Upgrading a tower machine

[Page]

I tend to have the attitude it is not usually worth it and runs these things to the end but what I have copes okay but could do with some more memory except the board is at its max with 1GB. Overall it is perhaps 4 or 5 years old.

I assume this would mean that I need a new board.

It this just a case of buy a new board - take one out and put the new one in - done.

OR is it more complicated than that.

[electroforms]

Probably more complicated, but you'll have to do a bit of digging around.

If your board is over 5 years old, there's a good chance that the new board that you buy won't support your memory or CPU, so you'll need to upgrade those too.

THEN you might find that your power supply is not powerful enough (you should be looking at > 400/450W these days) to cope.

The answer, as usual, is 'it depends' - you'll have to do a lot of cross-checking the socket type of your new board against your old one, and the RAM type also.

Novatech do some great bundles if you just want to replace the board, but like I say be careful about the power supply - at the very least I expect that you'll need to get a 20 - 24 pin adapter.

[KM-Tiger]

As electroforms points out, it could become more complicated. If the hardware is 5 years old, it probably will.

It will also quite likely soak up a lot of time. If you don't mind that because it's interesting, that's OK, but as a business proposition I'd say buy new hardware.

[accountancyextra]

By the time you've done all that (and got it working), you'll have been much better off just buying a complete new PC.

Got a really good spec one off ebuyer last week for under £350

[Page]

Case closed - thanks for input and time has saved me hours of out of my depth umming and ahhing - will continue to manage or buy new if it annoys me to much.

Actually new will give me windows 7 also.

[craiga1971]

Before you do anything take the time to review your backup solution.

Personally, I prfer to stiuck with tried and trusted software. XP might not be everyone's cup of tea but why would I want to be a beta-test guineau pig for Micro$oft?

So it is XP for me until Vista/Windows 7 are on to SP2 at least.

Craig

[JoyDivision]

Vista/7 are just XP anyway with more features and a fancier user interface. Personaly I find XP is too long in the tooth now it is far too easy for the average user to get viruses on it. I find that 70% of virus infected computers run XP.

1GB RAM is fine for XP if you're justr wanting to watch a bit of Iplayer etc. How much RAM do you currently have? If you have 1 x 512MB stick then all you need to is add another 512MB DDR stick and you've got 1GB.

Another complication is if you need to change the motherboard you're OEM licence of windows will no longer be valid (but there are not strictly legal ways round that).

On machines this age I will happily add RAM, change a power supply or remove viruses/fix software problems but any other hardware fault I advice its new PC time.

[cjd]

Unless you have a specialist application you need to run there's no point in an upgrade and you'll find that doing a full format and re-install of the OS will do more to revitalise your PC than anything else you can do to it.

[craiga1971]

Vista/7 are just XP anyway with more features and a fancier user interface. Personaly I find XP is too long in the tooth now it is far too easy for the average user to get viruses on it. I find that 70% of virus infected computers run XP.


If Vista/7 shares the same underlying technology as XP then why bother for the sake of a slightly redesigned user interface?

For my real job I manage IT systems that are typically used for mission critical, disaster tolerant processing. Many of them use a version of the OS that is nearly 10 years old. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Whenever I have made a decision to upgrade a MS OS to an immature version, I have always regretted it. Buggy, unstable, etc.. Why not let someone else suffer the teething problems and let me concentrate on running my business.

It is horses for courses, mind. Some people will still go out and buy the latest gizzmo simply because they can. Whether it adds any real value to a business - who knows?

Craig