On Sunday, March 30, 2014 11:12:16 PM UTC-4, Mayayana wrote:
| If any one is upgrading their hardware, it'd be wise to have HD

| video/audio and HDMI connector plus USB3 port(s).



As I understand it, the decision is between salvaging

an older XP box and buying a new PC. To extend the

life of the XP box, a new hard disk should do it.

Actually the question was this:

"My machine is old, 12 yrs to be exact. I do believe my hard drive is
dying. Wouldn't mind keeping my monitor, but would like to increase memory,
speed, etc. And, specifically would like all my information put on the new
system. I really like Outlook Express, but have heard it is not available
anymore. "




Maybe

some more memory could be useful. Maybe not.



Getting HDMI or USB3 (neither of which seems terribly

important to me) would mean putting in a new

motherboard ....which then needs a new power supply

...and a new CPU ...and new RAM ...And then if he has

OEM XP then that won't run on the updated box and

can't be reactivated. I don't think the OP is interested

in building a new PC for himself. If it comes to that he's

just going to buy a new PC.

Irrelevant. Given the stated issues, it's time for a new PC.
Since Outlook Express is no longer supported, he can try out Windows Mail
on his current system and see if he's OK with it. If so, then
there isn't any issue to going with a new PC with an OS that
isn't being EOL'd, instead of putting money into a dinosaur. If
he doesn't like Windows Mail, as someone else pointed out there are
other alternatives and a bit of googling should produce plenty
of opinions from folks in a similar position.