If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there
comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? |
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
I you want a new pc just go buy one. It's OK. But I would wait a bit.
64-bit computing will be the hot thing through this year and next. I plan to wait for the release of XP-64 this summer and for commodity pricing to take hold in the 64-bit market. A two-year old eMachine I might replace now. Anything better is probably worth working with for a while. It all depends on what you like to do in computing. Gamers replace their boxes at an astonishing rate. Web-surfers use machines that are five years old without much complaint. Perhaps you are better off honing your XP and software maintenance skills. Two years old is not all that bad unless you bought a real rock-bottom machine two years ago. Describe your setup to us and the ideas will come flooding in. -- Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine] (Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested) "Geoff A." wrote in message ... At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
You give no indication of what your "issues" are. Unless there are hardware
problems, replacing the PC is not likely to help you if you're not maintaining your system properly and securely. -- "Geoff A." wrote in message ... At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
Geoff A. wrote:
At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? It all depends on what you're using it for. If you're using it for business and the downtime is costing you money, then it would be fairly easy to justify. OTH if you just do e-mail and surf the net maybe not. I find myself looking at new computers whether I did one or not. I usually end up buying one every couple of years just because I like to try out the new stuff. If you have the cash treat yourself, you deserve it :-) gls858 |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
I have to agree with GTS in this thread. You give no indication of your
issues or anything about your setup. That said, as to rule of thumb, in the PC business, many subscribe to the idea that a system is obsolete the day you buy it. Given the pace of change, that's a poor rule of thumb because you'd be buying a new PC every day. The rule of thumb I use and recommend to others is, if your system can no longer handle the functions you require of it and small incremental upgrades will not give you back those functions or if such upgrades make little or no difference, it's time to buy a new PC. What those functions are, depends on the individual. Sometimes it's software related, perhaps you do a lot of graphics work and you find your system is no longer up to the task or your needs have changed and the system can't meet your new requirements. Sometimes it's hardware related. Some new device in which your interested either cannot be installed on your system or it simply doesn't have the horsepower, then, depending upon its importance to you, it may be time to consider a new system. Your needs are the determining factor, it's only obsolete when you say it's obsolete, not when some magazine, column or general consensus says that's the case. If your system still meets all your needs, be it mission critical applications or simply games you wish to play or things which you wish to add to your system, the only thing a new system provides is a bit of "feel good." I'm running a PIII, 733Mhz with 256MB of SDRAM. I had originally planned to replace it about two years ago. Due to a death in the family, I postponed the purchase. However, my system met and meets most of my needs. In fact, only recently have I started running into situations wherein, things I wanted to add required "greater horsepower" than my system currently has. Hence, until now I've been satisfied. I was making tentative moves in the direction of a new system in the second half of last year and began planning my next system. As Colin indicates, there are a lot of changes taking place and about to take place. The technology is in a bit of a state of transition from one platform to another so I'm holding off a bit or as long as I can given other requirements I might have in order to get a better fix on where things are headed. That said, I do get involved in beta testing and that might push me to make a change sooner rather than later. I post the above as a guide, your needs determine the rule of thumb and the best time to buy. Obviously, if your system is acting up and you gave no indication of the problems you are having, that's a consideration as well since no one likes dealing with one problem after another. NOTE: sometimes we create our own problems, Norton System Works and other such utilities often create more problems than they solve and perhaps some of your tweaking resulted in some of the issues you have with regard to installing new software and Norton products can be quite intrusive. -- Michael Solomon MS-MVP Windows Shell/User Backup is a PC User's Best Friend DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/ "Geoff A." wrote in message ... At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
I'll offer my thoughts in-line:
"Geoff A." wrote in message ... At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? [... nearly all PC's, with the exception of laptops and highly proprietary systems, are relatively easy to service by people who have a desire to follow simple guidelines and advice. One of the biggest hurdles though is not have access to a working system with internet access so you can find answers.] Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. [ it really depends on the user's requirements. I rebuild and sell many low end P1 and P2 systems that the user only wants for basic functions like e-mail, chatting and surfing. A P-166 with 64MB RAM running Windows 98SE is fine for MSN, e-mail and basic games. Just keep the spyware off it and don't expect to load Windows XP. ] And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? [Updating drivers really isn't hard if you know where to look www.driverguide.com is a place to start or just do a google seach for the hardware model and number which is stamped on the device. The basic rule is to get the network card or modem working asap so you can get online to find what you need. For that you need access to a working system.] The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. [a system that is only 2 years old generally will be a joy to work with. The motherboard or system CD's that came with it should have all the drivers you need. Windows XP will likely support it anyway] I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, [...IMO Norton System Works should not come close to a computer.] but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! [....many problems with system performance are directly related to the computer user's practises. Today the leading casue of computer performance issues is the proloferation of spyware and malware. Enusre htat you properly protect and manitain your system. This includes running spyware cleaners (yes plural), using firewall and antivirus and ensuring you regularly dump cookies and temp files. You also need to keep the system updated with current patches. I run 5 systems at home and 2 at work. All systems run very well and are used for a variety of functions.] What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? [You haven't told us what you computing needs are. Perhaps your needs are such that the current system can't handle them even with hardware upgrades. However if you simply want to dump a 2 year old system I will gladly take it off your hands if you are going to toss it. ] -- Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User] www.webtree.ca/windowsxp |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:10:08 +0000, Geoff A. wrote:
At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? For me, a PC is 'out of date' when it can no longer do what I need it to do. I have a few systems that are still running AMD K6-2 400Mhz (about 6 or 7 years old) and even a 166Mhz. They 'do their job' perfectly and probably will for sometime to come. Your system only being 2 years old might just need a OS re-install. Rush http://www.bythedrop.com |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
Hi,
Just a few weeks ago, I finally upgraded a few items in my Main PC. I was running a P3 1GHz using a Gigabyte MoBo. I built this computer in Dec of 99. For the past 5 years, I haven`t any problems with the system. I originally had Win2K on the comp, till last year Dec I had to replace the main HHD, then I installed XP Pro SP1, updated to SP2. The computer still ran fine and had no problems with past or current software. Then a few weeks ago, while in Electric City (popular name to Akihabara in Tokyo for electronics stuff), my wife allowed me to buy a new ASUS MoBo, AMD64 FX 3500+ CPU, and 1 Gig Ram, that is then used to replaced my old Gigabyte MoBo and P3 1GHz CPU. That old board and CPU went into my second computer which had a Gigabyte MoBo and Celeron 850MHz CPU. A lot of things depends on what applications you plan to use on the computer, what other hardware you have in the system. My Main comp also has a ASUS NVidia FX 5700 video card with 256MB while running the old P3. I have a lot of software that put my poor P3 to the test, but the system continued to run fine. So, depending on what you plan to run or what isn`t running well, will determine if you need to get a updated system Jeff "Geoff A." wrote in message ... At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
"Geoff A." wrote in message ...
At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. The OP might do well to consider comparing his old computer (set up to run a modern Linux distro) with his new one running on XP. Gigabyte have linuxware, the only snag might be his graphics card. But even then the original manufacturer (i.e. if not nVidia but "the other one") may have drivers in Linese. Or the distro might have drivers. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
"I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues."
You answered the question yourself. If you find yourself unable to get anything done because you are fixing the darn thing constantly, it's time to get a new one. Just make sure that you are protected against viruses, spyware and other attacks from the start. It's far easier to keep everything working right that way. "Geoff A." wrote: At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
I fully agree. The problems may simply be due to an accumulation of spy-
ware, add-ware, etc, since I note no mention of any program to cope with such stuff. Secondly, if the poster purchased junk originally and buys a current equivalent then no improvement will be noted. Most Computer users [Internet, E-mail, and a few other occasional uses] will not experience significant gains in usage between processor sizes or hardware upgrades (all my opinion). The point: spend your money if you wish; however, do not believe all that advertising hype. As you said, so long as the machine adequately accomplishes what you want keep the money. Folks who keep track of such things say that the average computer user buys a new one about every 4 1/2-5 years. I think the average user probably got passed by when processor chip speed got higher than 900HZ and Hard Drive size exceeded 80GB (possibly 40GB). Such terminology as RAID does not reach them. I know of several people who completely re-install the OS about once each year for the reason that it will fix problems that are not readily fixable any other way PLUS problems not yet known to the operator. As one poster has already stated, the 64 bit version of XP is the next big thing to come. Gene K Rush wrote: On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:10:08 +0000, Geoff A. wrote: At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? For me, a PC is 'out of date' when it can no longer do what I need it to do. I have a few systems that are still running AMD K6-2 400Mhz (about 6 or 7 years old) and even a 166Mhz. They 'do their job' perfectly and probably will for sometime to come. Your system only being 2 years old might just need a OS re-install. Rush http://www.bythedrop.com |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
New PC
Rush wrote:
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:10:08 +0000, Geoff A. wrote: At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of thumb for this? The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!! What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away? For me, a PC is 'out of date' when it can no longer do what I need it to do. I have a few systems that are still running AMD K6-2 400Mhz (about 6 or 7 years old) and even a 166Mhz. They 'do their job' perfectly and probably will for sometime to come. Your system only being 2 years old might just need a OS re-install. Rush http://www.bythedrop.com You are right, |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|