Ya it's always good to feel like you get your money's worth on an upgrade. On the other hand, if you keep scratching up machines for $6... well it kind of takes the edge off

My yard sale special started out as an eMachines T3104 until I yanked its guts and tossed it into a custom case with side window and blue led fans that I salvaged. The front of the case looks like a BMW Coupe. I think it dates back to '02-'05. With the big "e" boot logo disabled, you would never know  it from a "real" computer. The VIA chipset absolutely refused to play well with a modern OS, so it stays XP. The FX 5200 does OK, but if the mobo wasn't AGP, I'd toss my 8800GT GFX card in it as well. The old dog will probably outlive me.

Nope.

Well....that went well... attempting to stuff the recently removed P4P800E [ATX] MoBo into the hand-me-down location didn't happen...it's an AT case.  The PSU was therefore going to argue with the CPU/cooler....

So, off I went to my 'local' and grabbed a Thermaltake Versa II with included 500w PSU for $78.  It has 'quaint' tool-less fittings for HDs, etc., but you get what you pay for .... it ain't no Lian Li.....  but it's cheap.

So...at this stage [it's together] the cheapie has cost $84.40 ...

You've heard the stereotype about old ladies and cats.

Old techies collect computers and computer carcasses.  It's only a matter of time before they're the next stereotype (if not already.)

(I won't say how many I've got squirreled away myself   )

File Transfer Wizard.

I thought I'd use that....and get Terry's stuff off the old XP and onto the new 7 Ult.

Here's an idea, MICROSOFT .... if you WANT people to move on from XP to newer OS vers.... provide XP's updates with the 7-compatible version as a compulsory/essential/critical/whatever update.

So I don't waste my effing time offloading from XP with 2gig of junk 7 can't even see....

I need to concentrate all I can while I'm on the dunny...

...cos I take salts.

What, Epsom Salts to help you go?

No, somersaults! 

so my Android is NOT a prerequisite to toilet time.

Hmmm, my daughter took me to pick up some parts today and I was told the case I want has become as rare as hens teeth due to it being a discontinued line.  The guy didn't say whether it had been discontinued by Thermaltake or his company [and it was too busy for me to hold him up with questions about it] but he did say they had other outlets with stock and that he will endeavour to get one for me... and at a better price. 

The catalogued price is $265 but he will let me have it for $239.  I'm not complaining!  I might be having to wait but that's not a discount I'll sneeze at.  Besides, finances dictate that the rig won't likely be completed until early March, so a little longer is no skin off my nose.

Here's my den-of-iniquity where I do stuff...  The huge 'monitor' is a Telly I got for nix....running at 1380x768 ...it's Terry's...and she can almost see it OK.

The Lian Li on the left is my hand-me-down ....and the little thing open on the right is the 6.40 machine that now resides in the other case.

Since then they've all been swapped over...and I'm still 'tweaking' her new system to match as it was...though now 7 Ult rather than XP Pro ...

So now the new case has the P4 ..... aka Terry's old machine .... now running Win 7 Pro 32.

Gonna experiment with overclocking it as the CPU is the low score for its WEI... and this new case has a silly number of locations for fans.

The CPU fan I'd had on it was getting tired aka noisy and I already had one of those tower pipe thingies that suits it laying around so it's on it now.

Running Speedfan doesn't make a lot of sense....sensors are screwy...so I'll install ASUS Probe an work out what's what...

I had something similar to the one you discarded.  It was in a 2nd-hand rig that I bought... had an IBM case and other IBM stuff inside, with an OEM version of XP on it. 'Twas a nice machine, too, but it had to go because it was non-upgradable, a family member needed a PC, any PC, and I bought a new rig with a P4 2.6 and 64mb DDR RAM in it.  Hehe, it seems hard to believe that was an upgrade, given the high performance tech of today.

Before I gave the IBM rig to my sister, I too changed out the CPU cooler because it was a bit loud... got a nice Zalman unit for about 30 bucks that performed well enough to keep it going a few more years.  Hmmm, must have been around 14 - 15 years ago now, and she only recently gave up on it... like about 12 months agoago.  She does scrapbooking and needed more power, so until she can afford a new machine [hopefully] later this year, she has something decent that I built out of parts I had laying around here.

I've had a few people ask why I keep so much "puter junk", but if only they knew!  First; I like to tinker with shit; second, if somebody needs a cheap PC I've a better chance of helping them out; third, what else am I gonna store in all the storage crates and drawers?  Besides, I don't get around so good anymore, so it giives me something to do... aka a hobby.

Ah, stuck back in the Stoneage, I see... how ancient of you. I've had USB3 for a while now and it is super quick compared to 2.  You know, you can get a PCI-E card with 2 or 4 USB3 ports for just a few bucks, so it's an inexpensive way to enjoy the higher transfer speeds until your next major upgrade.

Yes, I have a couple of AMDs that are faster than the i7 920, so it would be the place to start.. and of course, a new mobo with SATA3 and USB3, DDR3 RAM... all the good stuff.  Who knows DDR4 might be out by the time you're ready to build... and something from Intel to top the Haswells. I've got a i7 4770K on a Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H with 10 SATA3 ports and 10 USB3 ports, so it'll rock the casbah with speed to burn.

I really wanted the Gigabyte GA-Z87X UD7-TH because it had some interesting SSD/HDD related features and 2 on-board Thunderbolt ports, but the company I ordered it from messed me around, saying  it was discontinued and no longer in stock. 'Twas bullshit, though, given it is the latest model from Gigabyte  Discontinued my arse, they just didn't want to sell it to me at the advertised price, which was significantly lower than any of their competitors. 

Thing is, they're still advertising it for $320.00 and taking orders at that price... they just email prospective customers later with a 'not available' apology and offer an alternative... which I rejected because they had nothing comparable at a reasonable price.  I got the last laugh, though.  I lodged a written complaint regarding deceptive trade practices with the ACCC and Consumer Affairs.

Anyhow, I have all I need to get started with the build now.  The Thermaltake Level 10 case arrived about 10 mins ago, so I might have a snooze for a couple of hours before getting stuck into it... gotta cannibalise some parts out of this rig to complete it so will be off line this evening, me thinks.

Nope ....it'll be Intel ...that benchmark site I linked to shows where the value is ....

For now. AMD could come out with a CPU that beats any I7. I wouldn't bet against it.