Opinions on upgrading Win98 vs. new computer....

[slimpikkens]

First of all, I'm a Mac guy, don't know a great deal about the PC world....

I've been playing poker on a hand-me-down PC: Win98 Gateway desktop 128 MB RAM, 500 Mhz Pentium II processor.

I'm using a 1600 x 1200 CRT monitor and for the past few months the system has been working flawlessly. But now I'm interested in Gametime and/or Playerview, and they only run on current Windows operating systems (Win2000 and WinXP).

I looked around and it seemed like Win200/WinXP is gonna run me somewhere around $200. OR I can get a bottom-of-the-line desktop for around $500 with WinXP installed (I think). Knowing that I will NEVER use the PC for anything other than poker, I'm debating which is the better option. Thus....my dilemma.


Deciding factors:

Whether or not my current PC system would be able to handle running Poker apps, Pokertracker and Gametime/Playerview at the same time. Or would I be risking sluggishness....

Eventually I'd like to have dual monitors....do bottom-of-the-line desktops come with built-in dual monitor capability?


So if I'm WILLING to spend $500 on a bottom-of-the-line desktop but alternatively would CHERISH saving $300 by upgrading my current system....what's the best bet?

[BigDoggie]

Your best bet is to get a new computer they all come with Windows XP and will run much quicker than your old hand me down.

If you just buy the OS it will be horribly slow on your current computer and you will have to do some upgrades just to get it to function correctly with Win XP.

Hope this helps..

[Freakin]

Cut bait. Buy a new system. The amount of work and time that you'll likely have to put into upgrading the old system is not worth the trouble. Upgrading an OS is rarely a good idea, so you would want to wipe the drive before you did it. If you don't know much about PC's, I can guess that it would take you a little while. Also, XP would run ass-slow on that comp. 2000 would be doable, but I'd still recommend a new system.

Freakin

[Blarg]

New system, sorry.

Be of better cheer, though -- you will not have to get a bottom of the line computer if you search properly. This will take a bit of work, but it's almost Christmas -- there should be a ton of good sales coming up. You could probably get something around the range of an Athlon 3000 or 3200, or a Intel 2.8 or 3.0 cpu chip, a hard drive of at least 80 and maybe 160 gigs, 256 to 512 RAM, a DVD and maybe even a DVD writer, for roughly $500-650. You can up the graphics power quite a bit by adding in a card at $50 to $150, but for poker, don't really need to, not for four tables. Anyway, for $500 to $700 you can wind up with something pretty respectable. At the low end, it won't be much for gaming; at the high end, it will be great for most gaming, and reasonable for almost all the rest. Non-poker-gaming, I mean. Poker is doable by almost any vid card.

[Gurney]

check here for dell outlet deals.

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[BusterStacks]

[ QUOTE ]
Cut bait. Buy a new system. The amount of work and time that you'll likely have to put into upgrading the old system is not worth the trouble. Upgrading an OS is rarely a good idea, so you would want to wipe the drive before you did it. If you don't know much about PC's, I can guess that it would take you a little while. Also, XP would run ass-slow on that comp. 2000 would be doable, but I'd still recommend a new system.

Freakin

[/ QUOTE ]

exactly.

[UncleDuke]

Computers are dirt cheap lately. As others have said, $500 actually can buy a fairly nice one, although obviously not high-end. If you really just want a no-frills one that'll run what you want without bogging down, you can get it for somewhat less than that, so the savings from buying an upgrade to Windows is really going to be pretty small.

[HesseJam]

I think player view works under W98. Right?

[Freakin]

Several pieces of advice for the new computer
1) Don't buy an e-machine.
2) Don't buy anything with a celeron in it. PT will likely function poorly with the small L2 cache
3) DO buy as much RAM as you can afford

I'd also recommend buying a computer from Costco if you have one nearby. You guys who are inexperienced with PCs will have no problem exchanging it for a brand new one in a year or two if something goes wrong.

Freakin

[slimpikkens]

Celeron? Is that a poor man's Pentium?

I just checked the dell site. Even the low-end desktop for $500 comes with a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz....

[SamJack]

[ QUOTE ]

Eventually I'd like to have dual monitors....do bottom-of-the-line desktops come with built-in dual monitor capability?


[/ QUOTE ]

The low end PC will have built-in video chip set that may not support dual monitors in the resolution you want.

However, this is something that can be relatively easily upgraded later.

SamJack

[Benjamin]

Easy call to go for the new machine. You'd need to buy a bunch of RAM for your old machine, waste a day upgrading it, and then it'd still be slow and probably break down before long.

I'd get a cheap Dell w/ an upgrade to 512 MB RAM. To run 2 monitors on any affordable new machine you'll have to add a video card, but that's pretty cheap too.

B.

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

No brainer. Buy a new Dell, then pick up a dual-head graphics adapter on eBay for $50 or so. Now hook up three monitors running 1600x1200 for eight-tabling with no overlap, plus room for the lobby window, PT, email and anything else you want to look at while playing poker.

[slimpikkens]

Consensus says new computer. Now I have permission and don't need to feel guilty about it /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Thanks for all the replies....

[Kenrick]

[ QUOTE ]
Celeron? Is that a poor man's Pentium?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it's a poor man's crap, but you go with what you can. Don't need anything top-notch other than to play Doom3 anyway.

I remember the first time I ran windows 2000. It's like Windows 98 but never crashes. Amazing. I could never go back to that 98/Millenium junk.

[grandgnu]

I build systems on the side, and with Windows XP you do NOT want to get a system that is bottom of the barrel with 128MB of RAM.

The bare minimum I recommend is 256MB, and even this is too little sometimes. I really recommend getting 512MB of dual-channel DDR with a P4 2.4Ghz processor on an 800mhz FSB (there are a number of different Pentiums out there running on different FSB's, I believe Dell is selling off the old 533mhz FSB systems because they have so much overstock)

Good luck!