Computer Upgrade - not hell for once...

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
05/19/2015 at 00:44 • Filed to: None

Finally, some upgrades that went off without a hitch. If only they could all be so easy.

Last week I found a decent little Dell Inspiron 530S (Core 2 Duo) and picked it up for $15. A little research showed that I could seriously increase the CPU speed and the video card on the cheap so I went ahead and did it. From 2.2 GHz to 3.33, Radeon 2400 to 7570, all of this done for less than $60, and some memory pulled from an older system. The machine was decent before and now it’s a real screamer, relatively speaking.

Generally I believe in keeping the OS about the same vintage as the hardware, so it’s running XP for the time being. 7 would probably run OK, but this is more of a backup machine to sit and do grunt work in the backgr0und, so perhaps an OS upgrade really isn’t necessary. I’d probably have to spring for more memory (3GB currently installed), plus the cost of the OS, but since this is supposed to be a low-cost build, doing that would kind of defeat the purpose. Perhaps it’l be good for some retro gaming. The performance is only a tad slower than the Athlon X4 965 system I usually use for gaming (yeah, I know it’s old, but I’m poor, OK?), and I suspect that this machine won’t draw so much power as to trip circuit breakers like that beast does.

There’s still a couple of expansion slots available, and since I can’t resist the temptation to max out my machines I’ll have to find some cards to add. Gigabit Ethernet, USB3 and whatever else I can find in a low-profile card will probably be added, well, because I can.

DISCUSSION (7)

StoneCold > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
05/19/2015 at 01:12

You won’t be able to access more than 3.25 GBs of RAM until you get a 64-bit OS

(unless that’s 64-bit XP, but that’s like having mechanical fuel injection; it is technically better than a carb, but is it really?)

Always a fan of reusing ‘old’ tech :)

El Darto > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
05/19/2015 at 01:42

Install 7. Performance difference won’t be noticeable and it is a better, more secure, and supported OS.

HideyoshiJP > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
05/19/2015 at 01:49

I’ll also throw my vote in for a Windows 7 upgrade. Does it have a Windows 7 COA sticker? If so, you can use any old Windows 7 disc to install, then search for a generic Dell OEM key and use that to activate. There aren’t very many Dell keys out there - it’s a one size fits many ordeal.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > HideyoshiJP
05/19/2015 at 07:38

Given the age of the machine, it only has an XP COA. I’d like to upgrade to 7, but I’m not going to shell out much, if anything, to do so. I’ll have to poke around and see if I have COA from a decommissioned machine that I could re-allocate.

HideyoshiJP > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
05/19/2015 at 09:02

There are ways. I can’t say too much, but Windows uses a bios -based activation called SLIC . Perhaps you can learn more from my digital life. Info is readily available.

El Darto > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
05/19/2015 at 12:45

I can hook you up with 8 for like $30 if you want.

Jake Huitt - Two Alfas And A Nissan, Not A Single Running Car > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
05/19/2015 at 16:00

I’d install linux unless you need windows specific applications.