[SOLVED] Mission Impossible? Help me upgrade my office PC externally...

[gmartin777]

I work as a lawyer at a law firm with an IT policy that is both strict and stingy. I must use the computer that they provide and I must not alter it. Unfortunately, it's a comically old box with a Windows Experience rating of 4.9. It has a very tiny monitor that makes document preparation less than enjoyable.

I'd like to add multiple monitors and somehow make the thing less sluggish. I remember using a Matrox multiple monitor thing for my home computer in the past that might help here. Any other suggestions involving ways of external upgrades. Or even advice about convincing them to let me alter the box or BYOD?

Can we do something like cloud streaming like the gamers do? This is painful.

FWIW, the system is an old i5-3470 @ 3.2ghz with 8GB of RAM. It runs Windows 7 x64 SP1.

Thanks in advance!

 

[faalin]

Your biggest issue will be that your using a standard harddrive which is your "slow" part. For a Law firm i can see were their rules are coming from and a BYOD would be out of the question.

The good news is Windows 7 is not being supported after 2019 and if they are strict on their rules and security they should be upgrading you to Windows 10 which will need a new computer since Win 10 doesn't support that old of a CPU natively.

In the mean time you could ask them to clone your Harddrive to a SSD which would take no more then an hour to clone and swap out drives. and would boost the speed of the computer noticeably.

 

[ohiou_grad_2006]

Why won't Windows 10 support that cpu? I've installed Windows 10 on Sandy bridge, runs fine.

As an IT guy where I work, not helping you circumvent their system. You need to submit a support ticket and ask about proper procedures to get what you need.

 

[USAFRet]

1. An i5-3470 is not "comically old". Perfectly viable office level PC.

2. This is your job. You use the tools they give you.

3. Cloud streaming? Whatever you mean by that, do you anticipate keeping your job when they find out you're doing this?

Ask your IT guy if you can bring in your own monitor. If they say an unequivocal "Yes", buy one and bring it to work.
Other than that...use what they give you. It may just need a reinstall of the OS and your applications.