FWIW - An article I wrote for a mag a short time back in response to an editorial that PC's are as disposable as bic lighters.....

Should you try and upgrade or simply buy a new Computer?

My family PC (purchased in 1998) was a Generic box Pentium II MMX 350 MHz with 128meg RAM. It had an old video card with only 8 megs of memory and a slow 8 gig hard drive (it was certainly cutting edge back then but ancient by today's standards). Basic computing tasks were taking way too long (switching programs meant you simply had to wait while the hard drive thrashed for several minutes) and the kid's games with heavy graphics would give errors or simply refuse to run. The machine barely met the absolute minimum system requirements to run Windows XP (home edition) and have high speed Internet access. The only good news is that the computer had a really nice monitor, an Internet keyboard, an optical mouse, a decent sound card, a zip drive, old but useable USB ports, and a 32x CD-ROM.

My wife and kids were really nagging at me to buy a new PC but I really didn't want to spend $500 to $1000 for a new computer so my wife could do simple photo editing and the kids could play games and surf the net but I could see no way out of it since everything that I had read suggested that a system over three years old and less than a Pentium III could not be upgraded and that I should just buy a new computer..…

Well, as luck would have it I had recently upgraded a business machine to 512 Megs of RAM and had pulled two 128 Meg RAM chips from it that couldn't be used and were now sitting on my desk. I wondered if these chips would work in the family machine so I popped off the case cover and snapped in these chips (leaving in one existing 64 meg chip to fill all three banks) and fired up the machine. BINGO! 320 Megs of RAM memory!

Now, if I did nothing else, the change from 128 Megs of RAM to 320 Megs was nothing short of dramatic. While this upgrade cost me nothing, these chips are very inexpensive (I've seen them almost free with rebate offers) and this is probably the first upgrade that should be considered as Windows programs just love having more RAM.

Ok, this got me thinking about what else I could do to extend the life of this old machine and I searched the Internet and found a 64 meg AGP video card for $40 to replace the old 8 meg card and a fast 20 gig hard drive for around $50 to replace the old slow 8 gig drive (I left the old drive in the machine to store all the kids music files giving the machine a total storage of 28 gig). I'll sell the old graphics card and extra memory chip on eBay to recoup a couple bucks.

At this point I had acheived my goal. The machine had been brought back to life. It was running at an acceptable speed and the kids games were loading and running just fine. Take note that the upgrades to dramatically improve this system's performance to this point had nothing to do with the processor speed. In addition, the new drive came with software to copy everything from the old drive so nothing had to be re-installed and/or reconfigured and the new drive was formatted with the new NTFS instead of the old FAT32. Ok, everyone was happy…. everyone except me. I started wondering if the old Pentium II processor could be upgraded without having to change out the the main board (which was certainly an option with the generic ATX case).

Enter into the picture.... PowerLeap whom I found on the Internet. They have a really nice web program that will analyze your system and recommend upgrades. They indicated that my system could indeed be upgraded and they could sell me an Intel Celeron 1.4 GHz chip to replace the old Pentium II 350MHz for around $100 (these sell on eBay for much less but I decided to buy directly from the manufacturer in case something went wrong). In any case, I just couldn't pass on this upgrade and changing the chips was as easy as replacing the video card.

To summarize, the machine is now an Intel Celeron 1.4 GHz with 320 Megs of RAM, it has 28 gigs of fast storage and 64 Meg of very fast accelerated AGP video RAM. It is not such an outdated machine anymore and the total cost to me was around $190.00. In addition, the old processor fan and hard drive were very noisy while the replacements are whisper quiet.

Even if I would have had to buy the 128 Meg RAM chip (giving the machine 256 which I believe would have been enough) the total cost of the upgrade would have still been close to $200 (much less if I didn't insist on new parts vs used such as those found on eBay).

So what's next? Well, I see that they now sell PCI cards that you can pop in that will give you four of the latest fast 2.0 USB ports for around $10. This will allow the PC to run the USB CDRW-DVD and the kids can burn their own music CDs and watch DVDs (the new video card can support two monitors and even has a TV output). Maybe I'll even spring for one of those $10 3D Sound Cards. Anyway, it's probably back to the store again for more upgrades to take full advantage of this new more powerful machine that just a few weeks ago looked like a good candidate for the Goodwill bin.

If you are one of those that would never dream of actually opening the case on your PC and you break out into a sweat just thinking about it, don't despair as most computer stores will install the items they sell for free. If you are inclined to have an anxiety attack when asked if you want PC100 or PC133 memory chips, then I recommend taking advantage of this service.

OK, so by now you are probably thinking that Dell currently has a bottom of the line 2 GHz with 128 Meg of RAM for around $500. In reality a properly configured machine would probably cost a couple hundred more and you would have all the grief associated with a new propriety machine. In this case and at this point in time, the upgrade path was definitely a better option than simply ordering a new PC.

It is worthy of note that my “generic” machine built for me by a local computer store provided me with the ability to upgrade and not all machines can be upgraded. Proprietary machines such as those made by Dell and Gateway (while inexpensive) may not provide you with an easy upgrade path as almost everything may be built right into the main board. For instance, the main board used in the "generic" computer back in 1998 contained an AGP Video slot and supported memory upgrades to 768meg in very flexible 3 slot chip combinations ranging from 8meg to 256meg. A Gateway computer purchased in late 2002 contained "on board" sound, video, no AGP slot, no ISA slots, fewer PCI slots, and the memory maxium was 512meg using only identical chips in 2 slots. Compared to the "generic" machine, the Gateway power supply is obviously more cheaply made and provides less power. Obviously Gateway wanted to restrict the upgrade path. It's something to think about when the time comes to actually buy a new machine.

Of course, it these machines are truly becoming disposable items, it doesn't really matter. Obviously, I don't think we are there…. just yet.