Upgrading existing hardware

Should you upgrade hardware made for XP?

from WinCustomize Forums

Thought I put this up for those interested to kick around.

Last year I began to feel somewhat hardware constrained.  My PC is an HP Media Center machine from mid 2005. 
I had added a low end graphics card ATI Hypermemory type to HP's standard configuration.  So, I had a 2.4Gz
AMD 3800 single core CPU, 200 GB's of HD storage, 1 Gb of Ram, and a starter graphics card. 

This was initialy adequate but, recently it was feeling sluggish and performance constrained, especially on some games. 
So, I began to wonder do I try and save up alot more for a whole new system or put in some money on upgrading what
is currently obsolete technology?

I went ahead and opted for upgrading my current system.  Here's what I added: Removed old RAM and installed 2
GB's of fast OCZ memory(PC 3200), a new power supply (Corsair 450W 80+ Cert.), a new graphics card (Full featured ATI
DirectX 9.0C 512MB card), and 300GB external HD(no spare internal slot).

So, am I happy with this decision?  Yes, it's worked out great.  The additional memory makes it possible to play
games without windows swapping out to the pagefile.  The games I play are more responsive now and with the full
featured graphics card newer games such as EE3 play well and everything can be run at higher graphics quality settings.
Moreover, since XP is still the largest installed base of home PC's, many new software titles will be made XP compatible
for awhile into the future.  I am thinking at least through all of next year.

So, I believe I can now wait until sometime next year to relook at a new system where I will get more bang for the
buck options to consider.  A super fast duo-core system will be cheaper next year as will entry level quad core
machines. 

So, what do think?  Are you sticking with your current technology?  As you may have noticed the decision for me
switched from an OS centric one, when do I need Vista?, to a hardware centric one, how to have adequate hardware
performance?  This was because I realized, for me, Vista isn't required --- yet. 

83,748 views 32 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A very logical approach from where I sit.  ;) 

I suppose some folks may say "yea but you could of put that money towards a totally new system with Vista. We all make our choices based upon our immediate needs, or at least that's what we should be doing.  :SURPRISED: 
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A very logical approach from where I sit.
End of quote


Well, that's how I managed to resolve this one. On the one hand it's 1 generation back in Tech and not worth much new money, on the other hand it still worked fairly well and replacing it all was more money than I wanted to spend right now.

What finally pushed me to do something was performance. My system was showing signs of being memory constrained especially with some games and the graphics card I had was a wimp.
I also realised that it was possible by spending a bit now, I could afford a faster more capable PC in 2009 than if I tried to buy that level of PC today.

I was also wondering what are other people doing? Are they trying to boost the performance of their current hardware? Memory has gotten alot cheaper and so has storage. It certainly seems like a good time to upgrade XP based machines and wait another year to see what a good performing Vista PC looks like.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I upgraded my two Dell Inspiron laptops with 2gb (max) ram, and Seagate 100gb, 7200rmp internal hdds. The fast internal hds really made a difference in application performance, speed and startup time, more so than the ram.

Also, I think Seabass put up a link some time ago in a post about updating drivers and doing a driver scan at Driver Agent. I always have my drivers for all my hw up to date, including bios. I primarily use Dell OEM rivers from their site.

Well, after driver agent said some of my chipset drivers were bad, I went to the Intel site and updated my chipset drivers (also includes hdd controler on inspirons) with the Intel chipset drivers, rather than the Dell OEM drivers I had been using.

Hallelujah! Even more speed now. BTW, I didn't buy driver agent. I just used their free scan as a tool to check my drivers, then went driver hunting on my own.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It certainly seems like a good time to upgrade XP based machines and wait another year to see what a good performing Vista PC looks like.
End of quote


Agreed.

Added an extra gb of ram to mine in december along with a new video card. The video card ended up not working correctly so after spending a couple days trying to get things straightened out I ended up returning it. But its basic purpose was to add a second monitor.
Looking now for a larger monitor instead and thinking about getting another backup hd.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
200 MB hard drive? How did you get Windows running?
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A good way to go and wise move BDBF  :) 

My XP desktop was the same age and I've spent 300 bucks over the last six months upgrading the processor, ram, graphics card and dvd-rw drive plus a new keyboard and mouse. All courtesy of careful buying on eBay, Newegg.com and Bestbuy. Add in a couple of good utility progs like TuneUp and PerfectDisk and it's a 'flying machine'.

Faster than anything I've tried that has Vista on it with better hardware.  :) 
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm sorry I ment it was a GD MB hard drive or shortened to GB's as more commonly used.lol :LOL: 
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A GD MB hard drive? What's that?
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My XP desktop was the same age and I've spent 300 bucks over the last six months upgrading the processor, ram, graphics card and dvd-rw drive plus a new keyboard and mouse. All courtesy of careful buying on eBay, Newegg.com and Bestbuy. Add in a couple of good utility progs like TuneUp and PerfectDisk and it's a 'flying machine'.
End of quote


I think you hit the nail on the head. Right now there's no overwhelming reason for a casual home type PC user to switch to Vista and with the cost of XP hardware being cheap it's a good time to upgrade and have a high performance XP machine for a few hundred dollars. Doing your homework and knowing your PC and applications is the key. For me it was graphics card and memory upgrades to improve performance and these required a new power supply since I only had a 250W PS. And, you're right my rig is a flying XP machine that runs the software I use better than ever.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My XP desktop was the same age and I've spent 300 bucks over the last six months upgrading the processor, ram, graphics card and dvd-rw drive plus a new keyboard and mouse. All courtesy of careful buying on eBay, Newegg.com and Bestbuy. Add in a couple of good utility progs like TuneUp and PerfectDisk and it's a 'flying machine'.I think you hit the nail on the head. Right now there's no overwhelming reason for a casual home type PC user to switch to Vista and with the cost of XP hardware being cheap it's a good time to upgrade and have a high performance XP machine for a few hundred dollars. Doing your homework and knowing your PC and applications is the key. For me it was graphics card and memory upgrades to improve performance and these required a new power supply since I only had a 250W PS. And, you're right my rig is a flying XP machine that runs the software I use better than ever.
End of quote


Spot on, plus if you shop around you can pick up some real bargains - I picked up a brand new HP DVD-RW with lightscribe and a 1GB of ram on newegg.com a couple of weeks ago for 70 bucks. That's crazy money  :) 
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Leo, you're absolutely right. I got an LG DVD-RW for about $75 brand new. My nVidia 8500GT 512mb was bought on sale for $129.99, and I bought 2 1gb ram sticks for less than $100. My Pentium 4 3.4gHz processor I bought from the local PC store for $150 new (they were having a sale). 2 internal HDD and one external. And a 750w power supply for $100.

all told, I might have spent about $650 to upgrade my PC to MY standards, not some faceless company's......
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh, and as for Vista vs XP...Microsoft is continuing primary support for XP until next year. Secondary support until 2014. So XP will be good for awhile. I love XP (but I'm getting Vista Ultimate from MS for free...).
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My solution. Screw Vista.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
all told, I might have spent about $650 to upgrade my PC to MY standards, not some faceless company's......
End of quote


Well I spent less than that in Oz dollars to upgrade my PC to MY standards & greater Vista compatibility with an AMD Athlon x2 6400 AM2 Black Edition @ 3.4ghz, a Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 mobo, 4gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM, 2 SATA DVD RAM drives and a Galaxy GeForce 8600GT @ 256mb.

All up it cost me AU$579.00 (US$530.00) and Vista totally flies on it.... 52 seconds from button push to desktop usability, whereas XP Pro on the same rig (dual boot) takes 1 minute 16 seconds. However, so as hopefully not to start a Vista vs XP flame-fest here, I am not pro-Vista anti-XP. I use and enjoy both OSes....each plays an important part of my puter experience. Also, I am in the process of building a dedicated XP Home machine which I'll use as a backup and gaming rig.

I probably wouldn't have bothered upgrading, being my setup wasn't that old, but my 939 socket mobo developed a fault, meaning an upgrade of the CPU and RAM because 939 + DDR1 is no longer available in Oz.... and being I already had Vista, it made no sense to go half-measure with an under-powered machine.

Screw Vista.
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I did.... screwed it into my rig and it ain't coming out!!!! Put super glue on the screws and filed the heads down. ;p
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Starkers - Why the heck do you need 4 gigs of RAM?

By the way I got you beat. 35 to 40 seconds to boot. And the topper is that my machine has less hardware than yours.

Heck I could build 2 machines that would run Vista just fine with the price you paid for your upgrades.

I think you may have got ripped off.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Heck I could build 2 machines that would run Vista just fine with the price you paid for your upgrades.I think you may have got ripped off.
End of quote

There is a difference between running "just fine" (aka just barely making it) and then having real actual performance. Doesn't sound like he got ripped off to me. I spent more than that on upgrading (ok..total rebuild) my XP machine [specs here]. Must have spent about $800 (not including the $500 on the monitor).
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Speaking of computers anyone seen that rig that pcworld is giving away WWW Link? I mean I wouldn't complain if I won it but I think in some cases some of the stuff they bought and put into it was bought just because of how expensive it was and not necessarily because it was good stuff.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bebi - running just fine as in running just fine not barely making it.

I've already proven in the past that you do not need to spend alot of money to get great performance.

I stick by my statement. He got ripped off. On top of that I think you either overspent or got ripped off as well.

You didn't use Ebay did you?
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
God no, only Newegg for me. I did my research for months before finally ordering the parts and I am quite happy with my machine. I worked for the money, I got what I wanted, I have no problems with it.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My point is that a 40 dollar part on Newegg could be had on Ebay for half that. And yes the parts I get on Ebay are new in sealed plastic as well.

You could have saved money...
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There's no way I'd buy computer parts on ebay. I TRUST newegg, ebay can't give me that kind of assurance and I'm willing to pay more to newegg to get it.


Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've never had any problems buying from eBay... except where I myself have made a mistake purchasing a wrong item or some such.
You've just gotta keep your wits about you and take care who you buy from.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Starkers - Why the heck do you need 4 gigs of RAM?
End of quote


Cos I don't like empty DIMM slots! :LOL:

Seriously, 4 gigs of RAM, accompanied by a 3,4ghz dual core powers Vista along more than adequately, so I can multi-task with ease. Can you... with a Vista experience in the low 3's, as I recall?? 3.2, wasn't it?

Bebi - running just fine as in running just fine not barely making it.
End of quote


Now would that be just fine in XP? Cos I doubt very much that you'd be zipping along in Vista with that low a WEI score....so unless your rig is powered by Speedy Gonzales on an exercise bike, I find it incredible that you can boot Vista in 35 - 40 seconds. ;p

As for being ripped off...FAR from it. I may have overspent a little, being that it wasn't exactly allocated for in our budget, but I'm totally satisfied with my choices/purchases, and I doubt that you'd get the exact same components for much less than US$530.00 brand new.

That's quite inexpensive for a rig with 3.4ghz CPU, 4gigs of RAM, a nVidia 8600GT GPU and twin DVD RAM drives. Sorry, make that AU$1200.00 (US$1100) when you add what was already in it: a Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Fatality Pro with remote and front inputs/output; 5.1 Logitech speaker system; Winfast TV tuner card; memory card reader; Linskys Wi.fi card; 4 HDD's and enough fans to whip up a cyclone.

Oh, and I got $200 for my old 939 socket AMD Athlon x2 4600... the bloke offered that much due to its unavailability, thus saving him a more expensive upgrade... so in effect, my out of pocket cost at the time was $379.00. Nope, don't need to take a Valium over that. :p

Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Starkers: I added up how much your upgrades would cost from Ebay. $467 dollars. Not much of a savings I guess.

I still fail to see why you need that much power.

Oh and by the way the only reason I have a 3.2 score is because of my video. My score would be a high 4 or low 5 should I invest in a good card.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Starkers,
Are you running x64 version of the OS? If not, then you are not seeing all 4GB of ram.

I use 4GB because I use VMWare quite heavily and need that extra ram to run multiple VM's.