Buy new system or upgrade parts?

needsleep

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May 12, 2010
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Hi All,
I currently have 1 very slow computer (a Dell Dimension 3000 running on an intel Celeron with 256MBs of RAM I think it was XP’s Service Pack 3 that made everything slow down) that I only need to surf the internet for and really basic MS Office stuff. And I have one decent computer (a Dell Vistro running on a Intel Core 2 Dou E4400 @2Ghz, 1GB of RAM) that I want to play Starcraft 2 on. Here’s my dilemma, I want to have a smooth basic internet / MS office experience on 1 computer (for my wife) and on the other computer I want to have a smooth Starcraft 2 game playing experience (for myself). Currently, I’m experience some lags especially at start up on the beta version.
My options are:
Option A:
Get rid of the Dell Dimension 3000 and pick up something like the Dell Inspiron 580 (with an i5 processor, 4GB of memory and a Geforce G310 vid card – and Windows 7). I think this should be good enough to play SC2 smoothly. Cost = ~$610 (before taxes)
Option B:
Buy a 1GB of DDR RAM for the Dell Dimension (~$35); I’m hoping this should get rid of the lag .
Buy 4GB of DDR2 RAM for the Vistro (~$120) and a $100 video card. I think this should be sufficient to play SC2.
Total cost = $255 (before taxes)
Price difference is like $350 but I get a brand new computer in option A. At the same time, I figure on the new Windows 7 operating system, a few service packs later and I will need to be upgrading my RAM again. But saving $350 is not a bad idea either and defer my new computer purchase for another 2-3 years Why would you guys do?



 

itadakimasu

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Jul 16, 2008
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"get a gskills (2x2) 4GB DDR3 ram for your sc2 computer and get the ati radeon hd 5670"

Although he must have meant DDR2 since that vostro model most likely has DDR2. This would be a good upgrade route for that system even though the e4400 is a little dated at this point.

You could get a few new dell models for around $400 and add a video card like a 5670. You'd just need to make sure the power supply could handle the upgrade.

and then use the Vostro you have now for the basic internet pc.