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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
1361709	2013-12-07 22:22:00	clearly these upgrades i speak of are not gamign orientated; it would be a completely different discussion. the only reason i mentioned a graphics card, citing the lowly hd5450, is for hardware accelerated video decoding (vlc, youtube, etc) and the HDMI port they come with. hooking a 7 year old PC upto the telly and watching 720p videos downloaded from eztv is a viable option.	Mirddes (10)
1361710	2013-12-07 22:30:00	Upgrading old PC's to get more life out of them, theres nothing wrong with that. Theres a few things you have to be aware of though. The cost of upgrading can sometimes come close to the same as a new PC. So far prices supplied have been all over the place and are so different its actually amusing. Sometimes when a PC is upgraded, it WILL cause some parts to fail shortly after. SO along those lines, (and answer with a legit answer, not some smart crack) what are you going to do if you upgrade a old PC for someone, a few weeks or months later the Motherboard which was original fails. The person you sold it to wont be too happy, and you telling them they now have to spend a few more hundreds on a new Motherboard, CPU and RAM, and possible PSU (because the you wont be able to get new boards of that socket for CPU) , and also cover any warranty on any new parts installed ? Re this comment: lol how could i **** it up? its a few screws for pete's sake. Seen it happen more times that I care to remember, people change things and before they know it they have a major problem on their hands. Had one earlier this year, the person changed a hard Drive, ended up blowing the motherboard. I'm reasonably sure what the cause was, it was nothing to do with wrong connections or fitted wrong or dropping anything on it -- And if you dont know then I'm not telling ya ;) Best of luck though, it wont make you any real money, but do expect a few failures.	wainuitech (129)
1361711	2013-12-08 04:57:00	Upgrading old PC's to get more life out of them, theres nothing wrong with that. Theres a few things you have to be aware of though. The cost of upgrading can sometimes come close to the same as a new PC. So far prices supplied have been all over the place and are so different its actually amusing. 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. 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 $250 for 2xUSB3, 2xUSB2, extra 1GB ddr so-dimm, 120GB SSD, bay converter to use old hdd in optcal drive bay. all prices include shipping 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. Best of luck though, it wont make you any real money, but do expect a few failures. not sure how these prces are all over the place. its not hard to spend a grand on components which will work well with your current older computer and work just as wel if not better with an upgrade box when your comptuer finally dies,you coudl add another 3-5 years to it's lifespan if an old computer fails after beign upgraded some of the components, such as the SSD, are very much well suited to being put in even the cheapest of laptops (huge performance boost) many components are easily sold off. its not the end of the world. when your dog gets sick and you pay the vet some money and 6 months later he dies you dont get a refund from the vet... i do t to make people happy. f they want to pay me they are more than welcome to.	Mirddes (10)
1361712	2013-12-08 05:14:00	Thats made my day :lol: if an old computer fails after beign upgraded some of the components, such as the SSD, are very much well suited to being put in even the cheapest of laptops (huge performance boost) many components are easily sold off. its not the end of the world. SO going by your train of thought, if something fails after a few weeks or more, then its up to the purchaser to sell off the parts they have brought, and tough luck. YOU dont think there will be some sort of comeback ?? Blimey are you going to find out the hard way about consumer rights. Oh well just another Cowboy with no warranties. Heres something for nothing -- you say people are happy with what you do -- One day There WILL be people that seem all nice and happy, BUT the moment something goes wrong - Watch out - Its going to cost you when they insist you repair things for free or want a refund on the components you sold them and insist it was YOUR modifications that has caused problems.	wainuitech (129)
1361713	2013-12-08 05:35:00	I was going to mention that you've pulled the prices off Pricespy or that DX site which is overseas (?). Remember SuperCheapComputers or PC Company :confused: Try to get some prices off a reputable NZ place and redo the figures. Would you be in a financial position to support the customer or would you just be supporting the items you added into the customer's own aging system? But like WT says they may not happy if you suggested to them an upgrade over a new machine and then the customer gets unexpected bills down the road. For a bit more you get a new system, I gather in general terms most people don't play games, why not just get a cheap usable system with a warranty. If they want a bit more like SSD and whatever they can select one of the other alternative options you put to them. And yeah, even with my own computer I have learnt to stop spending money on a machine after 3 or 5yrs. I rather just buy a cheap barebones new system. Memory goes bad, some RAM are not that cheap to replace. And behold the motherboard, requiring a new CPU, RAM, PSU potentially. Or maybe a bad LAN or video. $75 NZD that is for a video card maybe suck it up and get a $400 barebones. Then later the so common HD breaks down. $75-100. They all add up. Or maybe you wanna give some RAM boost even if it wasn't bad, just a speed boost. More so ... But ignoring all this, people probably rather pay a bit more and have a complete NEW system.	Nomad (952)
1361714	2013-12-08 05:56:00	clearly these upgrades i speak of are not gamign orientated; it would be a completely different discussion. the only reason i mentioned a graphics card, citing the lowly hd5450, is for hardware accelerated video decoding (vlc, youtube, etc) and the HDMI port they come with. hooking a 7 year old PC upto the telly and watching 720p videos downloaded from eztv is a viable option.we upgraded 3 workstations this year with ssd and more ram. Was it worth it? No, CPU is still the major bottleneck. These machines will be replaced next year now. It boils down to even with a ssd and double the ram, it's still a 6 year old CPU.	plod (107)
1361715	2013-12-08 06:06:00	Had one earlier this year, the person changed a hard Drive, ended up blowing the motherboard. I'm reasonably sure what the cause was, it was nothing to do with wrong connections or fitted wrong or dropping anything on it -- And if you dont know then I'm not telling ya ;) I've got a couple of theories, but for any of them to happen you'd have to be really thick... we upgraded 3 workstations this year with ssd and more ram. Was it worth it? No, CPU is still the major bottleneck. These machines will be replaced next year now. It boils down to even with a ssd and double the ram, it's still a 6 year old CPU. Well to be fair if you want to decode videos and your GPU is doing the work then the CPU doesn't really matter. But for anything else...	Agent_24 (57)
1361716	2013-12-08 06:20:00	Would you be in a financial position to support the customer? But ignoring all this, people probably rather pay a bit more and have a complete NEW system. Yes, you become responsible as the retailer under the CGA. And warranties.....lets say you install a GPU - that GPU fails at just under it's 3 years, say 2 years 11 months and 2 weeks. Fine, you replace the GPU for the customer under warranty, no charge, yyou try getting a replacement from your supplier - you may find he had the GPU for 3 years 1 week, so you are out of luck. And you as a business are not covered under the CGA. YOu have to be prepared for instances like that. You also need to be prepared to diagnose, fix and explain to the customer what else happened to their PC that had nothing to do with the original upgrade, which of course they won't understand and sure won't accept. And in any case it's all irrelevant, because your idea was to convince people to stick with PCs. They are moving away from them and into other devices. End of story. Brand new, second hand, complete crap - none of it matters, the world has already made up it's mind, you think if Dell, Compaq and the rest couldn't convince them, your half baked ideas will?	pctek (84)
1361717	2013-12-08 09:03:00	workstations put them on reception.	Mirddes (10)
1361718	2013-12-08 09:19:00	put them on reception. Nope, passed the used by date for business I'm afraid. Will be written off to staff hopefully	plod (107)
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