With
A new laptop might be had for $500.
There, that's done.
With
The process went something like this:
Lather, rinse and repeat. I would take the advise of the poster who suggested you get a good laptop instead. Personally I recommend the Lenovo T-Series. You can then get a docking station for it and hook it up to your favorite keyboard, display and mouse.
Not into Linux much but I hear that Ubuntu is the easiest distro for switchovers from PC.
The only devices you could use in a switchover to new hardware would be the hard disk drive (use it has a backup). AGP is obsolete, there are a couple dual pci-E and agp boards but I wouldn’t recommend them on top of they are very rare. You need a new video card then, possibly you could survive on something with on-board until you get a pci-express vid card. I wouldn’t even recommend using the old power supply has since it will probably be old and of too low wattage for pci-express hardware.
Check out Tigerdirect.com.
They have pretty good prices, allot of package deals, and build-your-own.
I would just replace the mobo and then move towards buying a new unit. Not much use for your other components except drives case, etc on new cpu/mobo combos.
You can still buy a mobo that is fully compatible with everything you have there. By coincidence, the one I am using is what you need. ASUS A7N8X-X I just saw one listed for $100. I saw several others that would work. Just search for AGP & Socket A.
Good luck.
You had an Athlon 2100 in the year 2001?
What did that cost, $5000?
Anyway, my advice would be to stick with Windows XP for the foreseeable future - you shouldn't have any problem going with that OS for another five years or more [we're still on Windows 2000 and cruising comfortably for the near future].
It looks to my eye as though most of your stuff would transfer over to a "new" system perfectly well [although more on "new" systems in just a moment].
Your biggest problem in "upgrading" to something more modern would be the power supply - the old 300W/400W power supplies from that era just won't cut it anymore. New systems are up around 750W [single rail] these days, and will have entirely different connectors [EPS12V to the mobo & PCIE to the peripherals].
Once you upgrade the power supply, then you have to upgrade the case, and, for quality parts, you're looking at $300+ right there.
If I were you, I'd look to maybe upgrade to dual Athlon MP's, and hope to keep the same case & power supply.
But whatever I did, I would not purchase new - I would purchase used off of Craig's List and eBay. Purchasing new just means you're eating the depreciation for parts that, on average [your own experience with the Soyo notwithstanding] tend to last approximately forever.
For instance, I just typed "dual athlon tyan" at eBay, and the first hit I got was some guy selling a dual mobo with 2 X 1900 CPU's for $149 [and there are a couple more after that with no bids at $10]:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?satitle=dual+athlon+tyanAnd I've seen 2 X 2800 Athlon MP combos on ebay in the low- to mid- $200s.
Here's a similar search at Craig's List:
http://www.google.com/search?q=athlon+mp+site%3Acraigslist.orgOne final thought - nothing, and I mean NOTHING - will improve your productivity more than getting dual [and preferably triple] monitors.
You can pick up beautiful old 21" CRT monitors on Craig's List for like $30-$50 - monitors which would have cost $750 to $1500 back in 2001, and get some inexpensive PCI graphics cards and string them all together on your desktop for total real estate of like {4800 X 1200} [= {1600, 1200} + {1600, 1200} + {1600, 1200}], on a total budget of no more than about $150 to $200.
Before I did anything else in the way of computer upgrades, I'd get myself triple monitors.
Super Micro Computer P4SPE - ATX, 4GB, 8 USB, 5 PCI, 8X/4X AGP, INTEL 865PE CHIPSET, 3.4 GHZ (PENTIUM 4) OR 2.4 GHZ CELERON, SATA, LINUX
I would buy a pre-built, my preference is Dell, and add the 3 year on-site maintenance, it’s dirt cheap. Get a nice big SATA hard drive (500GB or better), a DVD-ROM drive, a DVD-RW+- or Blue Ray drive (both SATA so they aren’t obsolete next week), and one of those 7-in-1 memory card readers. I would either use the IDE connector on the new PC to temporarily connect the old hard drives and copy their contents to the SATA or buy one of those USB IDE adapters ($14.99 at surpluscomputers.com) to connect and fire up the old drives on an as-needed basis. I would also buy a new monitor, unless the existing is 19” LCD or better.
That AGP card is the equivalent to a $55 to $75 pci-e card now.
Your case is still near top of the line, I’d keep it,
your power supply if that old is only pumping out 60 to 80% of the 450W capacity due to capacitor deterioration.
You can buy replacement 3GB RAM (even as good as DDR2 CAS 5) for $75 after rebate if you keep your eyes on fatwallet.com and slickdeals.net
Look for a mobo/cpu combo, intel E4XXX cpu. Biostar or intel mobos often are had in combos.
www.frys.com is having an anniversary sale this very moment, they got some crazy deals.
you want to buy almost a new system, mobo, cpu, power supply, ram and video card.
Or check out the Lenovo factory outlet:
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/lenovooutlet
some good refurbished desktops, and many very good refurbished laptops to be had. If you go to fatwallet.com and create an ID there, shop through fatwallet and get 25% off some lenovo new systems until 5/19.
fatwallet.com
slickdeals.net
pricegrabber.com
Dell Precision 370 Mid-Tower PC Retail $279.99
Hard drive is very small....40 Gig...but it includes Windows XP Professional OS.
Keep the OS, CD, DVD, Power Supply, floppy drive, case, video card and card reader. Purchase a new AGP Mobo, AMD CPU, RAM and 2 hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration. Here's the equip and cost (from Newegg):
Motherboard: MSI K9MM-V AM2 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail: $50
RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail: $50
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH4850DOBOX - Retail: $90.
Hard Drives: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM: $51 x 2 = $102.
Here's the procedure:
Remove the old Mobo/CPU/RAM from the case.
Install the new CPU and RAM then install the new Mobo into the case. It's a mini ATX and your current ATX case should have the mini-ATX anchors in it.
-Install peripherals including your old hard drives(s) on the ATA IDE channel.
Install the 2 new SATA drives as well. The Mobo comes with the cables for them.
-Boot up into BIOS and go into the Boot Devices menu and select the IDE channel to boot from rather than the SATA since you'll be booting into the old system at firest.
-While still in BIOS setup RAID 1 (mirroring) on the 2 SATA drives.
-Boot to the old system on the IDE channel. Use the Mobo disc and install all devices.
-At this point you have a bunch of options and I recommend just going over to the new drives ASAP since your old drives are old and prone to failure.
There's many ways to put your old drives' system onto the new RAID array and I recommend googling them to see which one is right for you.
So, for $300 you've got new hardware (5-yr. Hard Drive warranty) running the old system. And XP SP2 is better than Vista IMO.
Good luck.
A new desktop barebones system with SATA would let you use all your existing drives AND an new C: (like 500gb, for instance). Find one that can use DDR or DDR2 sockets.