Thoughts on upgrading
Jan. 14th, 2008 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captpackratI don't know why I'm always so hesitant to upgrade. In the past 20 years, I've only had 5 desktops, and only 2 since 1998. I guess I spend so much time getting my machine just right, that having to reinstall and retweak everything just seems a real hastle.
Anywho, I have 3 choices in upgrading right now.
1. Upgrade the OS, keep the current hardware. I'd need to buy two new hard drives (because I must have RAID) so I can easily fall back to the old OS just in case. About $300 for 2 hard drives, my SO has a spare XP license.
Pros: Cheapest route possible.
Cons: CPU is obsolete (Pentium 4 HT), motherboard drivers are no longer updated. Switching back to old OS will require reinstalling old drives.
2. Build an entirely new machine, salvaging a few parts (DVD burner) from old machine. This will run about $1400 for an Intel Xeon quad-core system with XP, nearly $2000 if I go with Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Pro.
Pros: DIY pride, slightly cheaper than pre-assembled, all parts are known and easy to replace.
Cons: Warranty on individual parts usually quite short. Construction somewhat time consuming, any mistakes cost money.
3. Buy a Dell Precision. No consumer-grade Inspiron crap. This will run about $2600 for a Core 2 Quad system with Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Pro, $2200 for XP Pro with no Office.
Pros: 3 year warranty minimum, available accidental damage warranty. Fully assembled and tested, hardware conflicts highly unlikely.
Cons: Most expensive, Dell has crappy cases, sometimes use proprietary parts
Anywho, I have 3 choices in upgrading right now.
1. Upgrade the OS, keep the current hardware. I'd need to buy two new hard drives (because I must have RAID) so I can easily fall back to the old OS just in case. About $300 for 2 hard drives, my SO has a spare XP license.
Pros: Cheapest route possible.
Cons: CPU is obsolete (Pentium 4 HT), motherboard drivers are no longer updated. Switching back to old OS will require reinstalling old drives.
2. Build an entirely new machine, salvaging a few parts (DVD burner) from old machine. This will run about $1400 for an Intel Xeon quad-core system with XP, nearly $2000 if I go with Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Pro.
Pros: DIY pride, slightly cheaper than pre-assembled, all parts are known and easy to replace.
Cons: Warranty on individual parts usually quite short. Construction somewhat time consuming, any mistakes cost money.
3. Buy a Dell Precision. No consumer-grade Inspiron crap. This will run about $2600 for a Core 2 Quad system with Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Pro, $2200 for XP Pro with no Office.
Pros: 3 year warranty minimum, available accidental damage warranty. Fully assembled and tested, hardware conflicts highly unlikely.
Cons: Most expensive, Dell has crappy cases, sometimes use proprietary parts
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 07:27 pm (UTC)Now that I'm in the middle of freaking nowhere and the only Internet access is long-range wireless, I've had to move everything to a professional host, thus freeing up this system for personal use.
I just never got around to replacing the OS, since 2000 was working just fine.