Buy new pc or upgrade current one

[sjoerd88]

Hi everyone,

I have a question: Should I upgrade my current pc or buy a new one.

Specs of my current pc:

Name pc: Acer Aspire M3710
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
Videocard: Radeon HD3850
Storage capacity: 640GB
Memory: 4GB
Motherboard: Intel 850

Thanks

 

[Outlander_04]

Replace it completely .

No current hardware is compatible

 

[sjoerd88]

Replace it completely .

No current hardware is compatible

Really, I thought it still had some good parts in it, what makes it incompatible with the current hardware?

 

[Poprin]

sjoerd88 I would basically completely ignore that post by Outlander_04. If you look at the specs of my machine in my sig... even my laptop. They both are running Windows 7 x64 and I have no problems running anything. Your hardware appears to be fine, why do you need to upgrade? Is the machine running slowly?

 

[sjoerd88]

sjoerd88 I would basically completely ignore that post by Outlander_04. If you look at the specs of my machine in my sig... even my laptop. They both are running Windows 7 x64 and I have no problems running anything. Your hardware appears to be fine, why do you need to upgrade? Is the machine running slowly?

Well my computer is indeed running slow sometimes, it often freezes.
The freezes dissapear after a few seconds but it is still very annoying.
Today my computer had some major issues, it won't even boot up.
After I press the power button it makes a continous beep that only stops when I turn off the computer.
I've already had it repaired about a year and a half ago because it was having the same issues as it does today but I don't know if the pc is worth it to get repaired again.
I think the speed of my computer can be improved by putting in an ssd but it might be better to buy a new one.

 

[Poprin]

Well it looks like a hardware issue that is stopping you booting. I would google Acer Aspire Continuous Beep and see what you get! A quick look and some people have suggested RAM or faulty keyboard. You could try removing one stick of RAM and see if it will boot. If not try the other stick of RAM. If it is faulty RAM that would explain your performance issues. You need to do a little research, good laptops aren't cheap and that one appears to be a solid alround machine I wouldn't be throwing it in the bin!

You need to try as much as you can yourself before you send it somewhere (I do repair laptops as a sideline) and sometimes with a little reseach it can be the simplist / cheapest thing.

On a side note if you do decide to replace it you will be suprised by the faulty second hand value it will have on ebay no doubt!

 

[sjoerd88]

Well it looks like a hardware issue that is stopping you booting. I would google Acer Aspire Continuous Beep and see what you get! A quick look and some people have suggested RAM or faulty keyboard. You could try removing one stick of RAM and see if it will boot. If not try the other stick of RAM. If it is faulty RAM that would explain your performance issues. You need to do a little research, good laptops aren't cheap and that one appears to be a solid alround machine I wouldn't be throwing it in the bin!

You need to try as much as you can yourself before you send it somewhere (I do repair laptops as a sideline) and sometimes with a little reseach it can be the simplist / cheapest thing.

On a side note if you do decide to replace it you will be suprised by the faulty second hand value it will have on ebay no doubt!

First of all thanks for your usefull respones!

I removed the RAM sticks, swap thw places of the RAM sticks, remove everything except the powercable and it still makes this continous beep.
I keep searching on the internet and see if I can find something that can help me, if I can't solve it myself do you think it is still worth it to get it repaired?

 

[Outlander_04]

A continuous beep is usually a memory error . You may be able to confirm that with
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

But almost certainly it uses older DDR2 . That's a legacy item and if you can find any its expensive .


For less than $500 you can build a new computer that much more powerful

 

[Poprin]

sjoerd88 it is hard to advise you on getting your machine repaired, if you can not resolve the issue yourself I think you need to weigh up the cost of repair v's the second hand value of your current machine and that of a suitable replacement. I'm speaking from my own point of view and that is of someone that does not have a great deal of spare cash at this point in my life. If you've got the money and you just want a new laptop then hell go for it! Outlander does have a point that although I believe your current laptop is more than serviceable specs wise it is indeed what you would class as previous generation tech.

 

[sjoerd88]

Thanks Poprin and Outlander,

I think I'll just buy a new pc since I've been thinking about this before and if I invest some money in a pc I bulid myself it could last a couple of years.
I don't know yet if I should get this one repaired I will have to look up the market value.

 

[hybird9012]

Hi sjoerd88,
The frequent stalls and hangs are due to your mechanical hard drive that is failing as well as being in IDE mode. If you're really looking to cut costs, I at least recommend upgrading to an SSD and never go back to mechanical HD's from this point on unless you're purely using it as storage.

That being said, I highly recommend a new system as your processor, mainboard chipset and your memory are all bottlenecking your computer. Since the parts you have are very old, it's difficult to say what part is bottlenecking the other.

As a reply to a comment made earlier, your current hardware will not be compatible with new hardware i.e. DDR2 memory. If your video card is PCI-e (HD3850) you can probably hang on to that but I recommend getting a whole new system... especially stressing the SSD purchase.