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dirtybuck

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 9, 2008
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Location
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Income tax for 2010 has been done. I looked at the total I was to receive as a refund and was astounded (and also dumbfounded). I almost wanted to cry (and I'm not talking tears of happiness either). The amount was so piddly, it's not even worth mentioning.

I was soooo hoping that this would be the year for a new computer. The one I have right now is a seven year old Compaq Presario hand-me-down from my nephew who's in the service. I've had it for close to four of those years. It's operating at 768 MB (which is up from the 512 that came installed in it when first bought). And yes, I know that I should be thankful for what I've got.

But now it's time to get to the point of this message. Since a new computer won't be happening, I'm curious if there's anyone out there who might have 2 (two) 1 GB RAM sticks that are lying around in a drawer or some other area doing nothing. I'm looking for DDR SDRAM PC 2700, 184 pin and low-density. It would GREATLY bring up the speed of my computer (2 GB is the most this machine can handle).

There is a site on ebay where I can get some for $60.00, but right now, money is EXTREMELY tight. Also, with DDR 2 and 3 being used now in the computer world, DDR RAM is becoming obsolete, and people are charging an arm and a leg for it.

I can afford something in a moderate range as well as the shipping charge.

You guys are always trading or helping people out with washer parts and other misc. items, so I thought I'd see if there might be someone to help me out on this as well.

Thanks, guys! :)
 
I have a lot of OLD memory laying around, but unfortunately no DDR 2700 memory.  I do have a website that might offer better pricing, I'll have to go dig it up.  I seem to recall pointing my cousin to it in Dec. and he got 2 sticks for a lot less than you quoted.  Prices are dynamic and change overnight so I have no idea on current pricing, but I'll dig up that site for you...

 

 

 

Edit: I found the site, the link is bellow.   DDR 2700 or 3200 is going for $17 per 1G.  BTW, thisis a great site to find pricing on all computer components.  When I'm building computers I use it all the time.

http://www.pricewatch.com/system_memory/
 
Newegg.com has a variety of PC2700 (DDR 333) RAM available starting at $30 for 1 GB. Kingston, Crucial, PQI, Corsair and Patriot brands are all very good, according to my "in-the-know-computer-guy" co-worker. He said to check the warranty before you buy, but most have lifetime warranties now. So you can have 2GB for $60 plus shipping.

I've bought memory and other things from Newegg and have been quite happy with their prices, product quality.

Kevin

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...DDR SDRAM PC 2700&page=1&bop=And&Pagesize=100
 
Craigslist is great for this kind of stuff. Also search eBay for older and especially lower-end motherboards with installed PC2700 dimms. Not sure why but I've noticed these often sell for less than just the memory.
 
Last year I picked up a Dell Optiplex GX280 small format computer for my cousin off of Ebay. It had come in off lease and was only 2 years old. It had 512MB RAM and a 40MB HDD and a DVD recorder in it. I only paid $50.00 for it. Oh yes, it had a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz CPU in it.

Put in 2GB Ram and a 320GB HDD for about $100.00.So for about $150.00 I had a computer for my cousin (who is $$ restricted). I was amazed at how fast the machine was. A year later she's still using it and has learned how to edit photos on it. It's still fast.

In fact there is one on Ebay right now for $20.50, yes $20.50! See link.

Before I put any more money into your old system, I'd look at what type of CPU it has. If it's slower than 2.4Ghz, I wouldn't bother.

http:// 250768765041
 
For $150 to $200 you can build a great computer and not mess with used stuff.  Lots of times there are deals where you buy the processor and get the MB free.  New egg has a 1.5T, yes T, hard drive for $59, you can get 500g for $29.  Of course the killer item is the OS,  Linux is very friendly now and if I had to I could function there pretty well. but there are ways around the cost.
 
I agree, snap up that Dell, or similar Dell for pennies on the dollar and have a very stable and very fast machine. I did the same thing for both myself, and my 11yr old daughter. About $150 for one and $100ish for the other (both Dells running XP), locally on CL. That was 2 or 3 years ago now, and both have been bulletproof.

Quick comment on your tax situation. Sounds like you have it pretty dialed in. You didn't let the gov sit on any of your money for a year, you got the maximum amount of wage per paycheck, and you don't owe. IMO, that's perfect.
 
Off Lease machines

RE "Last year I picked up a Dell Optiplex GX280 small format computer for my cousin off of Ebay. It had come in off lease and was only 2 years old. It had 512MB RAM and a 40MB HDD and a DVD recorder in it. I only paid $50.00 for it. Oh yes, it had a Pentium 4 3.2Ghz CPU in it. "

Here I do the same, but usually with IBM's

Here I often by off lease IBM/lenovo machines off of ebay. I have probably bought 30 of them since ebay started. Last summer I bought Pentium 4 towers with 80 gig HDAs, usb 2 slots with XP pro for 45 to 85 each with shipping. The downside is they had only 512m to 1 gig of ram. Once I find a ibm model I like I just buy more as spares and sister models. Once one figures out the ibm numbers for the ram and searches a zillion ways I typically buy ram at 1/4 to 1/2 of that is normal for ebay or a memory seller. It just takes time.

I have done this with IBM Pentium Pro boxes, PII boxes, PIII boxes and Pentium 4 boxes.

Ram varies all over the place in prices. Sometimes I have bought a complete yet another spare "off lease" 3 year old IBM JUST for its memory. ie it was cheaper to buy a complete working computer, with OS and HDA and ram; then just the ram
 
I probably have a stick or two of DDR1 PC2700(333)MHZ Ram siting around. Do you need ECC, or non-ECC, buffered, non-buffered? Send me a email.

The GX280 is quite a little beast. They are PentiumIV HT machines, to which when Dell released the GX280, from the GX270, and GX260, the GX280 does not have legacy PS/2 ports. It has a bunch of USB ports in the back. There is no || IDE port for the HDD, instead they have SATA ports for the HDD. Depending on whether you have the small-form factor, the bigger desktop version, or the mini-tower, you can upgrade the RAM up to 4GB. It also uses a faster chipset, machine uses DDR2(PC2-3200) memory sticks.[this post was last edited: 2/11/2011-14:26]
 
Thanks For the Info!

A little more info about the computer:

The processor I have is a AMD Athlon 3000+ (2.16 GHZ) XP. The computer is a Compaq Presario SR1030NX. From what information I can find, this computer was built and sold in 2004.

I really had my heart set on buying a lower end Compaq with a 500 GB hard drive and 2 GB of RAM (upgradable to 4). It also has a AMD dual core processor. Unfortunately for now, I guess it wasn't meant to be. :(

As stated earlier, if I can find some inexpensive RAM to put into this machine to make it run a bit faster, then that's what I'll do until I get the money to afford a new one. However, I just might go the route (again, if an extra commodity called "money" should be acquired), I might possibly invest in a 500 GB hard drive.
 
Your ram is all over ebay and dirt cheap

On ebay one can enter "2gb ddr pc2700" and have buy it now clicked and find 433 results. The lowest buy it now is 19.95. There is many in the 27 buck region with shipping. Be carefull, some are ECC and your box may of may not use ECC, some are laptop and are physically smaller.

If one wants to play the auctions without buy it now for a week; one can get your two sticks of 1 gig of ram for about 7 to 14 bucks with freight. This is how I typically my ram and I have bought several hundreds of sticks this way.
 
Your ram is all over ebay and dirt cheap

On ebay one can enter "2gb ddr pc2700" and have buy it now clicked and find 433 results. The lowest buy it now is 19.95. There is many in the 27 buck region with shipping. Be carefull, some are ECC and your box may of may not use ECC, some are laptop and are physically smaller.

If one wants to play the auctions without buy it now for a week; one can get your two sticks of 1 gig of ram for about 7 to 14 bucks with freight. This is how I typically my ram and I have bought several hundreds of sticks this way.
 
The three mini IBM S50's; the three Tower M50 8190's here all use PC2700 DDR SDRAM

I just bought these used machines last summer off of ebay. All came with keyboard and mouse, besides full XP pro already installed. None were over 100 bucks with shipping, most were about 65 bucks.

I cannot build a machine with HDA, power supply, legal XP pro OS and keyboad and mouse for 65 dollars.
 
SIX bucks

Your machine now has one 256meg and one 512 megs chip in its only two slots.

If you are really tight for cash you can just buy one 1 gig chip for 6 bucks.

Your total ram thus will double, ie go from 768 meg to 1.5 gig.

Going to the full max 2 gig can help with giant photoshop files, BUT for everyday webs stuff that change from 1.5 to 2 gigs is way smaller jump that many will not notice.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1GB-1x1GB-AMP-D...012?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5abe4cfc
 
In addition to more memory, there may be other things that can help that computer. If the computer runs Windows of some sort, a reinstalling Windows might make a huge speed improvement. People more knowledgeable about Windows than me have said many times that Windows (at least up through XP) has performance deterioration over time. Even if there are no viruses, junk gets built up that slows things down.

Reinstalling Windows is, as I recall, a pain. But it is well worth considering--a couple of hours of suffering to get something that will cause less frustration day to day. (Usual important note: make sure all files are backed up first on CDs, external hard drive, whatever. I know at least one person who completely lost EVERYTHING during one reinstall.)

Another thing that helps: choosing software that runs as fast as possible. Some titles are just naturally slow. An old system with efficient software can easily out perform a much faster system loaded with inherently sluggish software.

Finally, it's always worth thinking that things could be worse. I'm running a Pentium III with only 512MB memory, using an even older--and, I think, slower--memory type. Frankly, by my standards, that AMD 2 gHz system is state of the art! Amazingly, by using my part of own advice above (choosing efficient software), this computer remains usable. The days are probably numbered, but for the moment I'm getting by.
 
I think too many people buy new computers needlessly. Here is my computer purchase axiom:

If the computer is doing what you want, when you want, and as fast as you want then leave it alone. You don't need a new computer no matter how old it is.

If your computer is slow, add more RAM. This should speed it up again. Much cheaper than buying a new computer.

You buy new software that requires a faster CPU and your computer is older than 4 years old. New computer time.

My crazy sister and her husband used to buy a new computer every other year. Why?
Well a two year old computer is old and we just have to have new. What do they use their computer for? Web browsing and e-mail. That's it! Nothing else!
 
Also if you have an older computer and only do a few things with it, try something like Puppy Linux, it will run much faster than windows.  Some of the older, smaller versions of Puppy will run on ancient equipment from the early '90s with very little memory.  You can try many Linux programs without loading them on your computer, they offer downloads for CDs that run from the CD or memory stick.  You have the option to save some data to the hard drive if you wish, but no need if you don't.  The programs will run faster if it's installed on  your computer or USB memory stick however.

If you only do email and web browsing this is a perfect fit.  It gets a little harder if you like to download and install lots of software.  But for Puppy Linux there are lots of 'puplets" that have all sorts of things like image editing and music playing options preinstalled.
 
Linux is fine for people who have the technical ability to use it. But sad to say most people who use a PC don't have the technical ability or the patience!

From what I have seen from repairing PC's for people most people don't use their systems for much more than anything else than e-mail and web browsing. And then there are those who are damned lucky just to get the thing turned on in the morning!

I use mine for website development, MIDI music, editing photos, etc.
 
<span>"Linux is fine for people who have the technical ability to use it. But sad to say most people who use a PC don't have the technical ability or the patience!" </span>

<span>Linux is not necessarily any harder to use than Windows. At least, assuming a reasonably user friendly Linux distro AND a willingness for the user to learn to do things in a new way. The user's willingness to learn is critical. Ironically, people who have NO computer experience may actually have an easier time of it. While they have a sharp learning curve, they at least have no preconceived notions that "it MUST be done this way because that's the way it's done in Windows!" </span>

<span>Installation can still be a problem, although a lot depends on the hardware. I've run Linux on 2 different systems--both low end computers designed for Windows. Both had challenging moments. Other systems, however, will happily take pretty much any Linux distro thrown at it with no complaints. It's worth noting that even Windows installations can be a nightmare. There may be many drivers that are not included on the Windows install disk. And I have seen stuff that worked under one version of Windows break under a new one. One machine, for example, lost the ability to power itself off going from Windows 98 to XP. </span>

<span>Another problem: support for certain multi-media formats is often crippled. This is not a fault of Linux as it is patent laws--a lot of Linux distros are designed to be fully and freely distributable throughout the world. So they purposely avoid including support for DVD movie playback, MP3, etc. This stuff is easy to add--a fast Google search will give instructions. I believe Ubuntu now makes it very easy to add restricted media support. Or one can select a distro that is not shipped stripped down (Linux Mint for example.)</span>

 

<span> </span>
 
<span>Puppy Linux definitely can breath new life into slower systems--both older systems, and also things like slow netbooks. One advantage is that if the system has enough memory, all software will get loaded, and run from memory. And it seems to be made to be easy for people who don't know Linux.</span>

 

<span>The only problem with Puppy is that the security model is a little questionable. It runs (at least the last I heard...) in root (Adminstrator in Windows-speak) mode at all times. Thus the system can, in theory, be more easily compromised than systems running other Linux distros, which use a system where a user has his or her own account, and cannot make any system wide changes. That said, I'd trust Puppy long before I trusted Windows. Furthermore, as some have pointed out, malware that sneaks in and "only" destroys your personal user account in a conventional distro is already capable of doing one of the worst things possible for normal home users. An OS install is easy; replacing data might not be so easy (particularly for those who get behind in making backups!).</span>

 
 
<span>"From what I have seen from repairing PC's for people most people don't use their systems for much more than anything else than e-mail and web browsing."</span>

 

<span>This, from what I've seen, is very true.</span>

 

<span>A few years back, I had one computer setup with  no Internet connection. Someone who knew this was puzzled when she saw me using it. "I thought you said this wasn't connected to the Internet!" True enough--but there are lots of other things one might do, from crunching numbers, graphics work, etc, etc, etc.</span>

 

<span>I have seen used computers that come my way with apparently the original OS in place. Usually, I'll play a bit with the system as it comes--it's a chance to see software I might not ever see or use otherwise--before erasing the hard drive. What amazes me is how many people make no attempt to delete files before discarding the computer, and yet leave almost nothing behind.</span>
 
if you a good pc then get a eee box by asus. i got one and love got it when they first came out. There under 300.00
 
The latest versions of Linux are pretty foolproof, pretty much plug and play.  They are setup usually with Firefox and a decent email client and I would have no issue using them for that.  Many even have photo editing software such as Gimp installed.  Gimp is VERY powerful and rivals photoshop in functionality and it's free.  The setup will ask about your monitor and will generally find your network connection easily.  If it's wireless it may be a bit more difficult, but not overly so.  Puppy is very friendly, Ubuntu is more inclusive and very full functioned.  All are FREE.

 

If you can run Linux from a usb drive you'll have full functionality and speed.  Try it, you have nothing to loose.
 
I have used Linux Mint for about 3 years now. I find it much easier than windows.

My computer is a Dell Dimension 2400 with 40Gb HDD and 1.5 Gb ram. I love Linux Mint, currently using Mint 9 XFCE. Anyone who thinks Linux is for techxperts and repairers hasn't had a play with Mint.

I get computers and parts from computer recyclers - one in particular is a disability employment service, they dismantle older computers for recycling. I get ram sticks for usually $2 to $5 for a handful - though I have to sort through boxes of them to find the few that are worth the bother - 1Gb DDRs are like hens teeth, occasional 512 Mb, dozens of 256 Mb.

Find out from your local recycling service or rubbish dump where the old computers are sent for dismantling - then show up there.

Chris
 

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