Well I'll probably get that Duron box then upgrade it during tax time as it can take Athlon CPUs as well.

I forgot to mention that my current system is broke. The clips that hold on the CPU fan are half broke. If you move the system slighly a loose wire makes the system unbootable. The CD-ROM drive hardly reads anything anymore.

I just need a working system for now. I've used this one for years. It's time to upgrade if only to something a bit better.

Migrating XP to a new system might be a problem as I have misplaced my COA and forgot the code...

High inventory and low demand will make the consumers winners just after Xmas.

Granted...

Hmmm...

I'm not looking forward to the day after Thankgiving. I'm a cashier at Walmart.

Kona...there's a freeware proggie available over at Majorgeeks that may help you retrieve this information WWW Link

I found this one quite useful, but there are others there, just do a search product key retrieval in the left-hand pane.

Also, I have come across quite a few people who settled for low-end propriety machines who found them to be not very upgradable ....if at all. So if you settle for that Duron box you may find that's what you're stuck with.

If there's any way you can hold off 'til after Xmas, you're gonna do a whole lot better....and with the extra cash you saved towards it, you could even get yourself a reasonably decent machine. Best of luck with what you decide.

Latest 8 series nVidia divers, but the same problems existed before when I had an onboard card, installing this 250$ card didint affect it in anyway.

Starkers thanks for the link and the advice but anything is better than this box. I'll sleep on it.

I second what Leo says. If you max out the memory on your current computer, it should be good for a few more months. Save up bit by bit for those months, get a new box and sell your PC for a few bucks to get a couple bucks back. If you get the Duron computer, you're only trading problems. Your current machine's no Lamborghini, but it should carry you through.

You can also do it with Belarc or PCWizard, two programs I have found immensely useful.

  

Well after talking to a fellow friend of mine who has good advice and knows computers we bought this setup to suffice for now:

(And yes it's upgradeable...)

Pentium 4 CPU - 2.4 GHz
512 MB DDR 2100 Memory
40 Gig HDD (it's enough)
64 MB onboard graphics

Remember I have a CDRW drive and a decent nvidia card to use with it. I spent less then I thought I would.

Now what to do with this Dell...

That's fairly decent for what you've described you need, and if it cost less than you expected to spend then it's a bargain. Being upgradable is also a bonus.



If there is somewhere nearby that refurbishes PC's to give to the disadvantaged, perhaps you could consider donating it....if not, maybe you could strip out any re-usable parts and do to the remainder what you'd have loved to have done to it on many an occasion.... take a hammer to it.

Hey, Kona that's not bad. And when you get another 50 bucks pop in a basic 256mb grahics card or double your ram and you will have a 'flying machine'. Ditch your 64mb card but install the CDRW. Sounds good   

good deal, kona.

I would pop an old CDRW drive into the old machine and sell it as is for about $50. At that price, someone will want it.

I just bought a Acer Aspire T 180 dual-core 4000+ with 1 gig of ram at walmart for $548.00. Comes with a 19" screen. With your discount ( 10% ?) Thats would be about as cheap as it gets. Wait till after Thankgiving and you should really get a deal. The way things are going with computers they will be giving them away in another two years.


Got a boat?

Take charge of your system! Are you running it, or is it running you?

From my own personal experience the biggest killer of system performance are the suites being provided by McAfee or Norton Utilities as a TSR read and write protector, ID Theft Prevention, Anti-Virus, drive encryption, IP blocker, delete protection and the other 7 or 8 apps all running in conjunction simultaneously. I know lots of people swear by these suites as an answer to all questions and would disagree, but for my system I found that my performance is way better without running a suite of protection.

I am a firm advocate of protecting my system, but these suites are murder on performance if for whatever reason you choose to run all their protective agents in the background.

Run your anti-virus and spy-ware, clean your disk and registry, use the firewall and pop-up blocker provided by Windows and you’re protected, dump all the stuff out of your start-up group. But above all, do not depend on these suites to run for you, they literally take control for all aspects of your system.

I have a four year old Compaq Pentium4 2.4 ghz, 1Gb RAM and a paltry 64mb of on-board video memory on XP Pro service pack 2, and I have never had any problems with diminished performance.

System performance depends on what you’re running and how you’re taking care of it. Regular maintenance is a daily, weekly and monthly chore to maintain peak performance. It’s almost as bad as having a demanding new born baby. But the chores are worth it.

If you have to, back-up all your goodies, blow off your hard drive and rebuild your applications to only what’s necessary and try keeping your primary drive above 50% usage. Pay attention to what you’re installing and understand their minimum system requirements. If you don’t use a program then don’t install it. Pay close attention to live updates and make certain that the version is for your build. Store and play your music or videos from another source besides your primary drive. Crack open your case and blow the dust out.

If you’re running a protective suite turn it off! Don’t be lazy with your new born baby, set up a regular maintenance schedule and run your protective applications individually yourself and I can almost guarantee a boost in your performance.

Of course some people are multi-taskers and insist on having up to 20 Windows open all at once. The more you run, the slower you go.

Cp

  

vstyler, when the CPU gets pegged, that might be a point when OCing it can help.

Suck it up....   

One last crack at this because frankly, anyone going to the extremes you are with this thing deserves better. (you realize, of course, there's a medical term for this extreme behavior: paranoia. But, that's an entirely different forum   )

What motherboard is in this?

If you don't mind me correcting you yrag.. It's called O.C.C.U.D. Obsessive compulsive computer user disorder.

BTW yrag, I am close to saving enough to build the world's most powerful PC. I'll be in touch at that point.

You know where I'm at, Honey.   

Mobo is a Asus P5LD2-VM DH

With your fanatical desire in not having anything running, I hesitate to suggest installing Asus Probe II (get it from their web site, not the CD). It's a lot easier to determine what's going on when you have the temps, volts and fan speeds.

I'm confident your bios needs updating (latest is 08/07 - cumulative CPU support additions). That said, only God and Asus knows what's actually in the bios update. I would submit it as a support request with Asus before updating it. If it doesn't pertain to your issues, leave it be.

There are a few settings in the bios you can change to see if it affects spiking/fan acceleration, however, I'm reluctant to suggest you do them without knowing what the temps and volts are. You decide.

SpeedStep Tech - Disabled
AI Overclocking - Standard

Only do one at a time in that order.

Im not opposed to installing anything Im going to use, The reason I'm the way I am is because I like to maintain maximum effeciency from my system for use in PS, SKS and occassionally 3dsMAX. I dont really use anything else so why have it installed right?

Thanks for the help, I'll check it out but honestly I just think my PC should be more capable than it actually is and will probably update it come tax time.  


... then I woke up   

    

Thanks everyone.

as for the guy that asked about our discount - yes it is 10%. But I already made my choice so I'll stick with it.