Hi everyone, I have a 4 year old PC running XP home with the following specs: Celeron 1.3Ghz cpu ATX midi tower case soltek sl65kv2t (tualatin) s370 Prmium UDMA 100 soundcard 256mb SDRAM PC133 TNT Video Card 8mb AGP 56k modem 30gb hard drive Floppy mitsubishi 40x16x10 CD rewriter The machine definitely feels a bit old, and I am considering upgrading it. The 2 main problems I have right now are: The CD writer is broken (PC wont detect it) and the fan is noisy when I first start the PC. So now the questions... Is it worth spending a bit of money for a new CD writer (or DVD), another 512mb RAM and a new fan? Considering I don't use the PC for nything too hungry (games etc) I figure it'd be worth it but would appreciate some other opinions. I'm considering setting the PC up to use VOIP. Would the upgrad be suitable for it? Many thanks for any suggestions/advice.
Whats VOIP? I cant see you upgrading that thing, cpu outdated, mobo outdated etc.. I dunno if you will be able to find any PC133 ram anymore, what exatly are you using your pc for at the moment? Tbh i would tottaly upgrade the comp, but the problem is you would need to do an upgrade from scratch, not use anything from that computer exept the HDD, you would need, new case, cpu, mobo, ram, power supply, and graphics card, i see you dont play games much, a cheap graphics card will do. So are you wanting to build a new computer, i know it seems alot, but its actually preety cheap to build your own computer rather than buying a ready made one.
Upgrading a computer all depends on what you want to do with it. I still use a 120mhz Pentium (not even MMX) with 24mb RAM and what was a 1GB hard drive (till it broke) simply because it does everything I need it to. Word processing and mathcad basically. If your only problem with your cd writer is that it doesnt show up in windows you might find its windows which has a problem. ROM drives last a long time. I have never had one die, ive got about a dozen of the things! If your fans have got progressivly noisier over time they are probably full of dust and are struggling a bit. What do you use your computer for? What do you think is the most demanding program you run? What Operating System do you use? When did you last reinstall windows? You could probably do with more RAM especially if you are running an NT based OS. SDRAM is easily found still but it does cost more than it should. Your looking at least £50-60 for 512mb. More than DDR, in fact probably more than double the price!
If your pc does everything you want to do, then I think you should keep it. For more RAM you can look on ebay, the prices will likely be more affordable. Also, you can consider putting a PIII in it. eBay: Pentium 3 733MHz Socket 370 Coppermine Used (item 120024944228 end time Sep-01-06 22:32:06 PDT) This is $0.01 usd and $5 for shipping. Just an example of what you could find.
Thanks everyone, I have XP home on on the PC. Havent reinstalled the OS for 18mths. most demanding programs I run are probably some dumbed down CAD packages like google sketchup. VOIP = Voice over Internet Proticol (running telephone through a PC with brodband connection). ANy change that reinstalling windows will fix th problem of my CDRW not being detectd? thanks again
While it's not guaranteed to fix it, the code for Windows 9x OS's tends to, shall I say, degrade, over time. The Windows NT code is more robust, so, it doesn't take the hits that the 9x code does. Windows 9x tends to run smoothly with a reinstall about once a year.
i am a believer in the statement "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" now the only problem you seem to be having is, CD-RW not working, any exclamation marks in device manager ? is CD-RW detected by BIOS ?
To get into BIOS you usually have to press del as soon as the PC boots. Just keep pressing it if you dont know what I mean The setup for IDE drives is usually in the first BIOS menu. The chances are your cd rom drives will be set to auto so just press enter on the auto setting and it should display the name of the drive. EDIT: found an image on the 13th page of results in google! http://www.whiningdog.net/Reviews/PCs/Cases/20021229-ISWAP2/pics/bios.jpg
