Reasons to upgrade

[Peter]

I wish my computer could handle things like this: 

It's not enough of a reason for me to upgrade though; I mainly play turn-based strategy games, and even the prettiest of those are well within the reach of my current machine.  Also, I've upgraded the hard disks to accommodate the growing collection of films, programmes and games that I've downloaded, but I can't help wanting an über-rig; preferably a quiet one that doesn't sound like a hover craft the way my current one does.

Also, does anyone know how long it's safe to keep using a power supply for?  Mine's been in daily use for about 6 years now with no apparent problems, other than running out of connectors to power my increasing number of drives and becoming brown with dust inside it.

[Parts]

Keep it clean and cool it should last you a lot longer. Or be proactive and get and install a new one before is dies.  I never had a power supply go but have had crashed hard drives and had two mother boards die

[Rabbit From Hell]

How many watts is it?

It's good to have at least 500W power supply.  Oh, and it should be heavy.  If it weighs nothing and is priced at $25, you're not getting what you think you're getting.  A decent one should be between $75  and $120.

If you want to cut down on the sound you can replace the fans.  Fans are relatively cheap.

Chances are your power supply can run for a pretty long time.  If one of the caps goes bad though your computer probably won't like the huge increase in ripple voltage.  I don't know if it would cause damage, I'm thinking it would just make your computer not run.

[Rabbit From Hell]

Reason #1 To Upgrade
You should upgrade right now before M$ quits making Vista available.  Maybe M$ will have made something that isn't as sucktacular as Vista or hardware will be enough to not run like shit with Vista by the time you can upgrade again.

Other reasons:

Try out Macs.  I'm EXTREMELY happy with my iMac, and I've been a PC person for over a decade and I'd never though I'd buy one. (but Vista came along, and Linux isn't quite where I need it, so I took the plunge).  You can use it right away, and don't have to spend time learning of the intricacies.  They can handle heavy installing and uninstalling.  You can use Boot Camp to do your Windows stuff or parallels if your stuff is lightweight.  (works with games even, and boot camp makes it as if your mac is a pc with the same specs, I can play Halo 2 on my iMac)

Responsiveness.  Nothing is worse than an unresponsive computer.  Newer hardware, and especially more RAM gives you more of it.

Security software is using up more and more power.  If you don't want a virused up system and don't want to use Linux, your security software will eat more and more into your resources and you either have to find something lightweight or get a computer with more resources to keep it from disturbing your work.

[Rabbit From Hell]

Also, I have a five year old iBook and it runs current productivity applications beautifully.  For a lot of people it would be a great computer.  If you get a Mac, it'll run really well for quite a while.

[Calandale]

I lost a power supply once,
but 'twas on an old machine.
There were warnings. It didn't
just die, but became really cranky,
not always turning on (the internal
fan was at fault).

[DirtDawg]

I lost a power supply once,
but 'twas on an old machine.
There were warnings. It didn't
just die, but became really cranky,
not always turning on (the internal
fan was at fault).

When I lost one, it happened without any warning and during a checkdisk operation. It actually made a load POP! I knew immediately what it was, because I have heard many caps give up.
It fucked me up, some, because I could not restore the drive and had to format. Thank the gods it was a fairly new install and I did not have anything on it, but the basic system and a few software pieces.

I have really high quality case fans and they are not the problem, but I have two small fans that are noisy as hell. One is mounted on the video card and the other is on the BIOS chip. They are both little bitty fuckers that run a million RPM or something. I would love to find quieter replacements for them, but they really look like oddballs, especially the one built into the video card.

[Peter]

How many watts is it?

It's good to have at least 500W power supply.  Oh, and it should be heavy.  If it weighs nothing and is priced at $25, you're not getting what you think you're getting.  A decent one should be between $75  and $120.

If you want to cut down on the sound you can replace the fans.  Fans are relatively cheap.

Chances are your power supply can run for a pretty long time.  If one of the caps goes bad though your computer probably won't like the huge increase in ripple voltage.  I don't know if it would cause damage, I'm thinking it would just make your computer not run.

I've no idea of the specs or the weight of the power supply.  I got it when some guy built my first decent system, back before I knew how to build my own, and it's never been taken out of the case.  It's just generic grey on all the visible exterior parts, and I think I'd have to remove it to find any labels on it, which would mean removing pretty much every other component from my case first.

I'll need a fancy screwdriver to replace my main system fan; I'm not sure if I've got one that will work.  The screws are one of those exotic designs that stop people from removing them unless they have equally exotic tools.

My current setup:

Power supply (6 years old, lots of dust on the fan blades)
Large case
MSI KT4V motherboard
Athlon 2600XP processor
1GB of DDR PC2700 RAM
Raedon 2600 AGP graphics card
1x30GB IDE 5200rpm hard disk
1x200GB IDE Seagate 7600rpm hard disk with 8MB cache
1x400GB SATA Seagate 7600rpm hard disk with 16MB cache (connects through a PCI SATA card, and for some reason stops my comp from recognising a floppy drive)
1xCD-RW (only got power connectors for 4 internal drives, and only got motherboard connectivity for 4 IDE drives)
Soundblaster Audigy value PCI card (not that it matters; my speaker system is very basic)
Firewire PCI card

It's a system that I've generally been very pleased with.  It used to hang and require a hard reboot several times a day, but that turned out to be due to interference from other electronic equipment nearby, and was resolved when I moved the offending equipment a bit further away.  Since then, it's been rock solid.  It's gotten to the point though where it's not really worthwhile upgrading most components, since they wouldn't be transferable to a new motherboard.  I'm not sure if PCI cards would work in PCI Express, but I'm pretty sure an AGP graphics card wouldn't, and PC2700 RAM wouldn't do me much good in a more recent motherboard, so the only things I've upgraded recently are the hard disks.

Also, does anyone else fear and dread the installation of heat sinks?  I find them insanely hard and nerve-wracking to get on, and feel like I'm a hair's-breadth from cracking the motherboard or crushing the processor when trying to fit them.

[Phlexor]

Yes, I also have the CPU HSF install anxiety thing. The worst is when you have to use a screwdriver to install/remove a very tight retaining mechanism and you panic cos you know you are going to slip and cut some mobo traces, or bend off a cap or something.

About your upgrade concerns. Most new PCI-e boards will also have a couple of Legacy PCI slots, so no worries there, but seeing as the only PCI cards you have are a SB Audigy and a Firewire card, it doesnt matter. Most new mobos have builtin sound and a lot have firewire.

I'd ditch that 30gig 5400rpm drive, too slow. but your best bet would to build a new box and use your current rig as a second computer or sell it or give it away to someone in need. Take out your sata drive and use it in your newer rig, but most new board only have 1 IDE port, so forget the IDE drives.

The Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 is a nice Motherboartd that I'm looking at getting for my next upgrade. At least I can use my existing 3gig (2x 1024 + 2x 512) DDR2 667 in it. Plus my 8600GT and drives and such.

[Rabbit From Hell]

You can use that canned air stuff to get out the dust, might extend the life of your power supply a little.

[richard]

how much are laptops worth? i paid about $1,000 for mine about 6 months ago and im sick of it acting a fool on me. it needs to be sold

[Alex179]

The game you posted was Assasin's Creed and that is for Xbox360 and PS3.   Same developers as the recent Prince of Persia games I think.   Seems really interesting from what I read. 

[Calandale]

how much are laptops worth? i paid about $1,000 for mine about 6 months ago and im sick of it acting a fool on me. it needs to be sold

You could probably get a few hundred for it,
but what exactly is wrong? You might be better
off just reformatting.

[Teejay]

I wish my computer could handle things like this: 

It's not enough of a reason for me to upgrade though; I mainly play turn-based strategy games, and even the prettiest of those are well within the reach of my current machine.  Also, I've upgraded the hard disks to accommodate the growing collection of films, programmes and games that I've downloaded, but I can't help wanting an über-rig; preferably a quiet one that doesn't sound like a hover craft the way my current one does.

Also, does anyone know how long it's safe to keep using a power supply for?  Mine's been in daily use for about 6 years now with no apparent problems, other than running out of connectors to power my increasing number of drives and becoming brown with dust inside it.

I would get a new power supply myself, You can't go wrong with 500W one that would give enough power for all those hard drives. I know here you can get one for AUD60 or GBP30. Otherwise if you do not want a new power supply, get an air can and blast the dust out of power supply.

[richard]

how much are laptops worth? i paid about $1,000 for mine about 6 months ago and im sick of it acting a fool on me. it needs to be sold

You could probably get a few hundred for it,
but what exactly is wrong? You might be better
off just reformatting.

yep i think thats whats wrong with it. i was being all mean to it last nite because im rain jelouse, but not anymore. i'll get it fixed if i can be arsed