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New Computer or Upgrade?

Hello
-well first of all, it's taken me the best part of half an hour to get to the stage of writing this post, as this computer is well and truly s**t!

Right, I'm home for Christmas and my mum's computer is shockingly slow. I've been telling her for ages to get a new one, and she's almost buckled...
My brother now tells her that she should just upgrade this computer, and should just got o PC World and ask their opinion - I know they'll just try to sell us a new computer, so though I'd ask your collective expert opinions...

it has:
192MB RAM
2.2GHz (intel centrino) CPU
72GB HDD

whaddya think?
We'd also get a nice shiny flat panel monitor instead of this beast I'm staring in to!

My brother says that if more than one of the above needs upgrading, then we'd be better off buying new.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Ambla
«1345

Comments

  • planemad
    planemad Posts: 569 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Get new mate if its just a home system PC World/Currys are doing this Acer Dual Core set-up with a 19" wide LCD for £299.
  • Hello
    -well first of all, it's taken me the best part of half an hour to get to the stage of writing this post, as this computer is well and truly s**t!

    Right, I'm home for Christmas and my mum's computer is shockingly slow. I've been telling her for ages to get a new one, and she's almost buckled...
    My brother now tells her that she should just upgrade this computer, and should just got o PC World and ask their opinion - I know they'll just try to sell us a new computer, so though I'd ask your collective expert opinions...

    it has:
    192MB RAM
    2.2GHz (intel centrino) CPU
    72GB HDD

    whaddya think?
    We'd also get a nice shiny flat panel monitor instead of this beast I'm staring in to!

    My brother says that if more than one of the above needs upgrading, then we'd be better off buying new.

    Thanks for your thoughts!

    Ambla

    Upgrade, based on what you've said.

    You can get phenomenally more power plus a 19" flat screen for less than £400.
    You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take - Wayne Gretzky

    Any advice that you receive from me is worth exactly what you paid for it. Not a penny more or a penny less.
  • Well RaM can be upped to 1 Gb, nowt wrong with a 2.2Ghz CPU if she doesn't use it for much

    I have 80gb HDD on one pc, which is more than enough as it is a pure processing unit, does nothing but render images all day every day, but it would do nothing at allwithout RAM

    TFT screens are easier on the eye, and 17" ones cost nothing these days

    The fact that you have 192Gb of Ram suggests that you might be sharing it with on board graphics. If so a separate graphics card would be a good solution. Depending on your motherboard, it wouldn't be too expensive to upgrade. What operating system is on it, and what motherboard is inside?
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,618 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Take the RAM up to 512Mb at least, then reinstall windows and drivers to remove all the crud.

    If she has the space for a CRT screen, why replace it?

    You could do the ram for < £30 and a couple of hours effort. :money:
  • Amba_Gambla
    Amba_Gambla Posts: 12,107 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Upgrade, based on what you've said.

    You can get phenomenally more power plus a 19" flat screen for less than £400.


    But at the moment, for £400 couldn't I get a new system with flat screen, more memory and more HDD.....?
  • Amba_Gambla
    Amba_Gambla Posts: 12,107 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    pgilc1 wrote: »
    Take the RAM up to 512Mb at least, then reinstall windows and drivers to remove all the crud.

    If she has the space for a CRT screen, why replace it?

    You could do the ram for < £30 and a couple of hours effort. :money:


    we run windows XP - we never had cds when we bought the system (possibly got recovery discs?) how would we be able to start from scratch?

    I know I can get cheap memory from crucial......
  • HugoSP
    HugoSP Posts: 2,467 Forumite
    I would go with the upgrade arguement.

    Up the Ram to 1GB, and download ccleaner and remove all the rubbish.

    Also install and run some free anti virus and anti spyware - you will be surprised at what you find.

    If it is running really slow you may have malware on it. May I suggest you register here and have a read of these forums.

    http://forums.thatcomputerguy.us/index.php?showforum=39

    Go to the Read First section first and follow the instuctions. Now this may take the best part of a day if your pc is really slow. Then start your own thread. If you go down this route you won't need to use the recovery disks.

    I have no connection with these guys apart from being very grateful for the help they gave me.
    Behind every great man is a good woman
    Beside this ordinary man is a great woman
    £2 savings jar - now at £3.42:rotfl:
  • If it is running really slow you may have malware on it.
    Running Xp on 192Mb isn't going to do anyone's sensibilities any good, but it is certainly worth checking if any rubbish has managed to get installed.

    It really would help if we knew what motherboard you had then we could help you cost it. RAM, TFT and even if necessary a graphics card could cost well under £100.

    Just as a matter of interest, how often do you and your brother use in comparison to your mother, and what do you, he and she use it for?
  • planemad
    planemad Posts: 569 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    [quote=
    It really would help if we knew what motherboard you had then we could help you cost it. RAM, TFT and even if necessary a graphics card could cost well under £100.
    [/quote]

    I think you will be hard pushed to do that!
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