New or Upgrade

horsenailbucket

Hi, ok here's the question.

My Dell PC is about 3 years old so I'm looking to upgrade. I have loads of progs and data on my hard disk.

Should I go for a straight new PC then reinstall everything, or should I consider a barebone deal such as this,

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?BB-X2DB

then just add the HD and away I go?

Any similar experiences? Cheers

albertross_2

If it is XP home, swapping the drive may not work due to Windows Product activation. You can get a new Dell for about the same price. What's wrong with the old one?

VincentVega

Swapping your hard drive will probably not work anyway. Unlike Windows 95/98/Me, XP is quite sensitive to hardware changes and you'll doubtlessly be faced with a BSOD when you boot up.

Reinstalling is the best option: you'll be able to make a fresh start and clean out all the junk you've accumulated.

horsenailbucket

albertross wrote:

If it is XP home, swapping the drive may not work due to Windows Product activation. You can get a new Dell for about the same price. What's wrong with the old one?

It is slow now on games etc and takes about 10 mins to boot up. Its a 2.3GHz with 512Ram. I'm nervous about reinstalling all my programmes on a new machine.

Thanks for your help.

hobo28

If you really want to upgrade, I'd get a new Dell and save some money.

The PC wou have is still pretty decent spec. Just depends on the type of games you want to play. Have you tried uninstalling unwanted stuff, defrag HD etc?

albertross_2

I'm not a gamer, so can't advise on those issues, but a 10 minute startup is excessive. My 8yr old P2 400 takes about a minute, it is nowhere near as powerful as your existing PC.

Are you sure you are free from spyware, viruses, fully patched https://www.windowsupdate.com , and don't have excessive crud in your startup (msconfig/autoruns/hijackthis will tell you what you have)

A good cleanup might help (https://www.ccleaner.com),
http://safety.live.com/site/en-US/default.htm?s_cid=ideas_wlsc

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html

Toxteth_OGrady

Do a Windows Repair Install.

:cool:

TOG

fairytooth

Get a new one - the regular deals are unbeatable. If you have a SATA drive keep it and put it in the new machine when it comes.

albertross_2

If it is slower now than when you got it, it is down to software configuration, not hardware. If you are intent on getting a new one, you can throw the old one in my direction - it's probably got at least another 5 years life left in it..

T4i

Your current CPU is faster than mine ......and faster than alot of peoples CPU.

Nothing wrong with 2.3Ghz CPU, its not the fastest but its even further from been the slowest.


I would buy another 512mb RAM for it. Upgrade the graphics (if possible) - backup your data/progs to a DVD or External HDD (if possible) and re-install windows.

Believe me, it will seem like you have a new p.c anyhow, but without spending £400.