PC - Worth Saving/Upgrading or Should I Buy Anew?

ixoy

So ho ho ho, Santa's in the air and I'm wondering is it time to dump my PC and get a new one or upgrade/repair my current one?

My current PC is an Athlon 2500XP+, 512MB RAM, 3 HDs (120/160/160), 1 DVD-ROM, 1 DVD R/W, an A798X Deluxe motherboard, and a GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB GFX card to output to a 17" CRT monitor. It's just over two years old, has a number of problems:

* It switches itself off every now and then. Earlier this week it did this and then constantly turned on/off in five second cycles. Not good. Eventually it stopped but it's probably doing some internal damage.
Probable Solution:New 400W PSU. Cost: Approx. €80

* It turns itself off when the CPU overheats, playing challenging items (e.g. Half Life 2). Seem to recall it was not thermally pasted well.
Probable Solution:New CPU heatsink + fan. Cost: Approx. €45

* Slow, slow, slow. It takes ages to boot and switch between applications.
Probable Solution:A format/frag of the hard-drive and an extra 512MB of memory. Cost: Approx.: €50

* Monitor is very dark. Even when everything is switched to maximum brightness, it's impossible to see certain things. I can't really play Half Life 2 anymore, no matter that brightness is at the games highest. To be indulgent I'd go from my current 5-year old 17" CRT to a 19" LCD. Cost: Approx. : €350

.....

Now other than that, my PC's okay... Thing is there could be more stress/ear that I don't know about. Is it worth bandaging it on what I think are the problems with it or should I merely upgrade? I notice, for example, Komplett have a upgrade kit for an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with 1GB of RAM and a MSI K8N motherboard for €555 which seems nice.
I could salvage the 3 HDs from my current machine and the DVD-ROM, DVD-R/W so I wouldn't need to buy them anew but I would need the new case/PSU too. I might also throw in a nice new GFX card as well.

Part of me insists on being frugal, another part tells me to cut my losses. With people's frightening experience of computers here, am I best to go for new and drown my current child or should I attempt to nurse it, knowing it could get sick and die at any point?

commited

Do you need more power? I was happy enough using an athlon 1333 up until a few months ago.
All of your problems can be sorted cheaply second hand - ebay is your friend

One thing I'd recommend is getting a decent LCD - try and test it out first though - the quality differs immensely.

Atlas_IRL

i have pretty much the same pc and the same problems as you , low power (9800 pro doesnt even work in it anymore) turning off in hl2 etc...

i was goin to get one of those upgrades myself then i read a few threads on the opteron processors and they seem to be the way to go for a cheap quality upgrade...

just get a new case, processor, more ram a graphics card and you should be alright i wouldnt go near a computer store bought pc with the ****e they put in them these days

Balfa

ixoy wrote:

My current PC is an Athlon 2500XP+, 512MB RAM, 3 HDs (120/160/160), 1 DVD-ROM, 1 DVD R/W, an A798X Deluxe motherboard, and a GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB GFX card to output to a 17" CRT monitor.

You're in a good position to get a second PC or upgrade the first one. It all depends on your budget.

Upgrade. That graphics card was excellent in its day, but right now, if budget is important, a new graphics card would be the absolute best value upgrade. Right now, the best performance/price you can get is the GeForce 6600 GT and the 7800 GT, however the latter is only available for PCI-E, so I'd recommend the 6600GT.
Of course, if you're having power issues right now, you'll need a new PSU along with your new graphics card.

The AthlonXP is fine, and you won't wring a whole lot more out of a faster CPU on the same motherboard. Socket A really is at the end of its life right now, so AthlonXPs are hard to find and hence overpriced right now. No point in upgrading that...

...unless you go ahead and get a whole new motherboard at the same time, but now we're talking about serious diminishing returns on your cash. The difference between an XP2500 and a newer CPU won't be nearly as noticible as the difference between the 4200 and the 6600 GT, and will cost you a lot more (since you'll need a new motherboard).

Of course, if you got a new motherboard, you could get one with PCI-E and then get a 7800GT as well and enjoy delicious graphics, but now we're talking about replacing so many components that you may as well get a new PC and keep this one as a secondary or for someone else in the household.

The other main performance upgrade might be RAM, but you won't notice any difference in today's games between 512MB and 1GB, so I wouldn't worry about it for now. RAM's still coming down in price, so you can hold on and upgrade once a game actually comes out that can take advantage of the extra RAM. On the other hand, 512MB of RAM is, what, 30 euro now? and regular windows use will feel that little bit smother here and there.

Now on to the other option, just getting a whole new PC.

It's good that you have the extra hard drives and optical drive, because they can be carried over directly, leaving the old stuff still operable. And of course if you're having power problems right now, dragging three of your drives out of this machine into a new one might do wonders on that crashing and instability you're having on the old PC! People often forget to look at their drives when consider power usage.

The big sting with getting a whole nuther PC is the outlay for a monitor, but you're already pushed towards getting a new one because the old one is dodgy, so that helps. By the way, I'd recommend getting a new PC without monitor and trying out the old monitor on the new PC, to see if it still has the same problems. It's not always the monitor's fault, you know!

So summing up, I'd say a new graphics card (and PSU, or remove some of those extra drives!) will give you the absolute biggest performance upgrade for the price. Anything more than that and you may as well buy a whole new system (except for the bits you can carry across)

It switches itself off every now and then. Earlier this week it did this and then constantly turned on/off in five second cycles. Not good. Eventually it stopped but it's probably doing some internal damage.
Probable Solution:New 400W PSU. Cost: Approx. €80

See what I said above. Alternatively, it might just be a software thing! By the way, what wattage is your current PSU rated at?

It turns itself off when the CPU overheats, playing challenging items (e.g. Half Life 2). Seem to recall it was not thermally pasted well.
Probable Solution:New CPU heatsink + fan. Cost: Approx. €45

This is a complicated issue, and I recommend you post it in a seperate thread so that it gets the attention it deserves. There are all sorts of possible causes and fixes for this.

Slow, slow, slow. It takes ages to boot and switch between applications.
Probable Solution:A format/frag of the hard-drive and an extra 512MB of memory. Cost: Approx.: €50

This is definitely not caused by having too little RAM. It's probably just software being crappy. I'd recommend a windows reinstall.

Thing is there could be more stress/ear that I don't know about.
Is it worth bandaging it on what I think are the problems with it or should I merely upgrade? I notice, for example, Komplett have a upgrade kit for an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with 1GB of RAM and a MSI K8N motherboard for €555 which seems nice.

Don't fool yourself with that "stress/wear" crap. This is a PC, not a car. There's no reason why any component in a PC (especially those without moving parts) should fail within ten years. Bandage bandage!
People might disagree with me, but a 3800+ is overkill.

I could salvage the 3 HDs from my current machine and the DVD-ROM, DVD-R/W so I wouldn't need to buy them anew but I would need the new case/PSU too. I might also throw in a nice new GFX card as well.

Or leave something in the old PC so that it's of some use to someone, somewhere. And you'll have less power issues in both PCs!

Part of me insists on being frugal, another part tells me to cut my losses. With people's frightening experience of computers here, am I best to go for new and drown my current child or should I attempt to nurse it, knowing it could get sick and die at any point?[/QUOTE]There are no losses to cut. The frightening experiences I know of are caused by people who don't backup. There's no point in drowning a child just because it gets headaches every now then. That's what solpadeine's for. If it gets sick and dies, what's the problem? You either upgrade it so that it runs comfortably now (new video card) and then replace if and when it does die which, being in the future, will net you far more hardware for your cash... or you replace it now and get less goodies for your money, and waste a perfectly useable PC.

Hope this helps!

ixoy

Some excellent advice there, particularly from Balfa. FWIW, I'll have a minimum of €700 to spend. This cash can only be spent on computer stuff but if I want anything more, it'll be from my own pockets/Santa. In other words, money that could go on other things.

The monitor is from 2000. It works perfectly fine, in general, but doesn't handle dark very well. No amount of fiddling with the monitor's settings or GFX card settings, etc. seems to resolve this. It's noticable on DivXs, DVDs, etc. that I play as well. I defintetely feel that's worth an upgrade now.

I kinda see what you're saying Balfa - I can get a new GFX card, monitor, memory stick, fan and PSU for my target budget. That will, assumedly, enable me to play the latest games at a decent speed, right? Whereas, if I went the full trundle and got a new PC, I'd spend twice that and not get much of a noticable difference over the current setup. Definetely food for thought. And then, if the current PC does break down, my losses are only the cost of the PSU/fan/memory, as everything else - GFX card included - is transferable. Intreresting!

Stephen

I had a huge reply typed out for this thread but boards decided to eat it

I'll summarize:
I would upgrade. It'll cost a little more than your budget but I think it'd be worth it.
Good socket 939 motherboard: ~€100
Athlon 64 3200+: ~€175 - includes heatsink and fan
Decent power supply: ~€80
Decent 19" TFT: ~€300
6600GT PCI-E: ~€150
Delivery, assuming you buy all the stuff from Komplett: €10
Use your existing RAM if it is PC3200 - think about buying some more, DDR RAM is at all time low prices at the moment
Use existing hard disks and DVD drives
Use existing case and peripherals

Total cost: €805 plus the time it'll take to put it all together. This will leave you with a decent system that will be very upgradeable down the road. You'll be able to swap in a nice Athlon 64 X2 or FX if you buy one later, and it'll take all the latest and greatest PCI-E graphics cards.

You might make €100 back selling the old motherboard and CPU and any other bits and bobs second hand.

commited

get an opteron instead of the 3200+ if you decide to go that route.
The samsung tft's are excellent.
Rather than getting a 6600GT, i'd splash out a bit extra and buy the PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO from overclockers.co.uk - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X800PCI_Series.html for £175 (€275) - it'll be miles better
Definately buy some more ram - it's dirt cheap at the moment.

Then sell all the old stuff

ixoy

Ah even more info !

Stephen - you've given a rough price there but I don't see mention of a case. Now obviously i currently have one but given the PSU is wonky on it anyway, is it best to not just go for a new one? And do cases really have much reuse when they've had another mainboard in?

committed wrote:

get an opteron instead of the 3200+ if you decide to go that route.

OK, I'll show my ignorance. What's the difference between the Athlon 64 series and the Athlon Opteron series?

Stark

The Opteron is a more expensive version of the Athlon-64 that's optimized for servers. I think it may be closer in design to the Athlon-FX but I'm not sure if that's still the case with the socket refactorings.

Stephen

Your existing case will be fine unless its a dell case or something. You can swap out the power supply easily.

commited

Stark wrote:

The Opteron is a more expensive version of the Athlon-64 that's optimized for servers. I think it may be closer in design to the Athlon-FX but I'm not sure if that's still the case with the socket refactorings.

Errrr.......

They arent more expensive and the 1xx series are not optimised for servers, so to speak.
The opteron 144 is €175 (used to be €150 ), the same price as the 3200, but they have twice the cache, and roughly are equiv to the 3400. Most of them also clock to FX-55 speeds easily on air with standard voltage.
The 146 is a pretty good bargain - only €20 more and I've seen alot of them go to 3.0ghz on air.

Atlas_IRL

Is ur case small cause PSU are pretty big u might need a new case just too fit it..