Which way to go?

richj

Hi,
I have an aging desktop that is starting to fail, HDD(IDE) and Memory. The windows install is corrupted in someway which won't allow me to do updates.

So the question is do I buy a cheap box http://www.ebuyer.com/251310-extra-value-desktop-7873-1036

or do I spend some more (£500?) to get a bit more longevity out of it? what is suggested?

thanks
Rich

danmanchester

Depends on how old your desktop is (?) and the spec and if a reinstall of windows could fix your corrupt installation.

But that box from your link to ebuyer does look a good bargain and is probably money better spent on that than updating an old box. Remember though it comes without an operating system.

richj

6yr old
2.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64

danmanchester

Then without a shadow of a doubt that one from ebuyer will seem like a ferrari in comparison

I recently upgraded my own 5 year old self built pc which was a AMD Athlon 2x64 4400 chip to a Phenom 1100T and the difference is "PHENOMenal" (but I replaced other stuff too:motherboard/cooler/ram etc) in your case you'd be replacing your old AMD for an Intel machine - the difference will still be amazing.

richj

but would it make more sense to spend a bit more for something that should be a bit more future proof?

closed

There is quite a bit of bloat on your machine, it may benefit from a windows reinstall

richj

repeated checkdisk on boot and windows crashing, which then returns to a microsoft page that reports the memory has errors. windows won't allow me to install anything - adobe etc... just keeps giving errors - initialisation errors.

closed

backup, reinstall windows

chkdsk on boot happens if the machine isn't shutdown properly, doesn't mean a hdd fault.

crashes are invariably causes by software

TakeThis

richj wrote: »

repeated checkdisk on boot and windows crashing, which then returns to a microsoft page that reports the memory has errors. windows won't allow me to install anything - adobe etc... just keeps giving errors - initialisation errors.

Take the RAM out and give the contacts a clean with a pencil eraser.

gonzo127

not going against closed's recommendations as if it isn’t hardware fault then their instructions will sort it.

however to answer the original question - as ever it all depends, if you are likely to use the power you would get in a more expensive system then yes that would be the best bet,

however if you only use your computer for the basics, web, office music and video, then there really is no need to spend more money as these will not get much more demanding in the future, at least to the point that a more powerful system (in today’s specs) will give you much more life out of a system

GunJack

must admit I've been considering one of those ebuyer systems for myself........