Okay... so I'm having a little bit of a problem with my rig... it's kind of like an old car... except when you pump money into an old car, it can make it work like new again.

An old computer, pumping money into it just tends to make it a bit less buggy. It won't play new games, it won't be any better really... it just keeps working. This isn't always the rule, as sometimes a computer can fall into an upgrade sweet-spot... but if it's more than a couple years old...

Even then, sometimes upgrading an old computer can screw up any hopes you may have had about recovery if you bought a factory system. They provide specific drivers for a specific OS and for specific hardware.

Still... when the chips are down, it's sometimes necessary to get a system back on it's feet... here's a quick list of things to look for when trying to keep an old system floating.


1. Pumping a lot of money into an old system is stupid. Buy whatever is on sale, and put your green away for your next build!

I almost bought a new AGP video card for $200.00... Then it dawned on me, that is $200.00 I could put towards my next rig. I'm thinking my rig will survive long enough for me to put together my next build, then I'll slap my old ATI RAGE card into my old rig, and it'll become a nifty file server...

2. Hard-drives aren't so bad... if you buy a 300 gig IDE drive, you can usually slap it into a custom box and just use it for storage later. CD/DVD RW/ROM drives also move to your next build. Same thing with monitors, sound cards (usually), and power supplies (depending on how old and how proprietary).

3. Video cards, RAM, CPUs and the like aren't great purchases. Still, if you can find a cheap processor and decide to use the system for a File Server, it's not a bad idea... but spending more than about $50.00 isn't a great idea. Who knows when the next part is going to go? I've had systems where I ended up replacing the RAM to find out it was probably a CPU problem...but whoops... it was the motherboard. Sometimes parting it can get a little pricey.

4. What are you expecting out of this old system? Sometimes ressurection is a good idea if you really have a computer you love. A good example would be my old P3 700Mhz Dell. It runs all my old DOS crap, and I'd spend a little to save it.

5. Is it worth it? If you have more time than money, then sometimes a jury-rigged system can get you through. Things that fall under this:

Replacing a video card heatsink: Mine cost $9.00... Still, gotta watch how they fit in your case!

CPU HSU mod: Sometimes a heat sink fan can be replaced by an 80mm case fan...

Overclocking: Nothing like getting the last gasps out of a PC's life on the free side

New video card: Depending on how much you spent on it a couple years ago, it may be time to slap a new one in. This depends on the system, if you're not meeting processor specs on the new games, a new video card may be a waste of money. I probably wouldn't blow too much money on an AGP card, if that is any indication.

BTW: I usually wouldn't recommend the CPU mods available for Macs... they seems to create a helluva lot of problems. Especially the G3 to G4 mod... man that sucked.

6. Troubleshooting on the cheap

I usually don't recommend spending the green to get a diagnosis for an old computer. If you know how to reload your computer, give that a shot and see if it fixes the issue. If that doesn't solve your issue, then if your computer is a few years old, it may be time to consider a new machine. Still, the internet is a good source for troubleshooting tips, and of course, you know PC Apex has love to give in that area.

7. Parts on the cheap

If you ABSOLUTELY have to have a computer up, you can build a total POS that runs for pretty cheap. I've heard stories as low as $75.00 with a USB thumb-drive for a hard-drive and a 500Mhz Celeron and some ghetto RAM (Saw the stats for that one in a past issue of Popular Science). Still, if you're that hard up, a pawn shop or a computer resaler might have something.

8. KEEP YOUR PARTS!

If you upgrade a rig, if you threw away a perfectly working part, call your mother and tell her she should have considered adopting a beagle than spawn you! Throw any extra WORKING parts into an anti-static bag and if somethin' dies, do a swap and keep on truckin' baby!

This stuff becomes GOLD after they stop making parts for your PC. Some of this crap can get pretty scarce!

9. If you're looking for cheap parts, sometimes a garage sale can yield real cheap crap... still, don't be shocked if it's DOA when you get home. Also, don't buy unless you know what you're getting. When I was a PC repair tech, I had someone hand me a scanner that must have popped out during the Big Bang and somehow landed in a yard sale. As this was a couple years after a lot of asshat companies wrote drivers for XP, but wanted to sell them instead of offering support for their own friggin' products, a lot of these things were rendered useless. So, they spent twenty bucks for something they wouldn't be able to use.

10. It's 2:00AM... I should probably start my homework.