Advice please? New system or stick with old?
Need some advice...
I had a buddy help me build a computer almost two years ago. I am a novice with computers... I understand the basics plus a little, but not much more than that. I don't really talk to him that much anymore, he is very busy with work and now lives 700 miles away from me... I really don't know anyone else to keep this thing running. I am looking to do some upgrading, or buy a new system, but I would appreciate some advice if you guys wouldn't mind. Here is what my current system is:
P4 1.6 Northwood 478
Abit BG7 I845G
Corsair CMX256A-3200 256MB
Alpha PAL8942 Fan 80x15
IBM 80gb 7200 ATA100
P.O.S. 36x12x48 CDRW
Sony 16X DVD
Raidtronic Al ATX Case
Altec Lansing AVS500
Old 17" Dell Monitor
Nice Keyboard and Wireless Mouse
I think I had about $800-900 or so into it without the monitor (reused)
Basically I'm at the point now that I need more harddrive space, and my system is acting funny at times. I would like to backup my drive and maybe reformat and reload windows and office to start over again because I have never done that since the beginning.
I use the computer quite a bit, but not for anything too demanding... watching movies is about the max. I do a fair amount of photo editing with Photoshop and some Website stuff, but I really don't game at all. Just basically listen to music, watch movies, work on photos and surf the net. I do spend quite a bit of time on it, so I'd like it to work properly. I admit I have been lax in keeping the guard up to keeping it running properly... no firewall right now, and apparently the version of windows I received Microsoft doesn't like much because they won't let me get SP2 with my key. So I would like to get some defenses up, but now the computer is just doing some odd things that I can't explain (ie not playing MP3's sometimes - WMP says something about a bad driver; or IE will freeze, or various other weird things). I would like a clean slate with proper security features, but is it worth it on this machine? I guess my options are:
1. Buy a new version of windows, buy another harddrive, backup all my photos and movies onto the new drive, reformat, load the new windows with SP2, get a firewall up and running and keep trucking with my old system and hope it runs good as it has up until a few months ago.
2. Or, I could buy a prepackaged machine and save some headaches that I am not equipped to deal with. Money is an object, plus if my old system is still decent I'd rather not part with it for no reason. Is my old system worth any money? As a whole or parted out?
Should I buy a stripped down Dell and use some of my parts to make it better? I was thinking I could reuse the harddrive (as a second), speakers, keyboard, mouse, and DVD???
3. Or, I could do option number one and include some other new hardware to liven my current system up a little (faster processor, etc.) Is the stuff I have at all compatible with the newer stuff? (keep in mind I really don't know what I'm doing once I open that thing up, so this option could be risky!!!)
Any advice is greatly appreciated!!! I would like to spend as little as possible, but if I could get some money back out of my old machine maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Thanks!!!!!
I had a buddy help me build a computer almost two years ago. I am a novice with computers... I understand the basics plus a little, but not much more than that. I don't really talk to him that much anymore, he is very busy with work and now lives 700 miles away from me... I really don't know anyone else to keep this thing running. I am looking to do some upgrading, or buy a new system, but I would appreciate some advice if you guys wouldn't mind. Here is what my current system is:
P4 1.6 Northwood 478
Abit BG7 I845G
Corsair CMX256A-3200 256MB
Alpha PAL8942 Fan 80x15
IBM 80gb 7200 ATA100
P.O.S. 36x12x48 CDRW
Sony 16X DVD
Raidtronic Al ATX Case
Altec Lansing AVS500
Old 17" Dell Monitor
Nice Keyboard and Wireless Mouse
I think I had about $800-900 or so into it without the monitor (reused)
Basically I'm at the point now that I need more harddrive space, and my system is acting funny at times. I would like to backup my drive and maybe reformat and reload windows and office to start over again because I have never done that since the beginning.
I use the computer quite a bit, but not for anything too demanding... watching movies is about the max. I do a fair amount of photo editing with Photoshop and some Website stuff, but I really don't game at all. Just basically listen to music, watch movies, work on photos and surf the net. I do spend quite a bit of time on it, so I'd like it to work properly. I admit I have been lax in keeping the guard up to keeping it running properly... no firewall right now, and apparently the version of windows I received Microsoft doesn't like much because they won't let me get SP2 with my key. So I would like to get some defenses up, but now the computer is just doing some odd things that I can't explain (ie not playing MP3's sometimes - WMP says something about a bad driver; or IE will freeze, or various other weird things). I would like a clean slate with proper security features, but is it worth it on this machine? I guess my options are:
1. Buy a new version of windows, buy another harddrive, backup all my photos and movies onto the new drive, reformat, load the new windows with SP2, get a firewall up and running and keep trucking with my old system and hope it runs good as it has up until a few months ago.
2. Or, I could buy a prepackaged machine and save some headaches that I am not equipped to deal with. Money is an object, plus if my old system is still decent I'd rather not part with it for no reason. Is my old system worth any money? As a whole or parted out?
Should I buy a stripped down Dell and use some of my parts to make it better? I was thinking I could reuse the harddrive (as a second), speakers, keyboard, mouse, and DVD???
3. Or, I could do option number one and include some other new hardware to liven my current system up a little (faster processor, etc.) Is the stuff I have at all compatible with the newer stuff? (keep in mind I really don't know what I'm doing once I open that thing up, so this option could be risky!!!)
Any advice is greatly appreciated!!! I would like to spend as little as possible, but if I could get some money back out of my old machine maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Thanks!!!!!
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Comments
Judging by the chipset your board sports I'd say it likely will handle a 2.4a P4 and possibly up to a 3.06 P4b (533fsb with HT enabled) you might need a bios flash for that though.
How much do you have to spend? I mean really spend? These guys can generally toss a system together from an online vendor for pretty cheap and recycling some of your parts will likely help but for balls out performance with a P4 (if you're dedicated to one that is) I'd suggest a new mobo based on the 865 chipset and a 3.2c P4 with 2x512mb sticks of decent quality MATCHED ram.