worth fixing up?

[blk03MitsuES]

i got my hands on an old, really ooooold pc. its a pavillion 7850. here's the specs from hp: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph05159&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=60514&lang=en

if you didnt click on the link, its a p3 1ghz, 256mb of ram and 40 gig hd. i just looked around newegg and added up some upgrades.

$90 XP sp2 oem
$30 mushkin PC100 256MB 168-Pin SDRAM PC 100
$77 CHAINTECH P-FX20 256MB Geforce FX5200 256MB DDR PCI Video Card
-------------
$220 Total with tax/shipping

it actually still works. it runs Me. it's been messed with over the years so the cd rw dont work but the cd drive still works. so i would be upgrading to xp just cus it looks more familiar. the other stick of ram feels like a must and the pci vidcard is pretty much for dual monitors.

so is it worth it spending 220 bucks on it?

[danthegeek]

Id have to say no considering you can go to wal-mart and get you a pc for around $298.00. Thats with better specs then this setup and then you can throw in the video card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130069) ( just an example). Id turn this one into an ftp or small home server for files.

[nil8]

1. Buy a copy of xp off ebay. Much cheaper.
2. Buy ram off ebay or tigerdirect. Cheaper.

That 220 will drop down to around 140 real quick.

[progbuddy]

PC 100?

Wow, thats old. Many PCs today run with PC 5200 DDR2. Might wanna just use the case, harddrive, and optical drives (CD drives, DVD drives, etc.). You can get a great PC running with about 350-400 bucks.

[bartvandenberg]

yah.. im gonna agree with everyone. is you spend a couple hundred bucks on that, first of all, you are buying really old slow ram. to buy xp for a system like that wouldnt be worth it either. and you could buy that video card, but.. everything else in your computer would be bottlenecking it anyway.

but the most important thing to note is, you spend that money, but you still have a crappy old p3 with really old slow components.

just like everyone else says, spend a few hundred bucks, and buy a cheap sempron based system or something.. look on ebay, ive seen p4 with a gig ddr440 and 100gb harddrives go for only $250 bucks.

[Nagoshi]

Youd better get 133MHz RAM if you consider getting RAM for that system.

And you are going for a FX5200 PCI card???? Does that rig has a AGP slot? Keep the money and buy the best AGP card you can. Hopefully that AGP card will have two VGA ports. Or one DVI and VGA, that depend on what kind of screens you use.

Also, if you can overclock the system, it would be nice... my Pentium3 550 was running at 781MHz, and it's way faster than many 800MHz Athlons, Durons, Celerons and Pentiums with 384Mb RAM and better video cards.

[bartvandenberg]

Also, if you can overclock the system, it would be nice... my Pentium3 550 was running at 781MHz, and it's way faster than many 800MHz Athlons, Durons, Celerons and Pentiums with 384Mb RAM and better video cards.

faster how?

[Nagoshi]

Benchmarks, games, even under Windows... everything loads and executes faster than, well, faster comps. in comparaison, my 781MHz Pentium3 was probably of the speed of a 800-850MHz on a fresh Windows install, while mine was installed (and slowed by full of sh!t) for one year and more.