Upgrade or buy a new base unit..

ViksB

My mums old computer is porely
It has Win 98 on it and 256Mb RAM, I forget how much hard drive.
It did have AVG on it but AVG and now making everyone change to AVG 8, which can't run on an operating system lower than Win 2000. We have looked at Avast, but she doesn't have enough available RAM.
I have scanned her computer through crucial and found that I can upgrade the RAM by about 500Mb which would be a huge improvement (approx £45) but she really needs to upgrade windows.
I am beginning to suspect it might be easier and possibly cheaper to buy a new base unit.
She is a light user of the internet and does the usual office applications and digital photo stuff.
I tried to talk her into the Dell offer
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/221764/dell-vostro-200-desktop-base-unit-2/
but she is convinced she doesn't want dell.
I was lead to believe that if you are operating Vista you really ought to have 2GB RAM and there are no other cheapish base units I can find with this spec, so I was looking at ones with XP on, but struggling to find any good deals.
I'm not sure what the minimum is to run XP well.

Thanks for any help

Viks

RichPyke

Do a mix of both... i.e. make a new one and use some old bits (case, monitor, kb, mouse, speakers) - so in effect, upgrade.

I built mine for £200 for a good spec which runs vista ultimate with everything turned on, can run office and 3d drawing programs (AutoCAD) at the same time and hasn't given me any issues.

A good place to get components is www.ebuyer.com cheap and quick, never had a problem with them. Shop around though, Amazon, play, ebay etc have components too. www.maplin.co.uk have offers sometimes of mobo, processor and ram for around £100-£150, it may pay to take a look at them.

Oh, and £45 for 512Mb ram is extorionate! I didn't pay that for the 2Gb RAM I have!

If you are capable (and believe me, it's easy) then I would upgrade not buy a new one.


Although, saying that, what speed processor is it? Swapping the 256Mb ram for 512 or even 1024 may be enough to run win xp. It may even be capable now... my dad's is and it's only a slow cpu (less than 1Ghz) and about 384Mb RAM. Not very fast but it does for him for internet, a few basic games and office.

fwor

You don't quite give enough info on her current PC to write it off for sure - an indication of what processor/clock speed it has would give a better idea than just how much RAM it has.

However, if it dates from when Win98 was "current", it probably is too old to be worth updating.

If she just does email and surfing the internet then the Dell that you point to would be a very good buy. I can't think of any good reason to avoid Dell - I've bought from them in the past and not regretted it.

If you want to stick with XP you'll probably get the best performance out of a "minimum spec" PC, but of course Vista will be supported for longer. XP will run quite happily for most users with 512Mb, but memory for new computers is so cheap you might as well go for 1Gb.

nomoneytoday

RichPyke wrote: »

Do a mix of both... i.e. make a new one and use some old bits (case, monitor, kb, mouse, speakers) - so in effect, upgrade.

I built mine for £200 for a good spec which runs vista ultimate with everything turned on, can run office and 3d drawing programs (AutoCAD) at the same time and hasn't given me any issues.

Oh, and £45 for 512Mb ram is extorionate! I didn't pay that for the 2Gb RAM I have!

The Dell offer is for a complete base unit for £172 - that's less than the £200 upgrade and will offer guaranted matched bits and a modern operating system.

£150 for a mobo/cpu/memory bundle deal won't include a licenced copy of windoze. At that age it may even be different size (AT vs ATX) so need a new case. By that stage the £172 offer looks pretty good IMHO

The £45 for 512mb is probably for SDRAM. DDR2 wasn't invented in 1998.

100pints

There are some cheap PCs with licenses for Windows XP from 99.99 up on www.bigpockets.co.uk

I haven't used them myself but they look very reasonable for new PCs that are slightly out of date.

Personally, I buy my own PCs from eBay cheaply and do my own messing about on them
:beer:

wanye

why is your mum so set against dell? i recommend them completely. been using them regularly for kit for over 5 years now (i resell stuff and do bespoke kit), and never had an issue with them.

i used to build PCs from components, but these days, unless you want a very specific setup, theres just no point (and no profit to be made doing it compared to the amount of work involved)

if you *really* dont want the dell kit, try bigpockets... something like this - http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?product=solv060
add to it a £20 dvd writer, and youre set for a nice basic pc.

HTH

ViksB

Thanks for all your advice.
I completely agree about the Dell - I think it is a great offer, but someone once said something bad against Dell and she refuses to go with them. I am tempted to get it anyway as she has left in in charge with buying or upgrading her PC.
The memory was SDRAM as I had never heard of it until trying to find extra memory for her. I can't remember the rest of the spec of her PC.

I have upgraded memory in the past. Is it as easy to change a DVD player with a DVD writer?
Thanks everyone
Viks

wanye

as long as you get one with the same interface, its just a matter of swapping it out (itll either be IDE or SATA).. if its ide, just make sure the jumper on the back is set the same as the one you take out.

i mustve spent £30k with dell since 2002, and *never* had an issue that couldnt be resolved by getting the call centre monkey to escalate my issue to a manager/technician.

Justin_Scotland

I agree with all the above that at the price point it is really quite hard to justify a self buld when you can buy a dell ready made for you for so little cash. If you wanted a high end machine then the advice would be different but for most normal household uses there really is very little point in not buying the dell.

fwor

loaner wrote: »

Avast will run easily in 256M on W98, if that is the only reason you are considering spending money, try it. Windows 98 is much lighter on ram than XP or Vista, so little point upgrading to 512.

Hmmm... but as MS ceased support for Win98 two years ago... Mind you, as others have pointed out recently, you might possibly be more secure with 98, as most hackers probably wouldn't stoop so low as to be trying to find new security flaws in it these days...

However, if the OP wanted to add any current hardware (e.g. a DVD writer) they will probably not find any Win98 drivers for it.

[Deleted User]

wanye wrote: »

as long as you get one with the same interface, its just a matter of swapping it out (itll either be IDE or SATA).. if its ide, just make sure the jumper on the back is set the same as the one you take out.

i mustve spent £30k with dell since 2002, and *never* had an issue that couldnt be resolved by getting the call centre monkey to escalate my issue to a manager/technician.

You might struggle to get something that has drivers for Windows 98 now, most support only goes as far back as Windows 2000.