Upgrading a PC vs. Buying New - Upgrade Time or Buy New?

When you begin to think about upgrading, you have to decide when to cut the string and buy a new PC. You can go to Dell, and get a Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM and a 250 GB hard drive for about $500. The only thing it seems to lack is a video card capable of gaming. This is the base point I would consider when deciding whether to pull the plug on your old computer. It may be better to spend more than $500 to upgrade your computer if it gets you ahead of this basic standard computer.  Anything under a socket 478 and socket 939 should be considered dead; there isn't an upgrade path for them. 

First up is a Dell Optiplex GX270. It has an Intel Pentium 4 HT 2.6 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, integrated graphics, and an 80 GB hard drive. My first upgrade would be the RAM; it's usually the cheapest and easiest to install. You can get 2 GB of DDR400 memory for about $70. Going from 512MB to 2 GB will be a sure fire performance increase if you're running XP or Vista. 

Next I would look at the CPU. Intel released socket 478 up to 3.4, though those are harder to find now. I have seen some 3.2 GHz versions on eBay for about $100. The extra speed should really help. 

Next: Buy or Upgrade continued >>
 

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