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Upgrading a co-worker's old Win XP machine worth it?

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  • Computers
  • Windows XP
  • RAM
  • HP Pavilion
  • HIS
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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February 9, 2014 10:54:28 PM

There's this very sweet but very computer illiterate elderly co-worker of mine who has asked me to help upgrade his HP Pavilion a16000n (or could be the a172on...they look so similar) Windows XP machine but I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I proposed to add more RAM to speed up his painfully slow system but I don't want to have him pay for new RAM and then see little difference. I took a look at his system specs online (access here: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/12132708-...) as well as his physical system at his home and he only has 512 mb RAM but his system has 4 memory slots, 3 of which are free. If I add 4 Gb RAM will he be able to run a 64 bit OS and apps or does that depend on the processor? He does the absolute most basic computer tasks like email and internet browsing so he isn't expecting gaming-like performance but he did mention several times that he'd like the newest Windows OS and for it to "just work."

I'm confident I can do just that but is he better off buying a new machine or is his old HP Pavilion a good component upgrade candidate? Any help, advice, or guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time everyone.

More about : upgrading worker win machine worth

February 9, 2014 11:04:46 PM

Well, I don't think that PC is really a good candidate for upgrading. There just isn't much you can do with a PC that is over a decade old because you will be so severely limited in what components you can upgrade.
For example, you can put 4gb of memory in that machine but it won't see it all. And no matter what you do you're going to be stuck with a junky CPU. Really just better off buying a new one.
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February 9, 2014 11:09:51 PM

RickyRetardo said:
There's this very sweet but very computer illiterate elderly co-worker of mine who has asked me to help upgrade his HP Pavilion a16000n (or could be the a172on...they look so similar) Windows XP machine but I'm not sure if it's worth it.

I proposed to add more RAM to speed up his painfully slow system but I don't want to have him pay for new RAM and then see little difference. I took a look at his system specs online (access here: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/12132708-...) as well as his physical system at his home and he only has 512 mb RAM but his system has 4 memory slots, 3 of which are free. If I add 4 Gb RAM will he be able to run a 64 bit OS and apps or does that depend on the processor? He does the absolute most basic computer tasks like email and internet browsing so he isn't expecting gaming-like performance but he did mention several times that he'd like the newest Windows OS and for it to "just work."

I'm confident I can do just that but is he better off buying a new machine or is his old HP Pavilion a good component upgrade candidate? Any help, advice, or guidance will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time everyone.


Best you could do is reuse that case pop in a new motherboard ($50) New CPU ($100) and RAM ($40) newest windows OS is $100
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February 9, 2014 11:23:41 PM

The ONLY thing you need to change is:

1) More RAM. Get 2GB (2x1GB) if the motherboard supports that much.

2) Hard Drive: If it's a pretty old hard drive, then CLONE to a new drive (i.e. $50 1TB WD)

*However, my advice if he can afford it is something like THIS for $300: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/pavilion-slimline-desktop-4...$pcmcat212600050008&cp=3&lp=5

(and possibly START8 for $5).
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February 9, 2014 11:36:16 PM

My personal specs for w7 are; DUAL CORE cpu (3800+ or E4XXX Series)
a SATA hard drive
2 gig of ram.
If it is an I.D.E. hard drive, you will need
3 gig of ram.
This will balance out, dont ask me why it just does.
If anything is less than those parameters, W7 will feel slow to the point you wasted the money. It is unlikely you will get 3 gig of ram in a 3800+
get up,but you might.
3gig AND a sata drive will feel almost modern if you dont put office etc on it. Dont ask me to tweak it for skyrim.
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February 9, 2014 11:46:47 PM

Points to note; 2 gig has a w.e.i. score of 5.5,
so does an i.d.e. drive.
3 gig has a W.E.I. score of 5.9 (40 % faster)
so does any 3.5 inch sata drive.
Only having 2 gig but a sata drive the page file speed of the sata
drive smooths it over. 3gig and an i.d.e. it doesnt page file write very often.,this system is obviously faster than sata + 2 gig but they both work well.
Ram speeds slower than 533 can alter things a bit.
If you can only run 400 meg ram just toss it in the bin, eh?
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February 10, 2014 12:54:37 AM

yes,its old but if you add ram to 4gb and install windows 7 64 bit you will notice quite a difference.funny he has xp on it as it shows up on hp website as a vista machine with 1gb of ram.in canada where i am i bought 2x2gb of ddr2 ram for $100 cdn.windows 7 is a much better choice for the os as xp is done in april of this year.if all he does is surf the net and watch videos this will do him for some time to come.
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February 10, 2014 6:11:06 PM

You can get a new HP slim desktop with Windows 8 for $300.

Considering that, I think spending $200 (OS + RAM) or so is a poor idea.
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February 10, 2014 6:24:57 PM

save ~$100 and install ubuntu w/open office.
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