Is it worth upgrading my PC?

[Grantus87]

G'day everyone. My PC is a bit about two and a half years old so it's starting to show it's age when running multiple programs. I was wondering if upgrading the ram would have any significant benefits, rather than simply buying a whole new system which is going to be a lot more expensive. My system is as follows:

Athlon 2200+
256MB PC2100
80GB HD
nVidia GeForce4 MX420 64MB DDR
Running XP

I can max it out at 1GB Ram from crucial for $152.70 US delivered.

It's mainly used for the internet, music, downloading, ripping and making CDs, MSN and doing assignments for uni. I used to play games, but the graphics card sucks bad. Thanks for any advice.

[turtle]

Sell it and get a Mac. ;) (Well this is AN after all.)

The real question is do you want to put money trying to make this thing last or would it just be better to buy new? How much money do you have to spend? Putting more RAM in it will help, but as you know it is aging.

[Luca]

Well, since you're at a Mac board, expect a few people to suggest replacing it with a Mac!

No seriously, Macs are really wonderful. I would say instead of putting a couple hundred bucks into this thing, just sell it and buy a Mac mini. They're great machines. I'm using one right now and I couldn't be much happier with its performance in everyday tasks like the ones you describe. Gaming performance is pretty lacking, but what do you expect from a video card saddled with 32 MB of VRAM?

That said, if you insist on upgrading your PC, I think upgrading the RAM would help. 512 MB should be enough, but bringing it to 1 GB would be great too. What motherboard do you have? How many RAM slots does it have? Is it dual-channel, like many Athlon XP motherboards?

Second priority, if you care about gaming, is the video card. Trash that old GeForce 4MX, those have always been bad, especially the 420s! There are plenty of good replacements that don't cost too much. A Radeon 9600XT, which is a big improvement over what you have but still not much by today's standards, is about $80. For a nice jump in performance, the GeForce 6600GT costs about $140 and gives performance slightly above the old favorite, the Radeon 9800 Pro. Either one of those would give a nice kick in the seat to your computer's gaming performance.

A processor upgrade won't hurt either but it's probably not necessary. The 2200+ is a decent processor and it shouldn't be holding you back much. Besides, your upgrade options are a bit limited if you don't want to spend a ton of money or replace your motherboard. Just keep the CPU until your whole computer needs replacing. If you do wish to upgrade your CPU, one option would be a Barton-core Athlon XP. NewEgg has a Barton 2800+ for about $90, which operates at 2.08 GHz and has twice the L2 cache of your CPU. But I'm not sure if it's worth $90 for such a nominal upgrade.

And for the record, I do not thing your computer needs replacing yet! Some of the stuff in it might be a little old, but it ought to give you pretty good performance. Once you upgrade the RAM and, if you care about game performance, the video card, it'll be great.

[chucker]

I was wondering if upgrading the ram would have any significant benefits, rather than simply buying a whole new system which is going to be a lot more expensive.

The difference between 256 and 512 MB of RAM will be very noticeable under average use, especially games.

You can easily tell using the Windows Task Manager, it has a gauge for RAM use.

I can max it out at 1GB Ram from crucial for $152.70 US delivered.

The difference between 512 and 1024, on the other hand, is another matter: the rest of the system would be slowing the RAM down.

It's mainly used for the internet, music, downloading, ripping and making CDs, MSN and doing assignments for uni.

I don't see a newer machine being of any advantage for these uses.

I used to play games, but the graphics card sucks bad. Thanks for any advice.

Well, games will always make you get the most top-notch system. You can get broke when it comes to games -- and not from the games' price tags.

[Grantus87]

hmm imnot sure which motherboard i have. its a compaq presario 6000 (6627AU) series if that helps. it has two ram slots maxing out at 1GB total. can you upgrade the graphics cards in these? (i've never done it before) :confused:

i don't really have the money for a total upgrade at the moment. I'm planning on getting a new iMac sometime early next year - but that will be as a 2nd computer for my room so i can do my assignments without my annoying brother around me. :mad:

the PC is used by my older brother and sister aswell, who are.. well stupid :lol: when it comes to computers which makes me hesitant when switching them to mac. i will do it eventually tho after i get the iMac and become acquainted with OSX. that way i can answer there questions. :smokey:

I'm not looking to turn it into a supercomputer or anything, just enough to make the period between now and when i buy new next year a little bit easier

[Luca]

Okay... well, since it's a Compaq, I'm going to change my opinion. It's crappy and I wouldn't recommend putting anything into it. Maybe you could upgrade the RAM to 512 MB just to hold you over until you can afford a Mac.

If it were a homebuilt machine with a decent motherboard and everything, it might still have a couple years of life in it. But pre-built systems like yours have no life in them.

[MCQ]

Based on Crucial's configurator, looks like you need PC2100 DDR.

Get a 512 stick from Newegg, take your pick of manufacturers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=523%3A7857&PropertyCodeValue=524%3A7861&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=147&Submit=Property

[Grantus87]

yeah i know, i was a little young and inexperienced when i told my mum the compaq was a good thing to buy. the same goes for my sisters laptop, just got caught up in the excitement of getting something new. but i know better now. ill just upgrade to 512.

[Grantus87]

does anyone know a good online RAM store which ships internationally (australia)? i don't think newegg does. thanks

[Maciej]

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you Luca. If he's complaining about slow down, I don't think the Mini is the way to go, it will just disappoint him.

Although I can't really say what to do next, how about an iBook?

[turtle]

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you Luca. If he's complaining about slow down, I don't think the Mini is the way to go, it will just disappoint him.

Although I can't really say what to do next, how about an iBook?
Not to smack you down, but...

I have to agree with Luca. I have a Mini and several PC's. The only time I get a slow down on my Mini (which I'm using now) is when I'm ripping a DVD and Folding@Home, and iTunes while watching my Widgets. It runs just as fast as my mid-range PC's, only most stable. Heck, I forgot to mention that while all those things were going on I'm also hosting a web page and an FTP site that is always transferring files.

I think it would be more than enough for what was described as the need, and with the new 64MB of VRAM it is even better.

[Luca]

Thanks turtle. I don't really understand what you're saying, Maciej. The mini isn't a slow computer for the tasks he says he'll be doing. I have been really happy with mine. I used to own an 800 MHz iBook G3, and let me tell you, the mini is a huge leap forward in general OS X performance. I'm kind of surprised, actually. It rarely keeps me waiting for anything.