Upgrade Your Computer - Don't Buy A New One

[DWalt]

I wonder how many here remember the DOS days of the late 1980s before Windows and before the internet? And all the excitement surrounding the release of Windows 95? How the world has changed.

 

[Golddollar]

Will your guy update a Windows 95??? Asking for a friend

After that can he update a Word Perfect 5.0?

 

[DWalt]

After that can he update a Word Perfect 5.0?

For a long time I used the Word Perfect office suite, and liked it. Around 10 years ago I switched over to MS Office. Not that was any better than Word Perfect, but it seemed the rest of the world was going that way. Fortunately, it is not very difficult to convert WP files to MS Office.

 

[S42N8]

I wonder how many here remember the DOS days of the late 1980s before Windows and before the internet? And all the excitement surrounding the release of Windows 95? How the world has changed.

<cough> Amstrad 8512 <cough> Went with me to my first duty station...completely incompatible with anything else, but beat the **** out of retyping form letters on a Selectric III. <twitches dinosaur tail>

Couple years ago, swapped in a 1TB SSD and maxed out the RAM in my MacBook Pro. Runs fast, flawlessly and hosts my 600+MB lossless music library as a Roon endpoint. Dinosaurs can learn newish tricks.

 

[rwsmith]

5-1/4"?

With dual floppies no less

5-1/4" Disks?

 

[johngalt]

I bet!! Wish he could do something with my 17" APPLE -- its beyond upgrades.

Yep, mine was abandoned at macOS 10.13. Then the discrete video died (apparently a common problem). I'm bummed about that - it has capabilities that have been removed from the latest models.

Right now I am using a 2015 15" model, it will do until I decide if I want to continue with Apple. I'm toying with the idea of building a PC and installing linux.

 

[JohnRippert]

That is what I have done to many of our computers. My old laptop is a nine year old Acer 17inch multimedia version. I installed Windows 10, maxed out the RAM, installed a SSD and bought the fastest cpu it could support off Ebay used for $20. Cost me about $125 in parts and some of my time. Mom's old computer got the same treatment and we gave it to my best friend whose laptop is dying. A SSD is the best bang for the buck upgrade you can do for a computer these days.

 

[Muley Gil]

Reading this thread reminds me of Charlie Brown's teacher:

WAAUGH, WAAUGH, WAAUGH, WAAUGH!

I have no idea what most of y'all are talking about.

 

[JohnRippert]

Reading this thread reminds me of Charlie Brown's teacher:

WAAUGH, WAAUGH, WAAUGH, WAAUGH!

I have no idea what most of y'all are talking about.

I started building computers back around 1990 in preparation for the first digital copiers that Xerox was coming out with. I have worked for them since 1984 as a copier tech. So yes, I speak geek.

 

[DWalt]

I wonder if there are still computer-themed hobbyist magazines? Back in the old days of 20+ years ago I used to read several, and also "Computer Shopper". I even had a subscription to it. I eventually lost all interest in reading them. Pretty much the same situation with photography magazines. Today, both computers and cameras have become largely fungible commodity items and there is not much point in reading magazines about them, as it really makes little difference whether you are using a using a Nikon vs a Canon, or an HP vs an Acer.

 

[BC38]

I wonder how many here remember the DOS days of the late 1980s before Windows and before the internet? And all the excitement surrounding the release of Windows 95? How the world has changed.

Yup. I used to be quite the command line commando.

 

[oink]

I believe you can still upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 for free, CNET link:
Windows 10 is still free to download. Here's how to get the upgrade now - CNET

I upgraded my little 13" Dell from 7 to 10 several years ago.

A year or so ago I changed out my hard drive to a 480 gig solid state when they were on sale at Staples and that helped a bunch.

The Dell site said I couldn't upgrade my 4 gigs of ram but I found out I actually could and after another Staples sale it now has 8 gigs. It runs noticeably better with 8 gigs.

I think the CPU is soldered on but I might go have a peak as I'm sure the fastest CPU the board would support would be obsolete and cheap by now.

Upgrading can be very worthwhile if you're not one of those that has to have the fastest and best.

My laptop case now has a pretty bad crack in it that may cause it's eventual demise. I haven't looked for a replacement but you never know I might could find one.

I was looking at new computers the other day and saw a Lenova on sale I really liked but it was like $1,600 bucks. About all I do is play on the internet, email, and save some pictures. I could buy several guns for $1600 bucks.

 

[vt_shooter]

I miss the DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.1 days. Being cool then was as simple as editing the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

<cough> Amstrad 8512 <cough> Went with me to my first duty station...completely incompatible with anything else, but beat the **** out of retyping form letters on a Selectric III. <twitches dinosaur tail>

Couple years ago, swapped in a 1TB SSD and maxed out the RAM in my MacBook Pro. Runs fast, flawlessly and hosts my 600+MB lossless music library as a Roon endpoint. Dinosaurs can learn newish tricks.

I've got an electric typewriter when it is just easier to bang out an address or file label on it rather than through the computer. How I wish to have an old Selectric III for that task!!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

With dual floppies no less

5-1/4" Disks?

No...old secretary

 

[Turn4811]

Wife has 97 and I have XP. Both boxes cannot support newer OS's. The Wife's laptop can no longer print the driver update failed and the printer no longer works.

I have XP. Everything works, slowly. I plan on a pad replacement for the wife on cyber Monday this year. The 97 box will get re-imaged for a Linux for a print server.