Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (
More info?)
I have to agree with GTS in this thread. You give no indication of your
issues or anything about your setup.
That said, as to rule of thumb, in the PC business, many subscribe to the
idea that a system is obsolete the day you buy it. Given the pace of
change, that's a poor rule of thumb because you'd be buying a new PC every
day.
The rule of thumb I use and recommend to others is, if your system can no
longer handle the functions you require of it and small incremental upgrades
will not give you back those functions or if such upgrades make little or no
difference, it's time to buy a new PC.
What those functions are, depends on the individual. Sometimes it's
software related, perhaps you do a lot of graphics work and you find your
system is no longer up to the task or your needs have changed and the system
can't meet your new requirements. Sometimes it's hardware related. Some
new device in which your interested either cannot be installed on your
system or it simply doesn't have the horsepower, then, depending upon its
importance to you, it may be time to consider a new system.
Your needs are the determining factor, it's only obsolete when you say it's
obsolete, not when some magazine, column or general consensus says that's
the case. If your system still meets all your needs, be it mission critical
applications or simply games you wish to play or things which you wish to
add to your system, the only thing a new system provides is a bit of "feel
good."
I'm running a PIII, 733Mhz with 256MB of SDRAM. I had originally planned to
replace it about two years ago. Due to a death in the family, I postponed
the purchase. However, my system met and meets most of my needs. In fact,
only recently have I started running into situations wherein, things I
wanted to add required "greater horsepower" than my system currently has.
Hence, until now I've been satisfied.
I was making tentative moves in the direction of a new system in the second
half of last year and began planning my next system. As Colin indicates,
there are a lot of changes taking place and about to take place. The
technology is in a bit of a state of transition from one platform to another
so I'm holding off a bit or as long as I can given other requirements I
might have in order to get a better fix on where things are headed. That
said, I do get involved in beta testing and that might push me to make a
change sooner rather than later.
I post the above as a guide, your needs determine the rule of thumb and the
best time to buy. Obviously, if your system is acting up and you gave no
indication of the problems you are having, that's a consideration as well
since no one likes dealing with one problem after another. NOTE: sometimes
we create our own problems, Norton System Works and other such utilities
often create more problems than they solve and perhaps some of your tweaking
resulted in some of the issues you have with regard to installing new
software and Norton products can be quite intrusive.
--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/
"Geoff A." <geoffashton@DELETEdsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:uRJeKORFFHA.464@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> At what point do you say to yourself that your PC has had it? Surely there
> comes a time when every PC needs to be put out to pasture, no matter how
> knowledgeable its owner. And surely you can only re-build a PC a certain
> number of times, before you find yourself spending 3 weeks updating and
> upgrading all the out-of-date software and drivers. Is there a rule of
> thumb for this?
> The reason I ask, is that I've had mine for 2 years now, and I dread
> installing anything. I've tried being nice to it, treated it to a defrag
> now and then, even allowed Norton system works to gently massage its
> motherboard, but I find that I'm spending an increasing amount of time
> trying to solve issues, when really I should be just using the thing for
> what I bought it for i.e. to save time!!!
> What do you think? Is it time to send it to a retirement home, to be
> replaced by a young, nubile athletic model with mellifluous wiring and a
> trim pair of hubs? Or will I throwing money away?
>