More ram or new computer?

[luciusad2004]

Ok, so my gf's mom's computer is well... well it needs to be "recycled." It's an OLD dell dimension 2400 w/ a pentium 4 and 128 MB of ram..... no that's not a typo

Now here is my dilemma:

She wants to wipe the computer and see if it runs better, it will... for a day or two, i know this because I've done it for her before. She said if that doesn't work she will just buy a new one. In my head i thought "Sweet, that's what you need, a new computer!"

I understand times are tough but my girlfriend later tells me her mom was going to try to find something for 300ish dollars after her tax return rolls around.

Realizing that for that price point she won't get anything much better than what she has, I decided to perform an experiment. I threw in a half a gig of ram out of my computer and the poor little dell actually became a usable machine. (All she does is browse the web and play flash games.)

Should i recommend spending 30 bucks on a gig of ram or should i let her buy another neutered machine?

I know anything she buys WILL be better than what she has, but it will probably be a bottom line machine that just barely meets the minimum requirements for vista. I would fully support her dumping the old computer but i know she won't spend even 500 on a new one. What do you guys think i should do?

[BuzzKillington]

http://www.emachines.com/products/catalog.html?type=desktops

[luciusad2004]

You don't think those would be crippled by windows vista or is it not really as much of a resource hog as everyone claims?

I actually wasn' aware you could get that much computer w/ that little money.

Thanks : )

Anyone else have any thoughts/opinions/ideas?

[chaksq]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, a P4 is perfect if not overkill for most users. That being said I recommend stuffing as much ram as possible into the machine, ~1gb should be enough for anything that is not Vista (although in most cases you can get away with 512mb). In most cases I find the reason why machine performance drops shortly after reformatting is because when it was reformatted it never was setup correctly. You need virus protection, and only install software you will use. Exactly how does she use the computer. Unless she is doing graphics or serious gaming do not replace the P4, you are just generating waste and throwing away money. Also if it screws up see if she will consider using linux, I highly recommend Xubuntu for P3 & P4 computers. I gave some of my cousins a P3 gateway that I formated with Xubuntu and added some ram. Works perfectly and they actually think it is newer than it is.

If however you insist on replacing the machine look into a Asus EEEbox. Also to save cost reuse her existing monitor and peripherals.

[luciusad2004]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, a P4 is perfect if not overkill for most users. That being said I recommend stuffing as much ram as possible into the machine, ~1gb should be enough for anything that is not Vista (although in most cases you can get away with 512mb). In most cases I find the reason why machine performance drops shortly after reformatting is because when it was reformatted it never was setup correctly. You need virus protection, and only install software you will use. Exactly how does she use the computer. Unless she is doing graphics or serious gaming do not replace the P4, you are just generating waste and throwing away money. Also if it screws up see if she will consider using linux, I highly recommend Xubuntu for P3 & P4 computers. I gave some of my cousins a P3 gateway that I formated with Xubuntu and added some ram. Works perfectly and they actually think it is newer than it is.

If however you insist on replacing the machine look into a Asus EEEbox. Also to save cost reuse her existing monitor and peripherals.

Thats what i was thinking, her processor is a Pentium 4 which depending on clock speed (i don't know it off hand) is probably on par w/ my Celeron or possibly better. (Pentiums are a cut above Celerons aren't they?)

All she really does is browse the web and and play flash games. (Pogo i think?) I would try the Linux thing for her because I've used Xubuntu and i think her computer is a good candidate for it, but I'm not sure that she would like it and I would get a little frustrated doing tech support. I'm trying to think of a nice way to recommend just getting a gig of ram. I was even thinking of just buying two gigs for my own machine and giving her my old ram for cheap. I think later tonight im going to throw my ram in her computer and show her how much of a difference it makes. I know she doesn't really want to spend the more than she has to.

[nevermind1534]

My grandmother's computer doesn't have much stuff on it, and it runs really fast with 384MB RAM and a Celeron 1.1GHz (tualatin) cpu. I recently upgraded to 1.3GHz, but it runs really fast either way.

[Twigsoffury]

I have said it before and I'll say it again, a P4 is perfect if not overkill for most users. That being said I recommend stuffing as much ram as possible into the machine,


Exactly.

goto dells website and search there achives for the technical manual for that board.

if it takes PC-133 or pc-100 (SD type) it should accept 512MB 2x256. although some later chipset revisions supported 512MB modules

if its a DDR style then for sure it will accept 1024MB (2x512MB) the speed is PC-2100 or DDR266 latency varies but the voltage is 1.8v if i remember right.

it varies by series but it might have a AGP slot. dell sold as a option a FX5200 with 128MB of ram. they can be had for under 40$ on the bay and are pretty much plug and play. if its a tower and not a desktop then any old AGP 2x4x or 4x/8x card will work. however agp express (thank ati) and AGP 8x alone cards won't work.


You know most mama's arn't out to play Quake elevnty billion at 60000x60000 resolution while attaining 80fps

most mamas play splonker and that kitchen dash game do some office work and maybe use a simple photo program.


if its a DDR style board with a AGP slot + a tower.

the price of the ram and a nice LCD panel should be a cheaper Solution then buying another Piece of crap off the best buy shelf.


but a couple critical things

Dell power supplys have a different 24pin out then the ATX standard. so you'll need to buy a adapter to use a standard ATX psu on a dell platform. Plugging a standard ATX power supply could deal a fatal blow to the computer and power supply both.

from what i found Dells dont like anything but dell fans in the cpu fan header. I'm not sure why but they just post the "fan failure" screen for me.

i'd also consider replacing the thermal paste on all the componants. the older pentiums throttle back there clock speed in a effort to keep going dispite poor cooling.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

My mother's computer is similar - came to me as a 2.4 Celeron with 256MB; I put Win2000 on her old HDD and replaced the CPU with a 2.4 P4. If it gets XP, I'm upgrading her to 512MB at the same time. Runs just fine as-is.

[Omega]

You don't need crazy power.

My laptop is 900mhz and 1gb RAM and it will run anything I need it too, and pretty quick even. Hell, it even runs WoW (although admittedly, THAT is slow).

For $300 she'll definately get a better rig than she has now. Craigslist it up, yo!

[BuzzKillington]

Maybe it's just my local Craigslist but around here people are trying to put up P4 laptops for like 600 bucks and they're dead serious and get insulted when you say it's a ridiculous asking price. "I PAID 1200 FOR THIS ONLY 5 YEARS AGO!!"

[Twigsoffury]

Maybe it's just my local Craigslist but around here people are trying to put up P4 laptops for like 600 bucks and they're dead serious and get insulted when you say it's a ridiculous asking price. "I PAID 1200 FOR THIS ONLY 5 YEARS AGO!!"

yea laptops loose value even faster then Desktop computers.

You can still get 250$ off a Pentium 4 1.6Ghz

I'd LOL at a 1.6Ghz P4 laptop if you asked 250$

[theshoeshineman]

Well fom the sounds of it the following is still fine:

Hard drive
Monitor
Case
PSU

so all you need to get is a very basic motherboard with inbuilt graphics. A basic CPU and a couple of gig of ram.

Re-format the hard drive and install everything back on and she'll be happy and i'm sure you could replace those parts for under $300?

[TheGreatSatan]

I totally agree that a P4 with 512 to 1Gig is plenty for most people. If $300 is what she is willing to spend try Geeks (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=9439A95&cat=SYS).