worth upgrading or not?

hello all,
I need advice regarding update of the old PC.
have about 6 years old Aptiva 27u with windows 98,(96 ram)bit sluggish but stil works ok,cant connect to the net using hi speed adsl cause that needs at least Second edition windows or newer one.
no one even sells that one anymore and I cant download one from Microsoft since Im using library comp.
what would be involved and is it worth updating this old machine with newer components so I could install latest windows such as xp?
dont need any fancy video games gizmos or dvd and such, just a basic net cruiser

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or is it better to buy a new tower?
thnx

 

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Buy a new box, with out OS and monitor you should be able to get a fairly good one for around 335€ but going higher to 400€ will help a lot.

don't get 1 with only 256MB ram thou, you need a minimum of 512MB 1GB is even better, cpu is not so importent at this price range and for your purpose, however bigger is always better

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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865

 

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They might have got it to run on such a small box but i like to see someone actually work on it

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.

 

Ugh, no. upgrading that would require a new motherboard, processor, HDD, OS, new RAM. Basically, a new everything. So get a new PC.

Something like this should do

 

Even the crappiest dell would be alright for browsing the web. I say build your own though.

Get a cheap sempron - £30-50, cheap mobo - £30, cheap 1GB ram - £40, cheap vid card - £20, cheap psu - £20, cheap case - £15.

£155-175, and use your old monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.

Use your old hard drive, if it's big enough (probably not) or get a 300GB for about £50 (about the best size vs cost ratio just now I think)

You might be able to use your old case depending on the mobo size, saving some more money.

And before anyone says it's hard.

So, under £225. If you want a new monitor, 17" TFT's can be had for about £80, or a 19" widescreen for about £120.

 

Yeah, if you don't mind waiting for the pointer to move 3mins AFTER you moved the mouse.

 

If the harddrive is as old as the rest of that setup, I'd suggest not using it or if you do use it don't convert it to an NTFS partion, use FAT32.

I say this because if it's an older drive (10Gb, prior 2000AD) the likelihood is that will have a low RPM and low Cylinders/Heads, Due to how windows works it as an operating system requires multiple read/writes to a harddrive. So if you put an old drive in and apply the NTFS format which increases the read/writes, it will likely cause a partition failure and loss of data.

Old 233mhz systems can perhaps run a Linux build, you could run it to explore a commandline linux environment or use it as a network storage system, however configuring Linux and the actual install process is liable to take more than a few days to complete, since modules are constantly being updated.

 

Scorpius: I suggest you don't torture yourself and get a current entry level PC. Having dealt with IBM machines for the better part of 10 years, I know that Aptiva well. It's no longer worth it.

- With the advent of the SP2 streamline, WinXP will refuse to install on any machine with 64MB RAM. The MS article should be updated or erased.
- The Aptiva case is unusable in considering a move to a new PC.
- Phonetic is correct, a clone pc is quite affordable nowadays.