and adware/spyware plus a lot of installed programs unnecessarily running on start-up. Either of these are perfomance killers, but both can slow your system to unusable!

Of course, if Dad is willing to drop the bucks for a monster machine for his video ventures, I'd gladly take his hand-me-down and clean up the older one to donate to a less fortunate child.