Buy refurbished or upgrade old machine.

[McLiam]

I’m a 73-year-old vet living on a very small income, and I need to upgrade my computer. I’m considering a few options, and I’d be grateful for any comments or suggestions.

1) Buy a refurbished desktop—something like this: Refurbished Dell Silver Optiplex 790 Desktop PC with Intel Core i5-2400 Processor, 4GB Memory, 250GB Hard Drive and Windows 7 Professional (Monitor Not Included) $226.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Refurbished-Dell-Silver-Optiplex-790-Desktop-PC-with-Intel-Core-i5-2400-Processor-4GB-Memory-250GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-7-Professional-Monitor-No/46605853?veh=dsn&wmlspartner=criteo&sourceid=cricpalowmixelectronicsabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz5745bdc576fc4dc21553535fcb211cac

2) Pay a local computer tech to update my current machine?--i.e., replace CPU, add ram, etc—here’s system info:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name TC-PC
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model OptiPlex 755
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8200 @ 2.66GHz, 2660 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A09, 3/11/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name TC-PC\TC
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.86 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.49 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.73 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.16 GB
Page File Space 3.86 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

3) Or maybe this XP machine?
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name TSDESKTOP
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model OptiPlex 755
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 13 GenuineIntel ~1995 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A19, 5/31/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
User Name TSDESKTOP\TC
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 3,072.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 2.20 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 4.83 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

4) Convert one of these machines to an alternative OS?

 

[greens]

What do you like to do on your computer?

That will help us find you a good option for your needs.

 

[McLiam]

My usage is ordinary; online, I stream videos, search www, send & receive email. Offline I use mostly Word, some Excel, etc. No gaming, or heavy graphics use.
Thanks,
Mac

 

[greens]

My usage is ordinary; online, I stream videos, search www, send & receive email. Offline I use mostly Word, some Excel, etc. No gaming, or heavy graphics use.
Thanks,
Mac

In that case the little i5 quad core should get the job done!

You could increase performance by making sure both RAM slots are populated.


Stay away from any machine that has XP.
Stay away from any PC that advertises a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad (even though they seem superior to the low end i5s and i3s, they are not)