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Thread ID: 135729	2013-12-05 15:03:00	any PC, $1000 upgrade, ethical?	Mirddes (10)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1361699	2013-12-07 00:57:00	any dualcore system with sata is worthy of a $200 upgrade. if its not, give it away to someone who doesn't have one.	Mirddes (10)
1361700	2013-12-07 01:24:00	THE IDEA CANNOT BE KNOCKED Some of us have been in PCs for a long time. Some of us even sold/built them too. I had a friend who got into the computer wreckers idea years and years ago.....Win3/Win95 era. He made pocket money for a bit, spent a lot of time ringing me about obscure drivers and jumper arrangements and such, and eventually gave it up because it was more trouble than it was worth. But you perhaps have more experience than us.	pctek (84)
1361701	2013-12-07 01:50:00	.................................................. ....................... i wish to plunge ahead and help the decline of PC sales by retrofitting many more than good enough computers and double their potential life-spans Instead of speculating out loud just do it............and wait for the world of real to catch up with you............:nerd: :banana	Terry Porritt (14)
1361702	2013-12-07 12:06:00	Those New WD black SSD/ HDD 2.5" combo drives would be perfect for laptops, 120Gb SDd + 1TB HDD in the same package. www.wdc.com As to the wisdom of all this, some older PC's are worth the effort, some are not. In some cases such as DDR2 RAM getting upgrade parts at a reasonable price is difficult and brand new can work out cheaper. There are plenty of upgrade kits available with MB/CPU/RAM at very competitive prices so for me personally if you can stay under half the price of a new replacement then you are adding some value but any more than that and I'd rather start over. I have a several year old 3 core Phenom 2 720 black edition with 4GB of RAM that used to be someones gaming machine sitting here, forget gaming and it's still a very good machine. It would only need the SSD and a storage drive to make it perform better than many new machines. In this case it could be worth spending some money on, but the original $1000 you suggested? no way, that's new PC territory. this system is still a pretty decent gaming machine, sure not your high end fancy nonsense but it will play EVERY GAME AT REASONABLE SETTINGS... anyhow i was a-talking to my mum's boarder and he has a several year's old laptop he got of a freind of his which was several years old at the time. dualcore, XP, upgraded to 1.5GB ram, 60GB hdd, PCMCIA and expresscard54. 2USB2.0 ports. dvd drive. i asked him how much it is worth to him, not how much he paid etc but how much it is WORTH to him. $300 i asked how the battery is, he still gets a few hours out of it. maybe 4h if he is lucky. so i have suggested a 120GB SSD with the HDD going into the optical bay ($20 converter), a 1GB stick of ram and 2 expansion cards, 2xUSB2 and 2xUSB3. he does not even use the 2 usb ports as it is so either of those could be omited for the time being but with a SSD id highly recommend the usb3 ports. he has a built in SD reader, definitely not SDXC but maybe SDHC; must check the model number. 1GB ddr1 so-dimm is $51 including shipping pricespy.co.nz optical bay converted is $23.50 including shipping www.trademe.co.nz samsung 120GB ssd is $134 including shipping pricespy.co.nz windows 7, its just a spare key. he could probably do with linux but no need to push him. games on ps3 so he's actually a grand candidate for linux. 1xUSB3 expresscard54 with bluetooth (i just found this, woot) is $20 dx.com alternatively 2xUSB3 expresscard54 is $17 dx.com additionally 2xUSB2 PCMCIA is $13 dx.com i told him a few years after this upgrade he can just upgrade the battery to again extend the life again just as much. LET US LOOK OBJECTIVELY AT THIS EXAMPLE $254 for the above components if both usb expansions are opted for with the more expensive blutooth option being selected. dollars less, maybe $15 less if only 2xUSB3 is selected. this is very reasonable for the breath of new life it offers. a retail windows license does inflate the price to $400 regardless of the options chosen however linux isjust as easily used and if i did not have a spare key on the side of an old case then i would activly push him towards linux. HE IS VERY HAPPY WITH XP and only because of the virtues of 7+SSD is he happy to switch. 2GB of ram on a clean system is plenty. please do not let techno-snobbery blind you when you look back at your 5 year old 4GB gaming rigs. (ps3 has 512MB LOLOLOLOL) and my cost? positive word of mouth is all i ask for. it is a joy simply to be able to help. HAVE A GREAT DAY.	Mirddes (10)
1361703	2013-12-07 13:09:00	alternatively a 32GB adata SSD is $81 pricespy.co.nz brings the previously stated price down to $201 32GB is enough for windows 7 and if the links at this link are to be believed setting user directory and program files to the 60GB HDD is a trivial task www.tomshardware.com 120GB SSD does seem what he will go for as triple the space elicited a positive reaction and does not required work arounds. why not just the 120GB you might wonder? not having to backup old data is a huge bonus. data on cds/dvds are uncommon and it is doubtful he has any. my mother;s computer ( in the lounge) has a dvd drive and any data is able to be put on a usb stick. any multimedia discs can be played in his bluray player or ps3. optical drives in computer are so 2000s (though i have 3 burners in my desktop, though im aiming for a multiseat system and only one is hooked up) so $254 it is, a worthy price to breathe more life into an aging laptop. if profit were to be aimed for $10 per component install (physical and drivers) seems adequately reasonable, even with an OS installation, say $70 for the 6 components and OS installation he said its worth $300 to him so $320 does not seem excessive though a round $300 seems fair. i wont charge him though because goodwill is worth much more. HAVE A GREAT DAY	Mirddes (10)
1361704	2013-12-07 17:45:00	A nd if you **** this up. Who pays?	plod (107)
1361705	2013-12-07 20:30:00	2GB of ram on a clean system is plenty. please do not let techno-snobbery blind you when you look back at your 5 year old 4GB gaming rigs. (ps3 has 512MB LOLOLOLOL) What happens after the user installs piles of crap then? 2GB is silly nowadays. And the amount of RAM in a gaming console has nothing to do with anything.	Agent_24 (57)
1361706	2013-12-07 20:32:00	What happens after the user installs piles of crap then? 2GB is silly nowadays. Even 4GB is getting a bit on the low side; I could do with more in my Surface...	pcuser42 (130)
1361707	2013-12-07 21:31:00	A nd if you **** this up. Who pays? lol how could i **** it up? its a few screws for pete's sake. and an OS install. hardly major surgery. im putting together a $3000 computer during the upcoming week; should be fun. What happens after the user installs piles of crap then? 2GB is silly nowadays. And the amount of RAM in a gaming console has nothing to do with anything. you should see little stuff he has on his PC; installing crapware is not a concern. my mum has 2GB ddr3 on her computer; runs ultimate edition linux 3.7; has never got close to running out of ram. and there is a 1GB swap on the ssd; has never been used.	Mirddes (10)
1361708	2013-12-07 22:11:00	this system is still a pretty decent gaming machine, sure not your high end fancy nonsense but it will play EVERY GAME AT REASONABLE SETTINGS... No Actually it won't, the reason I have it is the original owner upgraded because it wouldn't play some new games. Rage for example was a single digit FPS slideshow even at it's lowest setting. The CPU was too weak in this case not the graphics card otherwise he would have just upgraded that. He's a student without much money, the PC started out as a dual core athlon and got upgraded with the phenom 2 720 when it got too slow, that was a lucky 2nd hand deal off trademe. He hung on to it as long as he could so believe me when I tell you it's no longer suitable for modern games. Your Idea might be ok for general use, but you simply can't recycle old PC hardware if you're a gamer. A 2-3 year old PC can still be ok if it was good to start with, after 4-5 years like this one you are just throwing money at it for temporary solutions that will give you a few months if you're lucky. Goes like this; Buy new game "abc" - won't play smoothly, figure out it's the graphics card and get a better one Buy game "def" - won't play smoothly, get annoyed having recently upgraded, figure out you need more RAM, upgrade Buy game "ghi" - won't play smoothly, resist the urge to smash the PC against the wall, figure out it's the CPU, upgrade Realise keeping your old gaming PC alive has cost you more than replacement MB/CPU/RAM would have and it's still old and struggling, resolve to stop buying game sand save up for a better one.... I build a new Gaming PC every 18-24 months (sometimes sooner, it's my hobby and I enjoy it) and sell off the old one while it still is a good machine and has some value. I could get more life out of a gaming PC but there are several reasons not to; 1. The resale value of old hardware diminishes rapidly, getting a return on my old hardware helps fund the new. 2. The gaming experience at "ok" or "good" settings required on older hardware is just not as nice 3. My hardware seldom gets old enough to start being unreliable 4. At some point it becomes a replacement becomes more viable than an upgrade, I say 2-3 years for gaming and 3-5 years for general purpose computing.	dugimodo (138)
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