How much computer do I need?
 

I think it is time to buy a new computer. Please help me determine how much computer I need to buy.

Our desktop computer is almost 5 years old. I know, that is an eternity in the computer world. It is painfully slow -- I would not want to add up the hours I have waited for it. I have known for some time that we would soon have to buy a new computer, but I think the time is now.

I recently purchased TurboTax Deluxe ($60), like I have for the past 10 years. When I tried to install it I received a message that says my computer does not meet the system requirements for TurboTax Deluxe (needs 256 MB RAM). It worked last year! I love TurboTax & can't imagine going back to doing my taxes manually.

I know (or care) next to nothing about computers. Here are the specs I pulled off my computer: Pentium 4 CPU 2.40 GHz, 2.39.GHz 128 MB RAM, Windows XP 2002. My C: drive has 37.2 GB of memory (25.1 GB "free"). I think my problem is processing speed & RAM, not memory.

We send e-mails, surf the Web, do minimal word processing, rarely use Excel & nobody in the family is into gaming. My son does use the iTunes software. Having said all that, I do want Word & Excel, & it would be nice to have PowerPoint if possible.

So, what should I buy? I am not talking brand, but rather capacity, processing speed, chip, etc. I realize that newer software needs more "horsepower" (e.g., TurboTax), so I would like a good computer that will last me awhile.

What about Windows Vista? I have heard some bad things about it. I know Vista comes on many computers.

Thank you in advance for your help...& for not laughing at my lack of computer knowledge. I know the Pelican community will come to my rescue!

Get some memory sticks and you will be good to go..

Notice your system specs says 128Mb..

I'm sure the board has an open slot for extra RAM...replacing/installing new ram is easy..

You may want to pull the 128Mb stick and take it with you to the computer store... so they will know what type of RAM you need..


You should be able to make that pc much better for less than $100

I just built a PC to replace my 3.5yr old one.

I went with the bottom of the line of the latest. Intel i7 920 with paired mobo (Intel DX58S0, I think), and 6GB RAM (PC1600 or something). I paid 250 for the chip, 250 for the mobo and 185 for the memory. (Newegg is truly the only place to go).

Anyway, it is incredible. I re-used my hard drive, dvd and video card, monitor, etc. So, for less than 700 I am flyin.....

P4 2.4 isn't the slowest dinosaur. With additional RAM/memory and a reformat with fresh installed OS you could enjoy it for another couple years. Memory is cheap right now. If your motherboard will accept more, max it out. If your motherboard is outdated with no upgrade path, best to start over.

edit: Random Access Memory(RAM) is memory. Hard drive is storage space and has nothing to do with memory.

What Tim said...you processor is plenty fast enough for what you do with it. More RAM (memory) is all you need, and I'd stick with XP too.

I wouldn't reinstall the OS after a RAM upgrade no need ..most PC users don't do usual maintenance like de-frag of the disk or registry.. or even use disk clean up to get back space...huge amounts of HD space is occupied by old logs, temp files, and assorted crap...

Some due diligence is required of the PC user...

You "could" just do your TurboTax online (i.e. not actually installed on your pc but running on their server). I switched over to that version couple of years ago and use a link through my credit union site. One other thing, pc's don't become "obsolete" if you don't constantly upgrade operating systems (Vista), and the latest fad applications that suck up resources. You just do basic stuff, add some RAM, and you could be set for years.

to echo what others have said, all you need is extra ram.

Are you sure you only have 128 mb of ram? Could 128mb of ram your video card size? I don't think any version of Windows after ME would run on that little memory.

Upgrade from 128 to 1 or 2 gigs of ram if you can. If not then at least to the max that your motherboard will handle. You'll be amazed. There's nothing wrong with your computer except that the amount of RAM in it is up to the specs of 1997. Add more RAM and you'll be good to go. If you aren't sure what you need, we can probably give you the specs if you get us more info about the model of computer and/or model of motherboard. Adding ram is really easy.


If nothing else, a few months back I bought a refurbished Dell for $300 that'll run circles around yours. My $300 PC came with a 2.2GHz core 2 duo with 4 Gigs of RAM and 500Gigs of HD space.

Years ago, I had a computer with 16 megs of ram. It took about a minute and a half to boot up from hitting the power button until I could start clicking on things. I upgraded from 16 to 64 and the boot time went down to 20 seconds.

Hey steve,
Where did you find that dell? I am looking on dell.com/outlet and, I am having a tough time finding one for under 499 with xp.

Right now at the Dell Outlet online they have AMD chipped computers with 4GB RAM and 250GB HD for $219. If you want an Intel box

System Price : $339.00

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Memory
4 GB DDR2 NON-ECC SDRAM 800MHz (4 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive
500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Modem
56K DataFax Modem
Media Bay
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Certified Refurbished
Certified Refurbished
Base
Inspiron Desktop 530s Slim Tower: Intel Pentium dual-core processor E5200 (2MB L2, 2.5GHz, 800 FSB)
Hardware Upgrade
USB Keyboard
No Floppy Drive
Optical 2-Button Mouse
Software Upgrade
64BIT Operating System DVD
Microsoft Works 9.0
64BIT Operating System CD

Reformatting the hard drive has nothing to do with upgrading ram. He said the machine is 5 years old and I'm betting the registry and windows is so cluttered it is also contributing to the slow down.

Reformatting the hard drive isn't mandatory, but doing it every couple years can make a big difference in performance.

If this were my machine, after upgrading the RAM, I would buy 750GB hard drive, name it C, install XP, and slave that puny 40GB. Total cost is about $100. If I upgrade to a new machine later, I can bring the hard drives with me.

it's always a hassle to port over your data; re-install software & etc.

why not sit tight until Win 7 is released (and tested by others)?

Doug, if you indeed have 128 MB RAM then that is the bottleneck and most likely the source of the TurboTax complaint. Your CPU is plenty fast for what you're doing. I second the advice to max out the RAM and probably add a newer hard drive...the 40 GB you have now is really old. If XP is working for you then no reason to change. What brand of computer do you have?

slap a gig of ram on that box, then use some diskcopy thing to transfer that 40 gig disk on a 200 gig disk and Bob's yer uncle
no reinstalling, instant result

128 meg for xp is barely enough to run xp, let alone some applications on top
i doubt the registry is that cluttered, with so little ram there just wasn't enough performance to clutter things up

If you are ok with your current comp, before you spend $$ on the ram, make sure what kind of ram capacity your mother board can handle.
I had the same computer spec. as yours. Instead of sitting there to guess on ram and other capabilities (Islapped in some ram but it didn't work), I installed a new computer which is core 2 duo 2.8ghz and 4 gb ram, HD is 500gb sata. Total cost me around $400+. If you are ok to spend couple hungred bucks, the new comp is always better, faster.

Outlet Desktops --> Home & Home Office --> Inspiron Desktops --> Check Availability and Prices (far right). Then click the column heading "Price" and it will sort by lowest to highest. I think that is the secret. You may also want to set a minimum memory or harddrive size. I usually do.

Wow, this is currently the cheapest deal

System Price : $229.00

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
Memory
3 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (4 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

Base
Inspiron Desktop 530 Mini-tower:
Intel Pentium dual-core processor E5200 (2MB L2, 2.5GHz, 800 FSB)
Media Bay
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Software Upgrade
Windows Live
Microsoft Works 9.0
Hardware Upgrade
No Floppy Drive
USB Keyboard
Optical 2-Button Mouse
No Modem

Thank you all for your replies. I knew you would come to my rescue!

There seems to be a consensus of opinion that all I need is more RAM. My computer is a Dell Dimension 4500, & Dell offers a 512 MB memory upgrade for $20.99 + shipping. I am going to stop by a local store on my way home from work to night to check out the RAM I can purchase locally, or I may just order the Dell product tonight.

To answer some of your questions, I don't want to do my TurboTax online because I have to do 3 Federal & 3 State returns -- online I think I have to pay 3X, while I can do several returns with the CD version. I was just mad that I have used essentially the same tax preparation software for 10 years & suddenly I can't use it. But I know I need to upgrade the computer anyway, so this will make me do it.

Also, I do regularly defrag & clean-up the hard drive.

Some have mentioned getting an additional hard drive -- I have a large external hard drive (I think it is 500 GB) that I used to back up files/photos & my son stores his 5,000+ songs on it too (rather than on the computer's C drive).

I do have another question...I understand my computer has 2 RAM slots. Do I just install the new RAM in the empty slot or do I replace the original RAM? It sounds like a relatively easy isntallation -- the hardest part is going to be getting to the back of my computer because of where I have placed it!

Thanks again everyone. I appreciate the help...& the $ savings from not buying a new computer!

If it were me, I'd ditch the 128M RAM and intstall two 512Ms or even two 1Gs (depending upon their cost in comparison). RAM is dirt cheap these days, and is strangling your PC's performance. If you think you "might" upgrade to Vista anytime (I personally would not), then 2 gig of RAM would be the minimum from my limited perspective.

Not a PC pro but...

I think your RAM has to match if you add an additional. I would buy at least a 1GB, if it were me I would drop in 2 2GB, it'll feel like a new computer.

If your son's music starts eating up too much HD space (I've got 40GB just in music, a whole lot more in pics) then buy some memory sticks, cheap and easy storage. External HDs are awesome and cheap too.

For anyone looking on the Dell Outlet site, make sure to check the business side too. I have a sweet Vostro (considered a 'business/education' model) laptop coming and only paid $419 for a nice setup.

Also AAA discounts on dell.com/outlet. I have been dying to find a dell vostro 1310 for around 450 with xp and an Intel chip.

Get a second 500 GB external drive to back up your sons music. Would be terrible if a disk crash wiped out his music.

You can just put another memory stick in the open slot and add the existing memory...

Or you can take that 128 stick you have a skip it across a pond.... and install more memory in the available slots.. (usually in pairs two, or four)


You probably could use two 512s..email your pc mfg tech support and find out the max for your pc..

I did a quick search online for "memory upgrade Dell Dimension 4500" and found this link. It's probably correct, but you may want to check a couple of places or even dell.com http://www.edgetechcorp.com/memory/upgrade.asp?cid=18805

If it's to be believed, you can fit 1Gig (2 x 512Mb). I'd definitely do it.

$20 is a decent price. Get 2.

1 GB is still pretty skimpy but if that's all your current motherboard supports than do it. It will make a huge difference compared to 128 MB. After that I would look into a new system as already posted by several folks...except for Todd...dude...

I just got an HP from Sam's. 8gb memory and 1,000Gb hard drive. This is needed to run Vista 64bit. We upgraded my old computer for my son to 4 gb memory which is the maximum for Vista 32 bit home premium. The memory upgrade from Crucial for 4 GB was only $50. A great deal. Vista does have its issues. Basically, it is counter intuitive and makes simply procedures far too complicated, but on whole, it works fine. My son downloaded a Beta version of Windows 7 which seems better organized. The Vista offers many upgrades over XP, so don't let everyone tell you that XP is better, just more time tested. The system I got from Sam's included a 25" monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, and the cpu mentioned abover for $1200. I priced in online from HP and it was almost double in cost. If you have a membership, Costco or Sam's are great buying options.

Last night I ordered two 512s &, as Tim suggested, I will throw away the 128.

Thanks again for all of the help. I will post a follow-up after the install to let you know how it worked.

Doing the math makes me very hopeful for greatly improved performance.

(512 x 2)/128 = 1,024/128 = 8. Wish I could increase the performance of my 911 8x for $40!

It doesn't work exactly that way, you will see improvement, but in reality you're still lacking enough to alleviate some waiting. One thing you can't ever have enough of is RAM. A machine bought today will have 4 or 8 GB on average. You can't hardly buy a desktop computer with less than 2 GB.

First time I purchased RAM was in 1991, $50 for a single MB stick, that's megabyte. My 386sx came with 2 with room for 4.... whoopee!. A GB at those prices would cost $50,000. My first hard drive was 103mb and all my friends ogled it. Consensus was it would never get filled. Only a couple years later I had golf games that took twice that space.

Early computing was expensive and hard to keep current. Things are noticably slowing down as one would imagine. Technology gets exponentionally harder to improve upon as things get smaller and smaller to fit on the same wafers.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Pelican friends!

My son & I installed 2x512 RAM this evening & the improvement is amazing. I ordered the RAM from Dell. They said it would take 3-5 days, but it took 7 days because of some sort of problem. I should have bought locally, but they are installed & we are very, very pleased.

I thought I should provide an update. Thanks a lot for the help. The Pelican community is amazing.

Have a great day!

big mac

Excellent news! The resulting change in your user experience should be pretty phenomenal. Your previous 128MB was really aspiring to be as virile as a 98 pound weakling. 1 Gig on an XP box with a decent processor when used primarily for documents and web surfing should be plenty for a couple of years. If you wanted to do heavy duty graphics/image/video editing or play the hottest, newest games, you'd be hating life, but for the web and offic, you're good to go.

Yeah, my first PC was a Tandy 1000 TX w/286 on an XT bus running at 8MHz. It had 640k of RAM. My first hard drive was 32 MB. I think I have a calculator with more RAM than that hard drive space. I've got a relatively measly system by todays standards with 4 Gigs of RAM and 500 Gigs of HD Space, but it does what I need quite well. I only paid $270 for the Comp (already had a good monitor).