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Author: OlinOlin Date: Jan 27, 2008 21:12
Did the research to upgrad this seven year old Gateway P-4, using RAMBUS
RAM.
Changing the motherboard and CPU to accommodate the dual core technology and
DDR 2 would cost me about $350, and upgrading to USB2 and/or Firewire would
add a little bit more.
Found a blowout deal through CompUSA, which is now wholly owned by Tiger
Direct. Looked around and found mostly positive reviews from folks who've
bought online from 'em both (or now I guess it's just one).
I scurried around their website and found a significant upgrade over my
machine... a factory-refurbished Gateway, using an ASUS motherboard and a
1.8 Intel dual core processor... complete with most of the bells and
whistles, DVD/CD combo read and write, Personal Media Bay, USB 2, digital
camera card reader, a 500 GB SATA II hard drive and 2 gigs of DDR 2 RAM for
$429, shipping included.
The only drawback is it comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, so I
guess I'm about to find out whether all my friends who want to line up and
piss on Vista are telling the truth or not.
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Author: GreggGregg Date: Jan 28, 2008 04:09
Olin wrote:
> Did the research to upgrad this seven year old Gateway P-4, using RAMBUS
> RAM.
>
> Changing the motherboard and CPU to accommodate the dual core technology and
> DDR 2 would cost me about $350, and upgrading to USB2 and/or Firewire would
> add a little bit more.
>
> Found a blowout deal through CompUSA, which is now wholly owned by Tiger
> Direct. Looked around and found mostly positive reviews from folks who've
> bought online from 'em both (or now I guess it's just one).
>
> I scurried around their website and found a significant upgrade over my
> machine... a factory-refurbished Gateway, using an ASUS motherboard and a
> 1.8 Intel dual core processor... complete with most of the bells and
> whistles, DVD/CD combo read and write, Personal Media Bay, USB 2, digital
> camera card reader, a 500 GB SATA II hard drive and 2 gigs of DDR 2 RAM for
> $429, shipping included.
>
> The only drawback is it comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, so I ...
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Author: Kent FinnellKent Finnell Date: Jan 28, 2008 04:16
"Olin" comcast.net> wrote in message news:hoWdnSBoaIyo-QDanZ2dnUVZ_t2inZ2d@comcast.com...> Did the research to upgrad this seven year old Gateway P-4, using RAMBUS
> RAM.
>
> Changing the motherboard and CPU to accommodate the dual core technology and
> DDR 2 would cost me about $350, and upgrading to USB2 and/or Firewire would
> add a little bit more.
>
> Found a blowout deal through CompUSA, which is now wholly owned by Tiger
> Direct. Looked around and found mostly positive reviews from folks who've
> bought online from 'em both (or now I guess it's just one).
>
> I scurried around their website and found a significant upgrade over my
> machine... a factory-refurbished Gateway, using an ASUS motherboard and a
> 1.8 Intel dual core processor... complete with most of the bells and
> whistles, DVD/CD combo read and write, Personal Media Bay, USB 2, digital
> camera card reader, a 500 GB SATA II hard drive and 2 gigs of DDR 2 RAM for
> $429, shipping included.
>
> The only drawback is it comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, so I ...
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Author: OlinOlin Date: Jan 28, 2008 04:34
"Gregg" NOSPAMsaneearth.org> wrote in message>>
> Sounds like a good deal. I have done a lot of business with Tiger Direct
> in the past and found them really good. The only complaint against them is
> they use rebates a lot as part of their deals and I would just as soon get
> my deal up front. If you decide to "upgrade" to XP Pro, I don't think you
> would need much other than a sound driver. You should be able to get most
> of your drivers from Gateway if you don't have a driver disk.
Yeah, I'd think so too... possibly the built-in video.
I'd also think that Microsoft will eventually get Vista "right," with
service packs and patches. At least that was the case with Windows '98
(second edition) and XP Pro, Service Pack 2.
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Author: jakdedertjakdedert Date: Jan 28, 2008 06:29
Olin wrote:
> "Gregg" NOSPAMsaneearth.org> wrote in message>> Sounds like a good deal. I have done a lot of business with Tiger Direct
>> in the past and found them really good. The only complaint against them is
>> they use rebates a lot as part of their deals and I would just as soon get
>> my deal up front. If you decide to "upgrade" to XP Pro, I don't think you
>> would need much other than a sound driver. You should be able to get most
>> of your drivers from Gateway if you don't have a driver disk.
>
> Yeah, I'd think so too... possibly the built-in video.
>
> I'd also think that Microsoft will eventually get Vista "right," with
> service packs and patches. At least that was the case with Windows '98
> (second edition) and XP Pro, Service Pack 2.
>
> There was another Gateway (and I'm sticking with Gateway because I've had
> such good luck with this machine) that used a 2.4 GB CPU for only $200 more.
> It also had Firewire and a TV tuner card, but I don't use my computer to
> watch tv and since all I'm gonna do that I don't do with this machine is get
> an audio interface to record simple guitar/vocal scratch demos, I'm banking ...
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Author: JCroweJCrowe Date: Jan 28, 2008 08:44
Olin wrote:
> Did the research to upgrad this seven year old Gateway P-4, using RAMBUS
> RAM.
>
> Changing the motherboard and CPU to accommodate the dual core technology and
> DDR 2 would cost me about $350, and upgrading to USB2 and/or Firewire would
> add a little bit more.
>
> Found a blowout deal through CompUSA, which is now wholly owned by Tiger
> Direct. Looked around and found mostly positive reviews from folks who've
> bought online from 'em both (or now I guess it's just one).
>
> I scurried around their website and found a significant upgrade over my
> machine... a factory-refurbished Gateway, using an ASUS motherboard and a
> 1.8 Intel dual core processor... complete with most of the bells and
> whistles, DVD/CD combo read and write, Personal Media Bay, USB 2, digital...
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Author: JCroweJCrowe Date: Jan 28, 2008 08:50
jakdedert wrote:
> My main upgrade strategy is to find a copy of XP Home to put on. I've
> limped along with 98SE for so many years; but now some mainstream
> software is not available in 98 versions. Otherwise, I think I'd just
> hang with it, as the machine is tolerably stable and pretty fast.
You really don't want XP Home Jack. If you look around, you might
be able to find a copy of XP Pro SP2 OEM for less than $100. As I
said to Olin, get a good internet security suite.
>
> That said, if I needed an entirely new machine, I'd probably find an
> off-lease or used Dell or Gateway...unless I was building on that
> bleeding edge for special purposes: audio, video or media server.
>
> The days when it's cheaper to build than buy are over.
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Author: maxomaxo Date: Jan 28, 2008 11:27
On Jan 27, 11:12 pm, "Olin" comcast.net> wrote:
> I scurried around their website and found a significant upgrade over my
> machine... a factory-refurbished Gateway, using an ASUS motherboard and a
> 1.8 Intel dual core processor... complete with most of the bells and
> whistles, DVD/CD combo read and write, Personal Media Bay, USB 2, digital
> camera card reader, a 500 GB SATA II hard drive and 2 gigs of DDR 2 RAM for
> $429, shipping included.
>
> The only drawback is it comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, so I
> guess I'm about to find out whether all my friends who want to line up and
> piss on Vista are telling the truth or not.
>
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Author: OlinOlin Date: Jan 28, 2008 15:40
"jakdedert" bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> Likely if you can't get the video drivers from Gateway, you can find them
> on Asus' support site.
>
Entirely likely.
> I'm gonna keep upgrading this box for the time being. I've been using the
> same mb for several years, as there's still an upgrade path via additional
> (and faster) memory and faster processors (although both are still way
> behind the bleeding edge today...even obsolete by many standards), and a
> larger hard drive.
>
I would have cracked this case and replaced the motherboard and CPU, but as
I said, this new machine will cost about what re-building this one would,
and I don't have to do diddly squat AND I will now have two machines.
That, in a nutshell, is why I bought rather than build.
And you're absolutely correct. Building is no longer cheaper than buying
pre-built. As Joseph noted, building does give you the ability to pick and
choose precisely what you want at the outset.
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Author: OlinOlin Date: Jan 28, 2008 15:52
>
> Congrats on that Olin. Try out Vista and if you like it, why
> switch.
Oh, I fully intend to take it for a fairly long drive before going to the
trouble of re-loading XP Pro.
.that said, XP SP2 is certainly more mature and less of
> a heavyweight load. I'd make two recommendations based on my
> experiences. First, use a third party email client like Thunderbird.
> Second, get a good internet security suite, I use Kaspersky.
Right now, I'm using Trend Micro, and until the last subscription renewal, I
really liked it a lot. Even after checking the minimum system requirements
and noting that my old machine was well within them, it would not install,
instead giving me a message that I didn't have enough RAM.
They were not even mildly interesting in resolving... simply pointed me to a
site where I could download a form to do their work for them and return the
software. I opted to just keep it since I can still update the DAT files
from the old suite until I find an alternate.
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