Old Computer Advice: Fix it up or buy a new one?

I'm looking for a desktop to take back to school with me so that I can lighten up the load on my laptop a little bit. We have a desktop, which minus the operating system, is in about the same condition that we bought it. However, we did buy it about six to seven years ago, and obviously, it's a little outdated in today's high tech world (it has a floppy disk drive, this is how old we're talking.)





Mostly it would be used to lighten up my laptop, basically games, (I'm a big Sims player), maybe my music (about 20 gigs of) and leaving my laptop for web surfing and word processing. Without getting into specs, would you say it would be cheaper to fix up the old one (to bear in mind, I do have a copy of Windows XP) or just scrap the whole endeavor and buy a new desktop?Old Computer Advice: Fix it up or buy a new one?
you have a whole host of options:





1. stick to the laptop: if you just want to free up disk space, I would recommend moving your music to DVD's or getting an external harddrive. If you have the ability, you can buy an external hd enclosure and put your old computer's hd in that for more storage space.





2. use the desktop: i'm sure a 7 year old computer can run Sims without a hitch. As a general rule, any up-to-date computer, at the time it was released, can usually run games released within 3-5 years of it's release.





3. upgrade the desktop: if you have the ability, you can update parts of the computer rather than the whole thing. put on the programs you want to run, and check for any issues with speed or game quality. then, upgrade the part that you need for the applications you want. As a general rule, a computer from 6-7 years ago (2000-2002) probably needs a new CPU and motherboard. you probably also won't be able to recycle the graphics card or memory, so changing the CPU generally means cleaning out the whole insides. This sounds daunting, but a decent (for Sims) cpu/mobo combo will probably cost less than $100.





4. Buy a new desktop: you can probably put a decent one together for less than $200. It's far less of a headache than trying to recycle old parts, and at least you know it will work. I am buying a new computer, but the day it gets here, I have to install the dvd, OS, and sound card.Old Computer Advice: Fix it up or buy a new one?
buy a new one and keep the monitor or whatever you have. Dell has some fairly cheap and decent computer for under 500. You could also check out their outlet. I have an outlet laptop and its been running for a few years no problems.
Depending on what you want to upgrade, if its 6 years-old some parts my not be around anymore. We need to know what you have and what your trying to upgrade to.
If its 7 years old you might be better off buying a new one
The main issue will be games, an old desktop will most likely struggle on todays game requirements.


In its day it was probably cutting edge technology but now days games are requiring at least a Gig of memory and quite high end graphics cards.


An old PC is perfectly useable for web browsing and music though, just not the thing you need for games.