Upgrading (rather than replacing) Computers

[andrew44]

Polly, just check the French for 'byte' as in Gigabyte (Gb), and all will be revealed - ah, it starts with an 'o'. Also works for Kilobyte, Megabyte and Terabyte. It also explains the '8' reference (8 bits in a byte).

HTH

Andrew 44

[Théière]

[quote user="Lehaut"]The is a handy little programme called SPECCY www.speccy.com which shows in an easy to understand form the RAM, CPU HDD etc contents of your computer.[/quote]

That's exactly why hard drives and registries get bogged down with stuff you don't need.......................My computer...........View system information tells you the same information

[Lehaut]

Do you mean Control Panel>System and Security>System which gives "View basic information about computer"?

[Polly]

[quote user="andrew44"]Polly, just check the French for 'byte' as in Gigabyte (Gb), and all will be revealed - ah, it starts with an 'o'. Also works for Kilobyte, Megabyte and Terabyte. It also explains the '8' reference (8 bits in a byte).

HTH

Andrew 44

[/quote]

Oui, je suis au courant! For those who are not, wiki has a detailed page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte and at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigaoctet (backing down behind the parapet here as someone lines up to shoot wiki down, and then me because my links are never clickable)

I was originally just asking, in effect, for a simple comparison of memory sizes, what's big BIG and what's teeny and what's good or not so good.

[pachapapa]

For a 32 bit Windows 4 Go is effectively the maximum, assuming the board has got room.

For a 64 bit Windows the sky is the limit; for example for Windows 7:

Here are the upper RAM limits for the different editions of Windows 7:

• Starter: 8Go
• Home Basic: 8Go
• Home Premium: 16Go
• Professional: 192Go
• Enterprise: 192Go
• Ultimate: 192Go
• The different Versions of Vista follow a similar progression.
• Does the bus with 8 seats include the driver or is the bus like the trucks at Gabriela Mistral!

[Bob T]

Going back to the origins of this thread, how to save money without buying a new computer:

If you have a PC which is getting a little slow then upgrade the memory, from about €25 if you do it yourself.

If you have an old CRT monitor, then invest €100 in a newer 19" flat screen, this can be used with any PC at a later date.

If you have a small hard disk and it is getting full, then buy a bigger one and fit it alongside the existing hard disk. 1000 Mb (1 Gb) around €45 and can be used at a later date.

When you have the above and the PC is slow and a few years old, then consider buying a motherboard, processor, memory bundle and fit them into you existing case. These can cost as little as €250 for a quad core processor and you will be able to use your flat screen that you bought before, and the big hard disk that you also bought.

There are also places where you can buy the complete tower kit in bits that needs assembling, it is not very difficult, but can save a fortune. I have just put one together for about €220 for a friend who had a screen, keyboard and mouse, we used his old Windows disk saving having to spend an extra €80 or so, and he ended up with a PC that is bang up to date.

[Théière]

Not quite that easy Bob as this chipset won't work with that video card etc etc. Easier to buy a second user PC from someone who chases the lates spec. Dell dual core 3.2 mhz 3gb ram, 500 gb storage £160

[cooperlola]

Is that a better option than £320 for a brand spanking new PC you don't have to do anything to?

With a free O/S from Linux and Open Office you'd be away, and no anti-virus needed to clog your system.

I realise that it's unfashionable and everybody but me loves Windows 7 but if value is what you are after and fiddling about building a computer yourself is not your thing then I reckon that would work well.

[Bob T]

Yes and no Coops, the £320 (€380) PC will be something that is probably not anywhere near as up to date as the cheaper motherboard bundle or PC kit, so will have a shorter life in the long run. At that price I would not expect a decent sized hard drive, for example, I would expect an old stock small one.

Many motherboard bundles or kits these days have the graphics card built in with the option of adding a second better one at a later date. I have found that the newest motherboards tend to use quite modern built in graphics cards which cope very well with the majority of users needs. Only if you need to run the very latest games would a top end graphics card be needed.

[Théière]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

Is that a better option than £320 for a brand spanking new PC you don't have to do anything to?

[/quote]

Well you could buy two and network them

[cooperlola]

Did you click on the link, Bob? 

Sorry, Teapot, I was responding to Bob's post.  However, I still reckon I'd rather buy new and have some sort of guarantee.

[Bob T]

[quote user="Théière"]Not quite that easy Bob as this chipset won't work with that video card etc etc. Easier to buy a second user PC from someone who chases the lates spec. Dell dual core 3.2 mhz 3gb ram, 500 gb storage £160[/quote]

I would not buy a make name like Dell for a desktop PC if you ever want to extend its life or upgrade it. Dell often use parts that are not industry standard and would prefer that you buy another Dell rather than upgrade.

All of the latest (for the past 3 or 4 years) graphics cards are fitted to a PCI-E slot and will work with a motherboard that has this slot.

Bundles tend to have decent graphics cards built into the motherboard, but also have a PCI-E slot should you want to fit a better card for hard core gaming.

[Bob T]

[quote user="cooperlola"]

Did you click on the link, Bob? 

Sorry, Teapot, I was responding to Bob's post.  However, I still reckon I'd rather buy new and have some sort of guarantee.

[/quote]

I have clicked on it now Coops. My observations are:

The Athlon II 630 is an AMD processor that was a budget one and is no longer made. It is the bottom end of the quad core market.

A 380 watt power supply is also very budget, I would be looking for at least a 500 watt these days.

The memory is good and fast.

The hard disk is a decent size, but this size is about €45 a time at the moment.

The motherboard is old stock and is being sold to make way for the latest version with faster hard disk and USB support.

I would not pay that much for this machine when I know that I could save around £100, buy all the part and end up with a better PC.

I would also not spend money on Windows for this machine, but would put Ubuntu Linux, Open Office, GIMP and a whole other load of free software on it.

[cooperlola]

It's not that I don't take your point, Bob, it is simply that - rather like the people who tell me to pop up on the roof and tweek my dish and LNB a bit to improve my tv reception - not all of us are blessed with the ability to build a PC, however simple people who understand these things insist that it is.  I'm not sure that those who understand these things really get how those of us not on this wavelength might feel about building a PC from scratch.  You wouldn't pay because you don't have to.  Most of us really don't have a choice.  It's not difficult to build a computer- it's impossible.[:D]

[Bob T]

Have to agree with you Coops, but while I have been posting on this thread, I have kept in mind that people with many abilities are reading it.

I will back away from further posting as I may cause the standard windoze versus Mac, or Sata2 versus IDE wars if I go much further.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Bob T"] the standard windoze versus Mac, or Sata2 versus IDE wars.
[/quote][:-))][:-))]

Oh, no, quite.  Anything but that.  [:)]

[Polly]

I agree Coops, horses for courses : I knew the knocking noise from under my bonnet wasn't good news Friday morning, by the time I'd limped the car home I knew 'twas gearbox trouble. OH did the full diagnosis, and grumpily ordered a new box, which he'll fit, but he needed me to make the online payment for it as that's way beyond his online abilities!

[Lehaut]

Of course this is obvious from the simple  .......................My computer...........View system information

[AnOther]

To be honest the days of CPU speed and software demands constantly leapfrogging each other are long gone and a clean install of whatever OS it is you had to start with will restore any machine to the performance it had when you first switched it on.

My near 6 year old AMD 2500+ laptop recently died of a duff graphics chip but up until then was still absolutely capable of doing everything I ever wanted it to and I had no thoughts to replace it.

I currently carry around a Samsung NC10 Netbook which has an Atom N270 CPU and 2gb of RAM and with an on paper spec which many would turn their nose up at but it too is more than adequate for everything I do and would probably be perfectly adequate for the average user. It even runs Windows 7 with aplomb.

The only people who really need the latest and greatest are gamers and those doing intense graphics work, editing the odd photos and surfing the web should be a doddle for just about any PC bought in say the last 5 years or so.

[NickP]

AnOther wrote : "The only people who really need the latest and greatest are gamers and those doing intense graphics work, editing the odd photos and surfing the web should be a doddle for just about any PC bought in say the last 5 years or so."

Many thanks AnO. Although BobT's explanations were excellent. Your comment is good news to me, as the above description fits my needs exactly, and puts my mind at rest for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately people like myself with a computer tend to pick up bits and pieces of knowledge, but there is so much contradictory or slanted information out there it gets a bit confusing sometimes, all we need is simple advice and you have given it.  [B]

[AnOther]

As I suspect it applies to the vast majority of domestic users [;-)]

The caveat of course is that you keep it clean and mean because any machine will clog up and slow down with too much bloated software installed.

To ape Bob's simple analogies think of it as a vacuum cleaner which sucks powerfully with a new bag (= nice fresh install of the OS) but gets less and less capable as it get's clogged up with dust and debris (= software).

[Théière]

One that caught me out, if you have a wireless keyboard and you need to access your boot up commands, DOS commands etc, you can't without a wired keyboard.

Also registry cleaners are good if you need to spring clean your registry because your machine is slowing down and you don't want to risk a re build, used any good ones lately?

[AnOther]

That'll be when you get the message "No keyboard detected - press F1 to continue" [:D][:D][:D]

A lot is claimed for registry cleaners but they are not a panacea and any which do not take a a decent amount of time to do a scan are really not worth a light. I used to use a programme called XP Repair Pro and it's registry scan was exceptionally thorough taking anything up to maybe 20 minutes to complete and fishing out masses of stuff others ignored or, as the old Heineken advert used to say, 'Reaches the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach' [:)]

Your 1st real concern though has to be to get rid of all the crud which runs every time you startup and for my money (a figure of speech as it's free) Autoruns is the best there is.

Beginners should stick to the Startup tab but the more advanced can go to Everything.

[Keelstow]

if you are doing a reinstall of operating system I would switch off automatic updates and just rely on a good,and free!, virus detection program such as avast . the constant barrage of operating system updates are what slow down an older machine and seem to be designed to force the user to invest in a new computer

[Chancer]

How can I do that, I have to click and refuse nearly a dozen updates each time I switch on even from standby.

My antivirus was slowing the machine to a standstill and was besieging me with upgrade messages, it was AVAST IIRC so I loaded AVG, or vice versa, 30 minutes after switching on I still couldnt open anything so now I have no protection but still all these mise à jour messages, without them my P166 would still be useable.

I remember when I installemy printer driver, it installed so many programs that looked for upgrades on start up that once again te computer was unusable and I had to delete them all.

so to recap how do I disable automtic updates and is there a lie anti-virus that I could use?

Pachapapa has kindly given me a newer faster machine but I need to replan my coin bureau to find space for it as its a tower and much bigger than my exiting base unit.