Thoughts on upgrading vs. replacing?

I'm curious to know your thoughts on when to keep and work with existing equipment; adding RAM, maybe reinstall Windows, etc.; vs. buy new computers.

I am running across a lot of clients who have very similar hardware; towers that are who knows how old with 2.4Ghz P4s, WinXP, and less than 1GB of RAM.

When you factor in the cost of RAM (most of these systems I'm encountering max out at 2GB, which costs at least $60 for quality chips), and my labor to backup all the data & reinstall Windows, you're looking at around $200 or so to "upgrade" current machines, and for only around $400 or so you can get a pretty nice new tower.

Heck, I've added RAM to older systems for some people and they say they do not notice any performance increase at all!

I had my eyes opened when I got myself a new laptop with a dual-core Intel processor; I can't believe how much faster it is than my 2.8Ghz P4 that is my main computer.

I don't have any interest in selling my clients stuff they don't need, especially in this tough economy, but when they have an old generic tower with 512mb RAM and WinXP Home, I personally think that a new tower is money well spent, but how do you communicate the benefits of new equipment to people who aren't really tech-savvy?

Depending on the version of XP, support has either already ended or will within a few years, and of course nobody likes to sit and wait while their computer works.

What are your thoughts on how to express the benefits of new hardware to people who might be wary they are "just being sold"?

Thanks!

 

If you have a large number of clients you could show them how much money they'd save on just electricity alone! The new core 2 duos are REALLY power efficient. Plus with the current transition to ddr3 and the new Core i7/i5 architecture going mainstream, you can pretty much find parts for dirt cheap. I mean 19 bucks for a stick of ram that's MUCH faster than the ram that's in those P4's you're talking about. Plus with dual cores they'd be future-proof at least for a couple of years. Also, with the X4500mhd integrated graphics kicking GMA900's gludius, I think it would be VERY cost efficient to upgrade the HW. The only P4's that are even relevant anymore are the cedar mill models based on 65nm lithography.

EDIT: I just realized your clients are individualized, not part of a corp.. sorry ... in that case just take your laptop with you and show them just what they're missing!

 

I agree with XGX2007, the easiest way might simply be to show them. Bring your new laptop along, and (assuming you're willing) let them try it out for a little while, to see what they'd actually be upgrading to.

 

interesting points.

Are the electricity savings really that significant?

Is RAM really that much cheaper for newer systems and will it stay that way?

I thought of taking in my little laptop & showing them just how much faster it is, side-by-side, next to their old stuff.

 

They can be. I know in corporations they can be significant savings. Especially with the new 45nm Nehalem cores.

DDR2 is technically last generation right now, but unless you're really gaming it up, DDR2 is plenty fine for most people. And for the forseeable future, DDR2 should be pretty cheap. Even DDR3 isn't near as expensive as it used to be.

I know if they just sat down and actually used a new system for a second and just opened a browser and maybe a new word document, they see how much faster even those basic tasks are! Especially with pre-fetch and a buttload of RAM things are just plain snappy.

 

I've got an Acer 1410, 2GB RAM with the dual-core SU2300. Chrome is open and ready to go the second I click the icon, and any program from Office 2010 Beta opens within 1 second. It's really nice and fast.

Those seconds and minutes of waiting quickly become hours and days when you aggregate them over years.

Not to mention file downloads - a 10MB cable or fiber connection isn't much good to such old computers - they just can't process the download as fast as a newer system.

 

Exactly. I currently have a client that just flat out refuses to let me backup and wipe his current windows inst on a P4. It was the first with the HT feature, and he's been on the same XP installation for 7 years now! It's unreal. I launched firefox on it the other day, and I watched the second I clicked the icon the Processor Usage went sky high and stayed at 100 percent for a good 1-2 minutes, and it was another minute or two before the stuff on the page actually became clickable! Even his idle usage was 20-30 percent. The HDD was paging like a MoFo and I even heard the fan kick into overdrive. Sad really. So I whipped out my CW and showed him just what new HW can do, and how buttery smooth Windows 7 is and he was amazed! He's having me buy a part every week so that in a couple of weeks I can assemble it and have him a killer new machine. But he just won't budge on the re-format, because I know I could at least make it 30-40 percent faster by just cleaning house.

 

i have to agree with the price of ram processors (depending on if it is a lappy or a desktop) the prices of hdds etc by the time he pays to upgrade one hes better off putting a few more bills with it and just buying a new machine which i see hes now doing so good job there