On 22/09/14 09:57, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , Andy
Burns writes
Tim Lamb wrote:

I have been considering this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271562221742

A few local schools use Stone PCs, they're generally OK

Bit nervous about the DVD rw. I need to read CDs for the photo album:-)
Ignorance on display!

DVD drives will read CDs, and being a DVD writer it will also write CDs.

3 or 4GB of memory would be handy, and an 80GB disk will likely be
half-full by the time Win7 is installed with a swap file and all patches.

How can I tell if the memory can be swapped from the current PC? Will
there be slots available?

Sadly over the last few years RAM has gone from DRAM to DDR, to DDR2 and
to DDR3 and IIRC DDR4 is on the way, all with parity/non parity and with
different bus speeds.

In DIMM and SODIMM formats, too.


Meanwhile PCI became AGP for graphics cards, and is now PCI-express. All
mutully incompatible.

Disks went from IDE to ATA to SATA.

Processors went from 32 bit to 64 bit as well.


In short you need to get a clear idea of what you have and what the new
machine needs to say with any certainty.

Which is why when you do get an old machine, its not worth paying a lot
for, or yu may end up with something that cannot be upgraded cheaply to
modern specs.

Since you can buyt a new case/PSU MB graphics cards and RAM for under
220 these days, that puts an upper limit on what such a machine is worth
when ten years old.


In the case of my supplier 'here, take it away for free, if you have
some spare RAM chips in exchange'

I even have an XP home license number on it.





--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll