Advice for uprading old computer

[davwinjo]

I would really appreciate some helpful advice on how I can effectively upgrage a very ageing machine.

I have an Acer Aspire 1700 (looks like an over sized laptop but has no wifi or battery pack)

Intel Pentium 4 2.266ghz 189RAM SISM650..have no idea what that means

Okay, now youv'e stopped laughing and changed your adult daiper


The obvious thing is more RAM...but how much can pentium 4 deal with

Would prefer to do these upgrades myself....you can probably guess why I would rather others didn't see what's on my HDD

Some helpul advice and leads to places which will show me how to do it would be greatly appreciated

I do have basic electronics knowledge...was a telecommunications tech in a previous life

[DarkGuyver]

You could probably install a maximum of 2GB of DDR-RAM, but since it's probably using DDR, which is outdated. It would be really hard to fine it, I had a hard time hunting down an 1GB stick of DDR-RAM for my Acer TravelMate 2310, which I use as mainly a net surfing and downloading system.

[PatrynXX]

Originally Posted by DarkGuyver

You could probably install a maximum of 2GB of DDR-RAM, but since it's probably using DDR, which is outdated. It would be really hard to fine it, I had a hard time hunting down an 1GB stick of DDR-RAM for my Acer TravelMate 2310, which I use as mainly a net surfing and downloading system.

if it's DDR, geeks*com might have some crappy brand but probably has some. kinda given up looking for that..

[chakubanga]

I don't know why you want to upgrade this old system which is leaking from its Old ADULT DIAPER.. Even at 2 Gig max, you will only be able to run old OS effectively at that given RAM capacity. RAM, BATTERY and external W-IFI card will cost you a pretty penny, when you can get a better Laptop at a better price, take out your hard drive slap it into an external enclosure and use it as an extra storage.. Instead of Holding on to this leaky piece of shit.... Please laugh... I am just kidding with this whole Diaper thing..

[Pad]

Originally Posted by chakubanga

I don't know why you want to upgrade this old system which is leaking from its Old ADULT DIAPER.. Even at 2 Gig max, you will only be able to run old OS effectively at that given RAM capacity. RAM, BATTERY and external W-IFI card will cost you a pretty penny, when you can get a better Laptop at a better price, take out your hard drive slap it into an external enclosure and use it as an extra storage.. Instead of Holding on to this leaky piece of shit.... Please laugh... I am just kidding with this whole Diaper thing..

I would tend to agree. Over the years I have tried a number of upgrades the promised to deliver better performance. None of them worked. I was thinking about a memory upgrade a couple of months ago and asked for advice in this thread. After I read the replies I decided "Naaahhh, I'll put the money into a new machine when the time comes".

I think that if you can come up with a formula that will definetely yield a realistic performance improvement, you will probably have spent as much if not more than buying a new machine of the same spec, and the foundation on which you are building will be old and liable to break down simply on the basis all the aged parts it will still contain.

If you just have a burning desire to tinker or build your own PC, then I would start from scratch. Research it well, buy a new casing and all new parts, but be prepared for some long hours sorting out problems with drivers and getting everything to work together.

If you want a hassle free life and a true performance improvement I would go out and buy a new machine. You will probably find that even current low end machines beat your old one hands down in every department.

Best of luck whatever you decide.

[excalibur1814]

More ram is always appreciated by windows and that machine MUST be struggling with under 256Mb. An extra 1Gb will free and help make the machine last that bit longer. The second hand laptop market on ebay is a bit naff. You take your chances with anything under £150, you can get bargains between £150/£200 and then they start getting that bit better. So... You might as well try the memory before thinking of another laptop.

As for Wi-fi, grab yourself a Netgear USB adapter for an extra £15 or so.


Possible Ram:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1GB-RAM-MEMORY...item4154b5c00d

Doesn't help when the Acer model names sometimes cross from Desktop to laptop. I'm assuming it's this model
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACER-ASPIRE-17...item1c18ca7d13

[LouisZ]

If it's this model

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/notebook/0000/Acer/Aspire1700/Aspire1700sp2.shtml

i found reviews from 2003 and that means it IS rather old.

"189RAM SISM650" means that it's only equipped with 256Mb Ram (64Mb are used for the on-board graphics card. There surely is an option in the bios to reduce that amount to maybe 32Mb, but there will be hardly any benefit for the OS with 32Mb more) and it's the SIS M(obile)650 chipset, which is far from being fast. And i see that a 20Gb ATA/100 hdd is listed which also is a bit out of date.
Of course one additional Gb of Ram might be helpful, but the slow hdd/interface will still throttle the cpu power (2,6GHz isn't that bad) and you will hardly notice a difference. But if you will go this way, i also suggest a new installation of windows and you should turn off/deinstall all unnecessary software like antivirus (that's of course not unnecessary, but often slows down even newer pcs depending on the settings), printing utilities, audio tools and any other software that is permanently loaded on startup (acrobat reader, burning software, etc).
90% of the software that is automatically installed (and loaded) during their setup routine is not really needed and slows down your pc (especially with low ram). You can easily start all these tools when you really need them, like the printing software or the acrobat reader.

But as said before, nearly every low end model from one of your local pc dealers is surely faster than the old one ever will get. So it just depends on the money you can invest in that new one (guess you also need a new display).
I personally don't like throwing away things that still work (somehow), but you surely know your needs and so it's a simple case of calculating then, maybe you can even sell the old one for a few bucks ...

[PatrynXX]

Originally Posted by excalibur1814

More ram is always appreciated by windows and that machine MUST be struggling with under 256Mb. An extra 1Gb will free and help make the machine last that bit longer. The second hand laptop market on ebay is a bit naff. You take your chances with anything under £150, you can get bargains between £150/£200 and then they start getting that bit better. So... You might as well try the memory before thinking of another laptop.

As for Wi-fi, grab yourself a Netgear USB adapter for an extra £15 or so.


Possible Ram:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1GB-RAM-MEMORY...item4154b5c00d

Doesn't help when the Acer model names sometimes cross from Desktop to laptop. I'm assuming it's this model
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ACER-ASPIRE-17...item1c18ca7d13

just watch out for some of the Dells. Vista might take more than 4gb of ram, but theres a chip that limits mine to 3.3 gb

[davwinjo]

Many thanks to all for helpful advice.

Looks like the best thing would be to retire this old steam driven machine and move into the 21st century.

[excalibur1814]

Go on, treat yourself to a core i7 laptop with an SSD drive... fast? Just a bit