I was positively enthralled to read "The Junk Computer" by John Mackesy in October PC Update (1999 vintage 400 MHz, 128 MB RAM, etc).

It's way too easy to get hooked on the techno-hype that we must have the latest / biggest / best!! And we are more prone to get hooked when those around us are (euphoric) on the top of the wave. The sense of the thrill of the challenge and unknown (what PCs are all about), and then the sense of achievement when it actually works. Too often we throw dollars at our computers for novelty value, latest gadgets, etc. It's amazing in SIG coffee breaks how many of us are a bit shy to identify with older PCs.

How long will a computer last? What is the logical test we should use before upgrading?

Firstly, it's pretty simple if the PC won't do the task at all then we need to upgrade in those areas of hardware that are precluding the application's operation. A classic example has been the recent free disc "My Virtual Home" from "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine. When the minimum system requirement was a 450 MHz Pentium III, I thought my system, an AMD Athlon 1700 XP+ at 1.5GHz should eat it. How wrong. The processor needs the SSE instruction set only available on subsequent AMDs.

Secondly, that the PC is not doing what we want, in a timely manner. What is timely? Well, it's a relative term where we compare performance, more often than not, against observation of someone else's PC. Sure there are lots of benchmarks around, but what do the benchmarks
mean for me, especially where most of the PC magazines are only testing and comparing the latest and fastest.

Generalising, your old system is only regarded as "obsolete" because of the increased hardware requirements that are associated with new software. The corollary is that if you aren't implementing new software, why upgrade hardware?

There are some useful tools that can analyse your system. Typical is SiSoft Sandra http://www.sisoftware.com. These tools will mostly check systems for bottlenecks relative to all other hardware that is present. However they won't necessarily identify the bottleneck with a particular software application. What I would call generic optimisation or system balancing, not task or application optimisation.

For particular applications often it's necessary to assess the specific symptoms associated with the application, eg. slow loading, delays between keystrokes, slow screen refresh, erratic response times, etc., and you won't necessarily find a lot about this in the literature. So, Google and other search facilities, eg. Microsoft knowledge base may help, and certainly application supplier interaction is often necessary, along with support from those who have been there and done that (eg. friends and associates at Melb PC).

My daughter, a Civil Eng (Hons) graduate, who also runs a hobby business from home is using my "old" 1997 Pentium II 233 MHz PC as her home workhorse PC, and with more than adequate performance!. It still runs Windows 98, Office 2000, 1E6 (courtesy of the Melb PC Monthly CD) and
with VET protection (licence courtesy of Dad). Over time the only internal changes have been RAM, increased from 32 MB to 128 MB, installation of a 4-port USB2 (PCI) card, because there were only two USB 1.1 ports on the Gigabyte GA686LX motherboard, and the addition of a CD-RW drive.

Externally the PC supports ADSL (D-Link DSL 302G modem), and an HP Officejet 6200 All-In-One.

The latter might appear over the top, but the logical needs were for a walkup ie stand alone from the PC fax with document feeder, and to a lesser extent, a walk-up low usage copier. This unit has surprisingly low loadings on the PC due to the level of distributed processing. However there is about a one minute PC start up time overhead, if you load the background HP support applications.

This has proved to be a very stable system, except for its first 1997 summer. The processor would routinely come up with an over temperature alarm whose "beep – beep – beep — ...." continuum drove me crazy. Removing the case side panels quickly stopped the problem. But why? I checked the ventilation path and quickly identified that the power supply fan was running backwards and driving hot air down into the case! The temporary fix was to undo the 4 screws holding the power supply and turn it through 180 degrees and blast the hot air out of the case as well as enhance convection upwards through the case. The vendor subsequently identified with a batch of such cases imported into Geelong. That was easily fixed.

The power supply was replaced some years later after leaking capacitors became smelly (read "burning"). The original Western Digital 4.3 GB HDD was replaced when the startup time started to appreciably lengthen and default into HDD surface scan. The number of defective sectors started growing rapidly. A second HDD of 15 GB was added for internal backup, and storage of thousands of photographs. The HDD had to be split into two partitions as the 1977 Award BIOS (Basic Input Output System) will only recognise up to about 8 GB.

Strict housekeeping is certainly helping to keep the PC alive. Startup programs have been kept to a minimum via attention to STARTUP, and MSCONFIG with a touch of registry tweaking. Routine defragging and use of the system cleanup utility, deletion of temporary Internet files, downloaded program files, emptying recycle bins, etc. also helps.

Interestingly, our Melb PC library is weighted about 30 software titles to 1 hardware title and not much on systems (eg Registry manipulation). What does this tell us? Probably that we are application phobic and probably don't give our hardware as much attention as it deserves?

So, we probably don't need to upgrade as often as we (feel) think, and we should be using a logical approach to it when it is necessary.
What of the future? Well it will be interesting to see how long the Pll workhorse PC will last in its present configuration. Already, at the extreme with Microsoft Vista, some commentators (eg Tim Dean in Dec 2005 'PC Authority') are suggesting that with its 3D vector interface and 64 bit kernel we might well need a whole lot more PC. Something along the lines of a dual core 64 bit CPU of at least 3 GHz plus 2 GB of dual channel DDR2 or DDR3 RAM.

However, at the other extreme it is interesting to see AMD's "BIG MAC" PC or personal Internet communicator (PIC) being released in conjunction with Radio Shack, using the AMD Geode GX processor, and called the Presidian, to backwards fill the gap well behind the leading edge PCs.
As Dean says "Whether I can maintain such detached composure and stop myself from forking over for a new dual core system –well only time will tell".

Put simply, upgrading can be logical or emotional, and you should be proud of the PC you have because it's doing the job YOU want it to.

Reprinted from the December 2005 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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