Most economical way to upgrade 5 PCs from XP

sydthebeat

Hi all

as the thread title says, whats the best way (economically) to upgrade 5 PCs from XP.

What to upgrade to i still dont know, windows 7 or 8?
Lets assume all machines are 32 bit.

I have seen another thread where you could purchase 7 as a full copy with 3 licences.... would such a product exist for 5 licences?

thanks in advance

Fysh

You might be able to find Windows 7 Family Packs (3 licences) on eBay but that's about it. There doesn't appear to be an equivalent for Windows 8 or 8.1

Bearing in mind that Windows 7 goes out of mainstream support (not extended support) in less than a year and is almost 5 years old, I'd say go for Windows 8 if the machines support it.

Having said that, spending any money on upgrading the machines is predicated on it being much cheaper to upgrade them than it would be to simply replace them with new, probably much better, machines.

sydthebeat

Apreciate that fysh

does this spec scream "upgrade" to you?

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 540
Prescott 90nm Technology
RAM
2.00GB Single-Channel @ 200MHz
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. Puffer (CPU 1) 57 °C
Graphics
Hercules Prop (1280x1024@75Hz)
128MB ATI RADEON X300 Series (ASUStek Computer Inc)
128MB ATI RADEON X300 Series Secondary (ASUStek Computer Inc)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
186GB Seagate ST3200822AS (SATA) 36 °C
Optical Drives
HP DVD Writer 640b
SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616E
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

yoyo

sydthebeat wrote: »

Apreciate that fysh

does this spec scream "upgrade" to you?

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 540
Prescott 90nm Technology
RAM
2.00GB Single-Channel @ 200MHz
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. Puffer (CPU 1) 57 °C
Graphics
Hercules Prop (1280x1024@75Hz)
128MB ATI RADEON X300 Series (ASUStek Computer Inc)
128MB ATI RADEON X300 Series Secondary (ASUStek Computer Inc)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
186GB Seagate ST3200822AS (SATA) 36 °C
Optical Drives
HP DVD Writer 640b
SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616E
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

A Pentium 4 will work with Windows 7 but tbh I wouldn't waste the money on it. I'd stick a Linux distro on those specs instead, or upgrade to something more modern.

Nick

200motels

sydthebeat wrote: »

Apreciate that fysh

does this spec scream "upgrade" to you?

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 540
Prescott 90nm Technology
RAM
2.00GB Single-Channel @ 200MHz
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. Puffer (CPU 1) 57 °C
Graphics
Hercules Prop (1280x1024@75Hz)
128MB ATI RADEON X300 Series (ASUStek Computer Inc)
128MB ATI RADEON X300 Series Secondary (ASUStek Computer Inc)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
186GB Seagate ST3200822AS (SATA) 36 °C
Optical Drives
HP DVD Writer 640b
SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616E
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

I've installed a few Windows 7's with the same processor as you Pentium 4 and TBH it does struggle with playing videos but for light browsing it's okay.

sydthebeat

thanks guys.

heres another spec, but i have a fair idea this ones a lot worse than above:

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 631
Cedar Mill 65nm Technology
RAM
1.00GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 266MHz (4-4-4-12)
Motherboard
Foxconn P4M890-8237 (Socket 775) 33 °C
Graphics
Default Monitor (1024x768@60Hz)
64MB VIA /S3G UniChrome Pro IGP (Foxconn)
Storage
232GB Hitachi HDT722525DLAT80 (ATA) 38 °C
7GB SanDisk Cruzer Edge USB Device (USB)
Optical Drives
ATAPI DVD A DH20A3P
Audio
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

200motels

sydthebeat wrote: »

thanks guys.

heres another spec, but i have a fair idea this ones a lot worse than above:

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4 631
Cedar Mill 65nm Technology
RAM
1.00GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 266MHz (4-4-4-12)
Motherboard
Foxconn P4M890-8237 (Socket 775) 33 °C
Graphics
Default Monitor (1024x768@60Hz)
64MB VIA /S3G UniChrome Pro IGP (Foxconn)
Storage
232GB Hitachi HDT722525DLAT80 (ATA) 38 °C
7GB SanDisk Cruzer Edge USB Device (USB)
Optical Drives
ATAPI DVD A DH20A3P
Audio
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

I'd put Linux on this one as it would struggle with 7 and 8.

sydthebeat

do you think the first machine would take win 8 64 bit?
would it need any upgrade (RAM?) to take 64 bit or how would i know?

If it was used for not much more than word processing and some light browsing?

also, wheres the best place to purchase the software? can it be bought on line by download?
ive used hardwareversande before and found them great.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Pentium_4/Intel-Pentium%204%20540-540J%203.2%20GHz%20-%20JM80547PG0881M%20-%20HH80547PG0881M%20%28BX80547PG3200E%29.html



P4 540 is 32 bit so max 3.25 GB usableRAM (depends on motherboard might be 3.5 )
84 Watts :eek:

Very rough rule of thumb divide the Watts by two to see the cost per year of electricity
10 hours a day x 250 days a year x 20c /unit x 1000w.hr/unit
Of course it won't be using the full 84watts all the time but you could stick a power meter on it.

By the time you add the OS upgrade, the electricity (get a meter) the cost of new drives ( anything over 5 years is dead drive walking ) , the risk of failing capacitors ( maybe your pc's aren't of that generation, but ... ) it adds up to a good chunk of change. You can get any number of low end laptops for about €350.

Family pack can't be used commercially.

Ctrl Alt Del

Hi,

The best cost compromised (price vs time) that i can see here is two things:
-upgrade the hard drive to an SSD (120Gb for OS will do it) and keep older drive for storage
-upgrade the RAM to max that system board will run it,lets say 4Gb.

That should get Windows 7 running fine.Worst case,you lose the RAM for that system.