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Downgrading PCs

Submitted by bfutrel on September 4, 2007 - 4:04am. Other Computers

After several months of having a pretty nice PC, I get to downgrade for a while since my wife and I are trying to get a house.

My machine was:
- Athlon64 X2 3600
- 512MB RAM
- GeForce 6500 PCI Express
- 250GB HD
- DVD+-RW DL
- XP Pro and Ubuntu Studio

It's now a Dell Dimension XPS 550 (recieved from the defunct Computer Options)
- Pentium 3-550mhz
- 384MB RAM
- ATI Rage 128 AGP w/TV Out
- 40GB HD
- DVD Combo drive (salvaged from a TigerDirect clearance machine that they got from the CompUSA closing in Raleigh, NC)
- Belkin USB2 5-port card
- Front-mounted bay panel with USB, audio in/out and card reader connecting to the USB card and sound in the back
- Windows 2000 and Ubuntu 7.04

So far what I miss most is the speed. For gaming, I've been going through the Marathon series so having a fast video card hasn't been too important. I haven't tried ripping CDs with iTunes yet.

Has anyone else had to do something like this and what are your thoughts about it?

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downgrading

Submitted by macsane on September 4, 2007 - 5:39am.

I've had to a couple of times and it really sucks as far as I'm concerned but sometimes you have to make a choice. The last time We did with out a computer was for about 6 months but that was back in 1997. We were at that time buying a house. I was into PCs pretty much back then and had a pretty hot system for the 3D games.

When I was able to replace it, It was with a 386 DX40 or was that a 20MHz machine. I don't really remember that machine much except that I replaced it with a newer faster one that cost me about $1200 to build and I ran it until about mid 2000. It did have all the latest and greatest in hardware at that time and I kept it upgraded.

Macs started coming in to the picture by Summer 02 and the last PC I had was P4 2gig cpu machine that was built as a PC gamer. My son wound up with that after it sat for over a year gathering dust from non use. Macs had completly taken over my and my Wifes computing experiance by then and we have never looked back. To be fair I will say I do have a PC. Its a AMD 1.7gig machine that I use occasanly.

» Its not what you didn't do, Its what you did that makes a differance

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Well, it was a Dell....

Submitted by bfutrel on September 8, 2007 - 1:44am.

I put a real heat sink/fan on it in order to move it into a generic ATX case. It loaded XP quite slow, so I tried other Slot 1 processors. Same problem. Put in an Intel-branded Slot 1 board and it's back to normal. I've also added another CD-ROM drive to it since there's room.

It now has a GeForce 5200 with 256MB RAM in it and XP Pro. Almost overkill for something of this speed. Smiling

If I can ever finish working on my parent's computer I'll get my loaner back which is an Athlon XP Mobile 1500, 512MB RAM, 40GB HD and not much else.

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