When to buy new?

[angelaurban]

What is the best way to determine if it's time to buy a new computer?  Dell Dimension 4700, Windows XP, just really slow.  I've done what I can to remove junk/unused software; seems to have adequate memory.  To be more specific, is it worth $100-$200 to have someone with experience tell me if I need a new computer?  Or just spend the money on the new computer?  Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

[Computer_Commando]

Start shopping & you'll see computers have never been cheaper.  You can even get a tower (only) at BestBuy for $300-400 including OS.

[Geek-9pm]

No. If you are willing to tinker and do some work.
You can buy a working 4700 less keyboard mouse and monitor for under $100 on eBay. With legit Windows XP OEM installed. No warranty, except it will work the first time your turn it on. You can trade parts between the two and find out what is wrong.

But for $300 you can buy a new PC that will outperform the 4700. You choice. OR, If the PSU is OK, get a new motherboard that can use the old ram chips.

The speed problem may be just the hard drive. Or, a badly fragmented file system. Or spyware.

IMHO, if you have the money, now is the time to buy. It is a buyers market out there.

[Transfusion]

Consider building your computer: The computer in my specs was built for a total of $297 (never topped $313.) (Including replacing the DVD Burner and the Motherboard.) Original cost was somewhere around $186. The cost of a stock Lenovo computer (forgot the model but saw it at the local computer store yesterday) with the single-core AMD Sempron 2100+, the ATI Radeon HD 5450, 160 GB hard drive, AMD 760G chipset, is $500.


This computer would be acceptable for normal office use-the Pentium 4 was discontinued in 2008. It is single-core. You would not be able to upgrade to any of the new Intel Socket 1155 processors e.g. i3, i5, i7, and I think even the new Pentium, all support socket 1155.) The old core 2 duos run laps around this processor too. The simply horrible onboard Intel graphics will not work for anything other than, well, flash games at high resolutions. If you are looking to play, even, say, some of the latest games at, low resolutions, low details and with acceptable FPS, you need an upgrade.

[jason2074]

I've done what I can to remove junk/unused software; seems to have adequate memory.

Have you tried reinstalling your operating system first? Always free. Make sure you have your original xp cd and make backup copy of your documents.