Maximum PC

Hey all. I just did a major upgrade on my PC today. That along with the poll on the MPC homepage got me thinking.

What do all of you do when your PC becomes too obsolete to stand it?

Myself, I've been upgrading the "same" old machine for 8 years now. It started out as a Micron 200mhz with 64mb of PC133. Now it is a custom built with an AMD Barton 2500+, 512mb DDR 400, and Abit NF7-S. This is it's 3rd major upgrade, by which I mean upgrading the CPU, RAM, and Mobo all at once.

Of course I have upgraded other things as well. My 2x DVD-Rom I got for High School graduation in 99 is now a 16x Lite-on DVD-Rom. The 4x CD-RW is now an 8x DVD+/-RW. The HDD has gone from 2gb to 30gb and I have now added another 80gb.

So, what do you do when your PC is so obsolete that it requires action?

And as another part of that, what's the longest youv'e upgraded a system for? 10 years? 15 years?

Just curious,
Dan O.

Depends on how you define 'upgrade' as opposed to 'makeover', etc. More often than not, I'll do my overhaul by revamping my mobo, CPU, and RAM all at once. Other components (such as vid card, opticals, hard drives) typically make the transfer until such time that I upgrade/replace them one by one.

I just decide when what I want to replace is so much that I might as well completely start again from scratch. I always build my systems now, so usually I just upgrade slowly, but every once in a while a new format or size comes out of something such as when the new btx mobo's come out making it necessary to change the case, the mobo (of course), the processor, ram, etc. Therefore, I just start over from the beginning.

It starts when you modify a PC. Maybe a new video card, or some RAM, or a bigger hard drive. You realise it isn't hard ... and kinda fun.

The next time you buy a new PC, though, you build it. You design it on paper, obsessing over every component. How many people argue about something so mundane as a power supply, or a case?

Soon, your living space is bulging with extra hardware. You don't build PCs, any more, so much as shuffle the components of your network(s) around depending on their use.

You have multiple platforms running multiple OSes. In fact, you pick up obsolete hardware and install somewhat arcane operating systems on them, just to show that you can, and that they work.

Now, you're a geek.

What do all of you do when your PC becomes too obsolete to stand it?

I gut and rebuild. I'll usually keep the unused parts for another build either for myself, or a family member.

My current workstation started as an AMD K5-120MHz unit running Windows 95 Original. The only thing still being used is the actual case, an excellent InWin Q-500 Full ATX Tower. Major rebuilds to this system included:

AMD K5-120
AMD K6-233
Intel P-II 450
Intel P-III 550
AMD Athlon 750 (Slot 1)
AMD Athlon 1.4GHz (Thunderbird)
AMD AthlonXP 2100+
AMD Athlon 2500+ Barton (Current processor)

The oldest component still in use inside the case is probably the video card: an ATI Radeon 7200 64Mb DDR Card. When my GeForce4 Ti4200 died, I tossed this in, and still haven't replaced it yet.

The most expensive component in this unit is my $500 Creative SoundBlaster Live! Professional. It has 2 onboard APU's, with mini-XLR Output to a DJ Mixing board, or amplifier. This computer is used for when I do major DJ'ing events, such as wedding, Dance Weekends, and such.

SC64

I upgrade what I have as far as I can, within reason, then change out mobo/proc/ram and restart from there...

It seems as though you upgrade more often than I do. I did my first major upgrade in 1999 from a 1994 machine. Went from some 200mhz chip to a 700mhz Slot-A Atlhon. That system shorted out when I didn't properly seat my HS, and when I kicked the computer (on accident) the HS hit the chipset and the shit hit the fan. So, in the fall of 2002 I swapped out the CPU, Mobo, Ram, HS, Video card (new AGP voltage standard) and a new PSU just to be on the safe side.



That's the same vid card I bought when the AGP voltage changed. I had that thing until early this year, when I swapped it out for a Gforce4 Fx5200. It's not a bad card, it does what I need it to do, but I realize I could get a lot more FPS on a better card. Thing is, I haven't played a single game in a few months, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Upgrade for ever.

Generally 80% of my system is still good from one upgrade to the next, so a complete rebuild is unecessary.

I'm looking at a GeForce 6800 GT/1GB PC3200 and an Audugy 2 for my next upgrade. I'll buy it when the 6800GT's hit $350.

I fully agree Beelzebubba.

I have a lot of friends and family that will simply buy new machines. It drives me nuts! I offer to build them a new one (most of the time 90% of their system needs upgrading by the time they dedide to get a new one), but they refuse, and a few weeks later they go out and blow $1500 on a new HP or some crap.

Take my brother-in-law for instance. I told him what I could build him for $400 without the monitor, and a few weeks later he blew $1500 on an HP. Thing is, I honestly have no freaking clue what he is going to do with a 120gb HDD, expept spend a lot more time waiting for defragging and virus checking. All he uses his machine for is office work. My sister uses the machine to surf the web, and their kids are all 8 and under, and have yet to get into real games, but my sister would never allow them to play any action games which are the most FPS demanding anyway.

My another sister who knows absolutley nothing about comptuers went to Best Buy and bought whatever the salesman sold her. She blew another $1800 on it, $400 on an office suite, which she could have gotten %70 off because she was a teacher. I never had the heart to tell her how much money she wasted on that damn thing.

I do have a few friends though that are like me, and upgrade forever. Both of them have taken old parts from me, one of them turning the parts into a new machine, along with some other old parts. I think he runs Linux on it now. The other friend is often too cheap to spend much on his PC. He was using an old 4x CD burner when I got my DVD+/-RW in the mail. Now he's using a 52x Lite-on.

That's sort of been a thing with me. I never really keep my old gear, I just give it away to friends. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the old Abit NV7-133R I had in this box, or the 1.3ghz Duron, or the 512mb of PC 2100. I haven't spoken to the friend that used all my other old stuff in a long time. The one that just took my Lite-on just upgraded last fall, I think he's running a 2400+ and 512mb of DDR 333 or 400.

Actually, I'm not sure if my old gear is any good. I'm sure the ram is still OK, but I overheated the proc when I left a PSU wire laying on the HSF blade. The proc may not be any good. Although, I could just buy a new 1.8ghz Duron for about $30 or $40. But I'm still not sure about the mobo. The last time I had it "running" windows would boot and I could surf the web, but that was it. Nothing else would run.

Well, I think I've typed too much,
Dan O.

i usually "upgrade" forever....

however, many of my "upgardes" include mobo, cpu, RAM...but keep all the other old stuff.

(consider that build new if you want)