Slight dilemma..

[Kantastic]

So I've been upgrading my sister's old P4 system that I recently got back from a person I lent it to. I swapped out 512MB of generic RAM for 1GB of Geil Ultra Platinum DDR 500 which cost me $18, and bought a 3.2GHz P4 Northwood (w/ HT) for $20, and bought an AGP GeForce 6800 128MB for $35. I JUST paid $25 for a Thermaltake Big Typhoon. I'm also looking to drop about $20 in case fans to keep the machine cool. Now, in total these parts will cost me about $120. Minus about $25 for the old hardware that I'm selling, I'd say it would have cost me a flat $100 to upgrade.

Here's the funny part, two days ago shev cut me a siiick deal on an unlockable Sempron + 2GB DDR2 + a Biostar 785G board for $87. The performance of the AM3 combo will smack the old 478 system around, no question about it but it would be a huge hassle to swap the parts out.

What would you do in my situation, when the P4 system is perfectly good and will run good for years to come, yet the AM3 combo is faster but it'd be a hassle to do an overhaul?

What do you guys think I can get for the 478 system on eBay or Craigslist? Maybe I can sell that since it's technically a pretty decent system for a casual web surfer. Keep in mind I'm not going to be a sleezebag and advertise it as a UBER FAST GAMING SYSTEM (back in 1999) THAT WILL RUN ANYTHING YOU THROW AT IT!!!1!@!!@!!1!!

 

[n-ster]

I'd sell the P4 system for 100~200$ and use the AM3 combo, or keep the P4 as a backup or server or something

 

[Kantastic]

I'd sell the P4 system for 100~200$ and use the AM3 combo, or keep the P4 as a backup or server or something

I could probably get more money if I sold the parts separately, I literally just spent over $100 upgrading it... WHICH WAS A VERY BAD MOVE. VERY BAD MOVE. VERY BAD MOVE INDEED.

 

[n-ster]

yea... I mean.. you could get a full P4 system at 125$ LOL

 

[Kantastic]

It's kinda cool to have a vintage system though, makes me feel all warm inside. If I only dumped about $100 in there then I GUESS I can leave it laying around as a backup system. What sucks is it's going to run me another $100 or so to finish up the AM3 system. Had I known that I was going to score a deal on some nice AM3 gear I would have left the P4 system alone and spent the $100 finishing up the AM3 system.

 

[Completely Bonkers]

For family PC's (sisters, mums, grandparents, etc.) I threw out the noisy P4 systems and replaced with low power Atom 330s. Not really a lot faster, but they do have PCIe, more USB, and are low power, low running cost, and silent. Replace "vintage" with "low power". Dont waste time replacing vintage with out-of-date-nothing-special. And dont use a P4 for a server. For 24/7 get an Atom 330 which will deliver more than a P4 at a fraction of a the power costs.

For power users (you, dad, son, etc.) get the latest and greatest.

 

[MilkyWay]

If you just want to save money then i would stay with the pentium old job otherwise go with the AM3 as its pretty nice. AM3 will also be easier to find parts for and upgrade if needed in the future plus its generally more snappy!

Yeah i like that idea low power and effective.

 

[quasarsky]

i bet it will make the electric company feel all warm inside too

my sis bought some parts for about 600 back in 2005/2006 i think, it was a 2gb ddr2, pentium D 2.8ghz system, dvd burner, 250gb harddrive, mobo, x1300 aiw pci-e card, a 380 watt psu, and my old enermax case.

since the thing broke(not sure what happened) she sent me the ram, harddrive, and burner. i told her it was going to be for one of my seti rigs but she doesn't know i secretly used hte parts to build her a amd 945 x4 phenom II system . thing is though, her ram was suxored somehow. so i had to use some ram i had but not too big a deal. i'll ship it to her after i've done seti on it fora month . or maybe sooner . i mostly did it cause i can't come till december to look at her machine, and this way, she gets a nice super fast quadcore system that should last her for years. same u want to do for you sis yes? really all it cost was 120 for the cpu and 760g mobo, and 40 for the case and the 20 for the ram since hers didn't work. still not bad . i'll get the psu back once i go out there and make sure hers still works.

ps what does the sempron unlock too? curious . good deal on the combo . best of luck!

 

[TIGR]

I would reuse what you can and sell the rest from the 478 system, then go with the newer AMD setup simply for the power consumption/heat benefits. Yeah you just spent the money on it, but that's no reason not to choose the best configuration for the money now.