Computer upgrading question

[Trail Rider 1.0]

Here's my situation: I'm going to be a student at UBC this fall, living in residence, and I would like to have a computer to use in my room. I need to do this as cheaply as possible, since my funds are extremely limited. This means, don't reply saying "buy a laptop, it will be so much better." I know this, but I can't afford it. My family has an old computer that we don't use anymore, and I was thinking of putting it to use. Which leads me to my question.

The computer is a (I'm guestimating here) 5-7 year old Hewlett-Packard desktop. It has a 500 MHz Celeron processor, came stock with 64 Mb RAM that I believe we have upgraded to at least 192 Mb, and a 10 gig hard drive. My question is, would it be feasible to throw in a new hard drive, maybe Windows XP (although I have a feeling it probably couldn't run that, right?), and use it as it is? All I need is something that I can use for word processing, surfing the web, and listening to music (hence my question about the bigger hard drive).

I could probably find more specs for it if that would help answering my question. Thanks!

[seand]

You COULD run XP but it will be slower than you would want; making it non-productive.

If I were you, I would take that machine, install win2k on it after upgrading the HDD size, or toss a linux distro on it and compile it against the proc specs to take full advantage of the hardware you have giving you premium output instead of losing power to xp-bloat.

But it really depends on what you need to accomplish with the machine. If it will just be a desktop that does basics, the above will work just fine. If you need office apps, windows specific solutions, etc...my idea wont work and you will have to go with a slow xp, or a mediocre 2k install.

XP runs okay on 700mhz w/512 megs o' ram, but 500 is really stretching it. XP will install on 400mhz, but you better have things to do when opening apps up

[seand]

ps - buy a laptop, it will be so much better.

[Trail Rider 1.0]

Originally Posted by seand

You COULD run XP but it will be slower than you would want; making it non-productive.

If I were you, I would take that machine, install win2k on it after upgrading the HDD size, or toss a linux distro on it and compile it against the proc specs to take full advantage of the hardware you have giving you premium output instead of losing power to xp-bloat.

But it really depends on what you need to accomplish with the machine. If it will just be a desktop that does basics, the above will work just fine. If you need office apps, windows specific solutions, etc...my idea wont work and you will have to go with a slow xp, or a mediocre 2k install.

XP runs okay on 700mhz w/512 megs o' ram, but 500 is really stretching it. XP will install on 400mhz, but you better have things to do when opening apps up

Thanks. I don't see myself doing anything more complicated than using a word processor and the internet, and I know nothing about Linux, so just going a simple windows route sounds best to me.

[seand]

win98SE is your best bet. you can download all the latest/greatest updates/service packs...just dont use IE and your machine will be great!

[Trail Rider 1.0]

Originally Posted by seand

win98SE is your best bet. you can download all the latest/greatest updates/service packs...just dont use IE and your machine will be great!

Awsome. I'm pretty sure that's what's on the computer right now, and I'm already a believer in Firefox lol... As far as upgrading the hard drive goes, what do I need to know? I'm proficient enough to do the physical installation myself, but is there any way of transfering the OS over to the new drive. I don't need anything else off the old HD, in fact I could reformat it if that would help things.

[seand]

make sure whatever drive you are putting in doesnt exceed the bios reading ability. Some chipsets will not recognize over 32gigs, while others are limited to 200gigs..and so on.

Your best bet is to do a little research in google...

mobo chipset+hdd limit should yield some useful info for your decisions.

dont image the current drive and load it onto a new drive. just do a fresh install..it will run better.