I've been looking around the Electronics/ Computer supply houses over here on the Net and I'm just amazed how low prices have got on computer hardware and other such bits and pieces.
A new motherboard, is dirt cheap, compared to what they cost 5 or so years ago!.
If I was going to upgrade, I would seriously look at building my own system.
People must really be hit hard, when they go and buy a new Computer with all the bells and whistles, in a retail store.
Especially, when you consider the price of the pieces that make up the system.
Considering that an average system, over here retails for NZ$2000-3000 (what's that in US dollars?), imagine the mark-up!.
Also, with building your own system, you know exactly what's gone into it.

I have never bought a new system.
I used to get hand-me-downs from friends and family.
My last upgrade was from P233 to 1.3GHz.
The case, power supply, mother board, 1.3 chip w/fan was $300CDN.
My ram, HD, monitor, daughter cards, etc, all fit.

The old 233 would have sold for $50 complete!

Upgrades are cheap and easy.
Just unplug your old stuff, plug it into a new box, and turn it on.
Bill Gates has actually made it all work!

Trumpy,

I don't know how it is over there, but we have local Computer Shops that regularly participate in "Shows" where many Venders have tables side by side and they can be very competitive in their pricing. If you are making a major Upgrade you may be better off buying a complete system from them ( or a place like www.Dell.com ).

To start with, if you have a older Pentium now you may have an older style case which would not accept the newer Motherboards. A Motherboard/Processor upgrade will also involve new Memory purchase, and better Video card (unless included on the MB) You may also have to upgrade the OS to make all of this work properly and finally the Hard Drive because you need more space (and want to take advantage of the faster technology)

Just some things to think about. You can keep the MousePad.

Bill

I haven't bought a new system for many years. As I recall my last new system cost about $1100, of which about $100 was the FedEx shipping charge from California! That was individual boards, drives etc. which I assembled to my own configuration.

That must have been around 1988 or so. What year was the big earthquake that hit the San Jose area about that time? It coincided with that because the shipment was delayed a week.

Compared to only a few years ago, computing power today is incredibly cheap. Systems which sold for $2000+ new 10 years ago can now be found being given away, or at least sold for only a few bucks.

Roughly $1200 - $1800 U.S.

You can get current exchange rates on the Universal Currency Converter website.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 10-25-2003).]

On the other hand ...

I've bought 2 new systems in the past 4-6 months, but am using my own self-built system. Today it's getting a new Hard Drive (for many reasons). It's somewhat like an old shoe that I've just gotten used to.

If you like to tinker, it does provide some satisfaction and ability to upgrade a bit at a time. I think Today I may finally disconnect the 5-1/4 Floppy Drive to make some room inside.

Bill

What would these Dell Systems cost over there?

Starting at $499
I see they have refurbished systems there too.

Bill

WooHoo!!!! I bought a new system last night! New machine, monitor and printer for about $550.00

2.6 Ghz proccessor, 256 Mb RAM and 89Gb hard disk. The only bad part is that the OS is Windows XP, which I am not familiar with.

My son has a parts list put together for his Christmas present. He is going to build a fairly high end unit. 2.5 GHz or better, 1 GB of RAM, good video and sound, 120 GB hard drive, jazzy case. The total for the whole thing is slightly under $1000. He is only keeping the wireless keyboard and the 21" monitor from the old system.

Hey Bill,
That's a really good point.
Are all M/Boards the same physical size?.

THere are different size boards, so you need to make sure that a proposed new board will physically fit the existing case.

Trumpy,

Just curious, what is the type and speed of the computer that you've been talking about here?

Bill

Bill,
Are you talking about the computer that I've been having endless problems with?.
If this is true, AFAIK, (from System Readout).
I have a AMD Duron Processor, with 800Mhz speed and 256MB of RAM, if that's any help.
Will just go into Bios and have a look.

Nah, all I found was the 100MHz DRAM Clock speed and the fact that my Primary Master IDE has 20061 MB capacity.
I'm not even using 15% of this, I don't download stuff and the only things I have on my computer, is related to Electrical and Ham Radio equipment.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 11-10-2003).]