To Fix Or To Toss
No matter how much computer we purchase, at some point down the road, we face the decision of whether to upgrade it, or simply to toss it and move on. As we head into the summer computer buying "season," let's think about objectively which computers are worth keeping, and which are quite simply not. There will be plenty of computers on sale in the $500 range, so putting serious money into an outdated box is just foolhardy.
I'm going to run it down, by key component, as to what is clearly outdated. Whether the component is broken, or just outdated, let's make a checklist as to what needs to be replaced.
Processor
First, we need to honestly assess our needs and wants here. If all we plan on doing is internet browsing, email, and word processing, than any old processor will probably do. I have an AMD K6-2 475 Mhz that can do these adequately, but I wouldn't recommend it for today's internet.
It's a little difficult to pin down exactly the bare minimum, as there is no one measure of a processor's ability. Clock speed, L1 and L2 cache, 64 bit processing, front side bus speed, included extensions (like MMX, SSE etc.), and most recently dual cores all intermingle to provide the processing horsepower. While we may all want an AMD FX-62 or Intel Core 2 Duo, most of our tasks can get by with far less. Anything slower than the 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 chip (equivalent to an Athlon 1500+) is simply too slow for today's routine tasks. I would even go so far to say that less than a Pentium 4 2 GHz (or Athlon 2000+) is marginal for some tasks. For the chips faster than that, they should be ok, at least for now.
RAM
Any computer today should have at least 512 MB of RAM, and preferably 1 GB on board. To run less than 512 megs is just asking for system slowdowns and hangups. The good news is that RAM is inexpensive now in these quantities.
Hard Drive
The capacity needed for the hard drive is directly dependent on the applications you intend to run. Music and images can use up some space, and video takes up a lot of space. Depending on how much of these you plan on hanging on to will directly impact on the size of the drive. Also remember that after formatting, the capacity is even less. Additionally, the hard drive will perform a lot better if it has some free space to swap stuff around.
I would consider a 40 gig drive as a bare minimum, for users that want to run Windows and little else. For users that do any multimedia, they should start around 120 GB. Recent introduction of 400 and 500 GB drives have pushed prices down at the bottom so there is often little price difference between a 40, 60, 80, 120, and 160 GB drives if you look around for sales.
Optical Drive
The cutoff here is reading and writing DVD's. If the computer only has a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or combo drive, it's time to upgrade. If for no other reason than backup, a computer deserves a DVD drive. Thankfully, there are plenty of choices for under $50.
Operating System
For the time being, Windows XP is still the state of the art OS (at least from Microsoft...). With Microsoft no longer providing support for the older Windows 98 and Millenium Editions on July 11th, it will be Russian roulette to continue using these computers on the internet. Considering the vulnerability of being hacked, it doesn't make sense to continue with an unsecured OS. If you're running Windows XP, then upgrade to SP2 so you have all the latest security patches.
Running the Numbers
One rule of thumb is that if you need to upgrade more than two of the above categories, then it probably doesn't pay to upgrade the machine. Don't forget that to upgrade the processor, in many cases this will necessitate a motherboard upgrade as well increasing the cost and complexity of the transplant.
The other rule of thumb is to add up the cost of the upgrades that may be needed for your desktop. If they are more than halfway to the cost of a newer computer, than it probably is not worth it. It doesn't make sense to put over $200 into most older entry level machines when you can get the whole thing new for $500. Don't forget that with the new desktop, it will come with the latest OS and a modern processor.
--Jonas
I'm going to run it down, by key component, as to what is clearly outdated. Whether the component is broken, or just outdated, let's make a checklist as to what needs to be replaced.
Processor
First, we need to honestly assess our needs and wants here. If all we plan on doing is internet browsing, email, and word processing, than any old processor will probably do. I have an AMD K6-2 475 Mhz that can do these adequately, but I wouldn't recommend it for today's internet.
It's a little difficult to pin down exactly the bare minimum, as there is no one measure of a processor's ability. Clock speed, L1 and L2 cache, 64 bit processing, front side bus speed, included extensions (like MMX, SSE etc.), and most recently dual cores all intermingle to provide the processing horsepower. While we may all want an AMD FX-62 or Intel Core 2 Duo, most of our tasks can get by with far less. Anything slower than the 1.5 GHz Pentium 4 chip (equivalent to an Athlon 1500+) is simply too slow for today's routine tasks. I would even go so far to say that less than a Pentium 4 2 GHz (or Athlon 2000+) is marginal for some tasks. For the chips faster than that, they should be ok, at least for now.
RAM
Any computer today should have at least 512 MB of RAM, and preferably 1 GB on board. To run less than 512 megs is just asking for system slowdowns and hangups. The good news is that RAM is inexpensive now in these quantities.
Hard Drive
The capacity needed for the hard drive is directly dependent on the applications you intend to run. Music and images can use up some space, and video takes up a lot of space. Depending on how much of these you plan on hanging on to will directly impact on the size of the drive. Also remember that after formatting, the capacity is even less. Additionally, the hard drive will perform a lot better if it has some free space to swap stuff around.
I would consider a 40 gig drive as a bare minimum, for users that want to run Windows and little else. For users that do any multimedia, they should start around 120 GB. Recent introduction of 400 and 500 GB drives have pushed prices down at the bottom so there is often little price difference between a 40, 60, 80, 120, and 160 GB drives if you look around for sales.
Optical Drive
The cutoff here is reading and writing DVD's. If the computer only has a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or combo drive, it's time to upgrade. If for no other reason than backup, a computer deserves a DVD drive. Thankfully, there are plenty of choices for under $50.
Operating System
For the time being, Windows XP is still the state of the art OS (at least from Microsoft...). With Microsoft no longer providing support for the older Windows 98 and Millenium Editions on July 11th, it will be Russian roulette to continue using these computers on the internet. Considering the vulnerability of being hacked, it doesn't make sense to continue with an unsecured OS. If you're running Windows XP, then upgrade to SP2 so you have all the latest security patches.
Running the Numbers
One rule of thumb is that if you need to upgrade more than two of the above categories, then it probably doesn't pay to upgrade the machine. Don't forget that to upgrade the processor, in many cases this will necessitate a motherboard upgrade as well increasing the cost and complexity of the transplant.
The other rule of thumb is to add up the cost of the upgrades that may be needed for your desktop. If they are more than halfway to the cost of a newer computer, than it probably is not worth it. It doesn't make sense to put over $200 into most older entry level machines when you can get the whole thing new for $500. Don't forget that with the new desktop, it will come with the latest OS and a modern processor.
--Jonas
posted by digitaldoc at 8:00 AM
6 Comments:
As ussual, I beg to differ, I'm writing this on a box with a PIII 550 Mhz and 512Mb of RAM.
However, instead of Windows, I am running Karorra, a Linux distribution based on Gentoo.
It runs as fast as My Windows machines, one has a 1.3Ghz P4 and 768Mb of RAM running Win2K, The other is a 1.4Ghz P4 and 640Mb of RAM running XPpro. They all do what I need at a reasonable speed, Not that we don't have fast machines in the house. The last machine I built was a 64bit P4 at 3Ghz with 1Gb of RAM for video editing.
Oh, did I mention my server? A Dell PE2200 with a 233Mhz PIII and 128Mb of RAM running NT server. Of course it has a RAID array with 5 18GB SCSI drives in a raid 5 with hot spare and 3 9Gb drives in a RAID 5 with no spare. They all work well and are trouble free. Just my $0.05 worth.
old computers can be left on to run folding@home also :p
Although I wont fix anything below a 2ghz anymore, these little machines do have some uses - like rapcomp said, servers, routers, firewalls, etc using Linux. Now if only someone would teach me linux, I would be good ;)
Mike
and teach me how to type - argh i edit so much..lol
Thanks for the comments. I was thinking as what I call the "flagship" desktop machine. While mine is currently an Athlon 64 3800+, I also have a 475 MHz K6-2, K6 200 MHz, and a Cyrix Media GX with a 180 MHz floating around. Extra computers can be very useful, but I don't load them up like my main machine. they can be useful to test software, run dedicated software, and play with Linux. I wouldn't put any new parts into these old boxes though, so we can change "toss" to "park in the basement" if we have the room to store this stuff.
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I have a wall of shelving in the basement for parking my old computers and parts. I use the really old stuff for fixing computers not worth spending money on.
I've got the shoebox with a Pentium 200 MMX, and a 3 GB hard drive among other odds and ends.
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