Thinking about upgrading...

Zeldaboy14

Owner of ZPW.
As most all of you here know, I have a Windows 7 32-bit PC, and I'm thinking about doing some well needed upgrades to the computer. My thoughts are putting a new NIVIDIA card in it, slapping Windows 8.1 on it for temporary till Windows 10 comes out, and getting a new hard drive put in it and using the old one as a extra hard drive. What recommendations do you guy's have on this thought of mine?
 
What is the existing specs of the computer?
CPU, Motherboard, Memory (amount and type), etc if you know them please. If those bits aren't right, sometimes doing an upgrade like you suggest wont help it as much as you may like if your older hardware doesn't fully support the newer hardware you are putting in.

You are also looking at putting Win 8.1 64bit on it? What other software are you currently running on it, particularly 32bit software and will it be supported in a 64bit environment. I think there is a Win 8 compatibility tool available from Microsoft than you can run and it will tell you what will work and what wont, although I haven't actually used it.

You can actually use your existing product ID for your Windows 7 32bit software and use it to install the same product in 64bit if you wanted. ie: if you have win 7 home premium 32bit product ID key, you can use it to install Win 7 Home Premium 64bit. All you need it a Win 7 HP 64bit disk. You could still upgrade to Win 10 when it comes out and it would save you buying a copy of Win 8.
 
You can upgrade to Win 7 64 bit at no cost, have think about waiting for win 10 it supposed to be out august and its a no cost upgrade.
 
specs_zps0a7kwgzj.jpg

Those are my specs. The Graphics card is a NIVIDIA Geforce 6150SE nForce 430.

EDIT: Just a quick question about Windows 8, since I have a HP Windows 8.1 upgrade disk from the other computer that is windows 8.1, (which is the family PC) will that upgrade disk work to upgrade my Windows 7 to Windows 8.1?
 
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They were something in their day, but the AMD Athlon 64 X2 is rather dated technology by today's standards. Ten years ago when that CPU was introduced a good many motherboards were using AGP graphic slots, so you might want to check your motherboard and make sure it has a PCIe slot capable of using a current graphics card. (PCI Express 1.0 and 1.1 had just be introduced about 10 years ago. We're up to PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 today.)
 
The computer is a 2007/8 PC. It was originally a Windows Vista Home Premium PC, but late 2012 we upgraded it to Windows 7 Ultimate. The computer does have quite a few expansion slots that we never have used in all the years of having it, and if I remember correctly, it has modern PCI Slots.
 
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My HP desktop has a 300W LiteOffⓇ PS, which could be upgraded for @ $80

It has 4 RAM slots with 1GB, 1GB, 512GB, 512GB, RAM sticks, which could be upgraded to four 2GB RAM sticks for @ $80

It had a 500 GB HD, and I installed a 1TB HD

As the PS was only 300W, I installed a GTX 430 video card

It may play TS10 and TS12 with low framerates, but T:ANE is questionable

====================================

My old Toshiba Satellite 105 laptop was Vista 32 bit PC, and I installed Windows7 32 bit (as I think it could not load windows7 64 bit OS, as it was originally a 32 bit PC) ???

Even if I put in more RAM, it will never play 10, 12, T:ANE

====================================

If I got a new laptop it would be a ROG ASUS, or Alienware
====================================

I will always stick with a desktop Windows PC
 
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The computer is a 2007/8 PC. It was originally a Windows Vista Home Premium PC, but late 2012 we upgraded it to Windows 7 Ultimate. The computer does have quite a few expansion slots that we never have used in all the years of having it, and if I remember correctly, it has modern PCI Slots.

Try Belarc advisor from Belarc.com that might give us a better idea it can often name the motherboard.

Cheerio John
 
You can upgrade to Win 7 64 bit at no cost, have think about waiting for win 10 it supposed to be out august and its a no cost upgrade.

Hey John, Just a point about Win 10. I may be wrong, but as far as I know, you can upgrade to Win 10 at no cost on a "Trial Basis" only. Then if you like it after a given period of time, you are obliged to pay for it. If you don't like it, it allows you to revert back to what you had previously.
Cheers,
Roy3b3
 
Hey John, Just a point about Win 10. I may be wrong, but as far as I know, you can upgrade to Win 10 at no cost on a "Trial Basis" only. Then if you like it after a given period of time, you are obliged to pay for it. If you don't like it, it allows you to revert back to what you had previously.
Cheers,
Roy3b3

It will be free to keep if you obtain 10 in a one year window after release. The reason being is Microsoft want to see a unified push towards 10. They don't want 7 becoming the next XP and outliving itself.

Jack
 
Hey John, Just a point about Win 10. I may be wrong, but as far as I know, you can upgrade to Win 10 at no cost on a "Trial Basis" only. Then if you like it after a given period of time, you are obliged to pay for it. If you don't like it, it allows you to revert back to what you had previously.
Cheers,
Roy3b3

Totally wrong from here http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ognition/02143c0e-5ead-470b-acb8-91ada7a22ae7

Wow, thats cool, but does that mean, I will have to pay for Windows 10 after the first year?
No. Its a promotion to get as many users to upgrade their existing Windows 7 PCs and Windows 8.1 devices to Windows 10. Once you upgrade within the first year for free, its yours forever at no additional cost. As Microsoft Program Manager for Windows Terry Myerson described it:

This is more than a one-time upgrade: once a Windows device is upgraded to Windows 10, we will continue to keep it current for the supported lifetime of the device at no additional charge.

Source: http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/01/21/the-next-generation-of-windows-windows-10/

I heard Microsoft representatives mention they are moving to a servicing model for Windows 10, does that mean Windows 10 is going to require a subscription?
No, Windows 10 remains a perpetual license, which means, you can upgrade to Windows 10 and use it forever without it expiring or going into any reduced functional mode.
 
Here is the whole thing of my specs, from top to bottom. BTW, thanks for helpful tool JohnWhelan!

Operating System System Model
Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United States)
Installed: 2/15/2012 3:31:29 PM
Boot Mode: BIOS (Secure Boot not supported) No details available
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M2N-MX SE Rev x.xx
Serial Number: MS9874353456379863
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 0201 05/01/2007
Drives Memory Modules c,d
319.97 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
124.35 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space


HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NP20 ATA Device [Optical drive]
MagicISO Virtual DVD-ROM0000 [Optical drive]


Multiple Card Reader USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 5
Sony USB HS-CF Card USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 1
Sony USB HS-MS Card USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 3
Sony USB HS-SD Card USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 4
Sony USB HS-xD/SM USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2
WDC WD32 00AAKS-00V6A SCSI Disk Device (320.07 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WCAWFE037603, SMART Status: Healthy 2432 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory


Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM1' has 512 MB
Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 319.97 GB 124.35 GB free
Network Drives
None discovered
Users (mouse over user name for details) Printers
local user accounts last logon
Johnson 7/14/2015 12:46:57 PM (admin)
UpdatusUser 7/14/2015 4:36:05 PM
local system accounts
Administrator 7/13/2009 11:53:58 PM (admin)
ASPNET never
Guest never
HomeGroupUser$ never


DISABLED Marks a disabled account; LOCKED OUT Marks a locked account

HP Deskjet 3050A J611 series on CN26I5FGYG05PJ
HP Deskjet 3050A J611 series on WSD-384f1138-6279-4ce1-a80c-769deee086da.003e
HP Deskjet F2200 series on USB001
Microsoft Shared Fax Driver on SHRFAX:
Microsoft XPS Document Writer on XPSPort:
Send To Microsoft OneNote 2010 Driver on nul:
Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
ATA Channel 0 [Controller]
ATA Channel 1 [Controller]
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 [Display adapter]
AOC 712Swa-1 [Monitor] (17.2"vis, s/n 99578CA000890, August 2007)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
MagicISO SCSI Host Controller
NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller Realtek High Definition Audio
Virus Protection [Back to Top] Group Policies
Microsoft Security Essentials Version 4.8.0204.0
Scan Engine Version 1.1.11804.0
Virus Definitions Version 7/13/2015 Rev 1.201.1653.0
Last Disk Scan on Sunday, January 18, 2015 1:35:54 AM
Realtime File Scanning On
avast! Antivirus
None discovered
Communications Other Devices
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
↑ NVIDIA nForce 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
primary Auto IP Address: 192.168.2.3 / 24
Gateway: 192.168.2.1
Dhcp Server: 192.168.2.1
Physical Address: 00:1B:FC:35:BF:F5
Connection Speed: 100 Mbps
NVIDIA nForce 10/100 Mbps Ethernet - Virtual Machine Network Services Driver
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Networking Dns Server: 192.168.2.1
HID-compliant device
USB Input Device (3x)
Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for Notebooks
HP Deskjet 3050A J611 series (NET)
Standard PS/2 Keyboard
HID-compliant mouse
Microsoft PS/2 Mouse
Generic USB Hub
Unknown Device
USB Composite Device
USB Mass Storage Device (2x)
USB Root Hub (2x)
Generic volume shadow copy
E:\
F:\
G:\
H:\
I:\
USB Storage Use in past 30 Days (mouse over last used for details) Hosted Virtual Machines (mouse over name for details)
Last Used
Multiple Card Reader -- drive 5, s/n 058F63666438, rev 1.00 7/14/2015 12:46:40 PM
Sony USB HS-CF Card -- drive 1, s/n 00000005E5C8, rev 3.95 7/14/2015 12:46:37 PM
Sony USB HS-MS Card -- drive 3, s/n 00000005E5C8, rev 3.95 7/14/2015 12:46:37 PM
Sony USB HS-SD Card -- drive 4, s/n 00000005E5C8, rev 3.95 7/14/2015 12:46:37 PM
Sony USB HS-xD/SM -- drive 2, s/n 00000005E5C8, rev 3.95 7/14/2015 12:46:37 PM
Kingston DT 101 G2, s/n 0013729B5F21EBB156370052, rev PMAP 7/8/2015 3:03:18 PM*
ADATA USB Flash Drive, s/n 14B251300215006D, rev 1100 6/16/2015 5:36:05 PM*
* Possibly used again before the reboot following this time.

Name Last Used
win xp 7/8/2015 11:35:30 PM
Windows 2000 Server 2/21/2015 11:44:27 PM
Windows 3 7/24/2014 6:18:37 PM
Windows 95b 6/14/2015 5:06:50 PM
Windows 98SE 6/13/2015 5:47:24 PM
Windows POSReady 2009 7/9/2015 12:59:24 AM
 
Looks like its PCI 1.0, I suspect you need a GTX 970 GPU to get anywhere with TANE which is PCI 3, yes it will work with PCI 1.0 but I wouldn't like to say the rest of the machine would balance it. It comes with a built-in graphics rather than a separate card.

You have dual channel memory but two unequal dimms, switch the 512 mb for a 2048 mb so they are matched and you should see a performance increase. The motherboard will only take a max of 4 gigs of memory, I'd switch the motherboard, memory, CPU, GPU, and probably the power supply which sort of means you'll need a new copy of Windows.

I might look at Dell for a new machine or newegg.com for the same sort of money.

Cheerio John
 
Well, darn. I had a feeling that the PC had older specs then it looked like. I already had plans on installing a new copy of Windows, as the computer is having issues updating.
 
To be honest with you, if you were one of my clients asking the same thing, I would tell you its not worth putting money into to upgrade it.

You can upgrade the memory (at least 4GB for a 64bit OS, more is better and if youre thinking of TANE, at least 8GB). You would most likely need to upgrade your power supply if you're looking at a more powerful graphics card, etc. etc. But at the end of the day, you're still stuck with a Dual Core Processor at only 2.20GHz trying to do all the work, and that is going to be the biggest bottle neck because it cant do it fast enough (along with your motherboard speed). Depending on your case, you may find it cant handle the air flow required to cool it down correctly. And so it goes on. You know, there are so many issues here that pouring money into it may not be give you the results you would be hoping for, for the cost you are putting into it.

I think investing in a mid-range Quad Core Processor (Intel i5 or something) and putting a good graphics card in it would be a better investment.
 
It might just be better to use the Windows 8 PC that I once mentioned, as right now, it needs a few tune ups for T:ANE to work. The Windows 7 PC I had a bad feeling that it ran off old specs, as my mom bought it from the same dude she bought her Windows XP PC (which is the one I also have now) all the way back in 2003 I believe, and that person works with older PC's, so I think that's why we got it for such a good deal.
 
To be honest with you, if you were one of my clients asking the same thing, I would tell you its not worth putting money into to upgrade it.

You can upgrade the memory (at least 4GB for a 64bit OS, more is better and if youre thinking of TANE, at least 8GB). You would most likely need to upgrade your power supply if you're looking at a more powerful graphics card, etc. etc. But at the end of the day, you're still stuck with a Dual Core Processor at only 2.20GHz trying to do all the work, and that is going to be the biggest bottle neck because it cant do it fast enough (along with your motherboard speed). Depending on your case, you may find it cant handle the air flow required to cool it down correctly. And so it goes on. You know, there are so many issues here that pouring money into it may not be give you the results you would be hoping for, for the cost you are putting into it.

I think investing in a mid-range Quad Core Processor (Intel i5 or something) and putting a good graphics card in it would be a better investment.

The motherboard maxs at 4 gigs of memory.

Cheerio John
 
The PC will only run 04, 06, 09, 10, 12

Putting in RAM sticks might help, and putting in a 1TB HD ... depending on the PS Wattage, you could put in a video card equal to or lesser than the PS wattage (a 300W PS limits the choice of a video card).
 
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