How should I upgrade this old Windows XP-computer?

[Eroginous]

Of course smartphones surf the web better, they cost a minimum of 300$ here
In the current state, the XP works for surfing the web but it's not a very fun experience, however some people would probably have nothing against using the computer in it's current state to do all of their web-browsing.

It's not about the cost, it's about the fact that today's internet is a vastly different animal than the internet from 2003. So many sites require some sort of streaming or flash video capability, many of them are loaded with ads or popups, and the machine you're describing is a decade behind. I'm not saying it's incapable of doing anything useful these days, but it will be slow as molasses. On top of that, this old guy is going to be calling you every other week to come and 'fix' the PC because something is 'broken.'

My advice on helping out others: don't do it unless you're willing to buy them something brand new. If a family needs a car, you don't give them that clunker that's been sitting in your backyard for a decade, you know, the one with the bees living in the trunk and the family of mice living in the tail pipe. No, you want to give them a dependable vehicle that's not going to leave them stranded someplace down the road through normal use.

You want to give this old guy a machine that does what he wants it to do, within the context of it lasting him into the future. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that you want to help someone out with a rebuilt PC. You're not really doing him any favors though with a machine from 2003. I have a netbook from 2008 that has a 1.6ghz atom processor and 2gb DDR2 ram. I bought it for $300 brand new, and it has a full version of 32 bit win 7.

It has trouble running Firefox/Chrome with more than a couple tabs, and it can't handle video above 480p. Full screen Youtube videos kill it, and skype kicks it in the balls. These days, you need a lot more than a single core processor and 2 gb of ram to do anything worthwhile, or it's just a frustrating experience. Just ask yourself: how's this old guy supposed to jerk it to Redtube if he's constantly waiting for videos to load?

[AzeofSpadez]

It's not about the cost, it's about the fact that today's internet is a vastly different animal than the internet from 2003. So many sites require some sort of streaming or flash video capability, many of them are loaded with ads or popups, and the machine you're describing is a decade behind. I'm not saying it's incapable of doing anything useful these days, but it will be slow as molasses. On top of that, this old guy is going to be calling you every other week to come and 'fix' the PC because something is 'broken.'

My advice on helping out others: don't do it unless you're willing to buy them something brand new. If a family needs a car, you don't give them that clunker that's been sitting in your backyard for a decade, you know, the one with the bees living in the trunk and the family of mice living in the tail pipe. No, you want to give them a dependable vehicle that's not going to leave them stranded someplace down the road through normal use.

You want to give this old guy a machine that does what he wants it to do, within the context of it lasting him into the future. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that you want to help someone out with a rebuilt PC. You're not really doing him any favors though with a machine from 2003. I have a netbook from 2008 that has a 1.6ghz atom processor and 2gb DDR2 ram. I bought it for $300 brand new, and it has a full version of 32 bit win 7.

It has trouble running Firefox/Chrome with more than a couple tabs, and it can't handle video above 480p. Full screen Youtube videos kill it, and skype kicks it in the balls. These days, you need a lot more than a single core processor and 2 gb of ram to do anything worthwhile, or it's just a frustrating experience. Just ask yourself: how's this old guy supposed to jerk it to Redtube if he's constantly waiting for videos to load?

Haha, nice metaphors there

Regarding your laptop I think that that computer is slow just because you run Windows 7 on it instead of Windows XP, W7 sure is fast but only when you have 4GB or more, the same with Vista but 2GB+. (In my experience)

I don't know if this is a mistake but I'm going to do this and if it turns out like you pictured it would, I will pass that information on to others!
I think I'm gonna make an update on this thread in 6 months and tell how it has all worked out. See you all in September!

[Eroginous]

Haha, nice metaphors there

Regarding your laptop I think that that computer is slow just because you run Windows 7 on it instead of Windows XP, W7 sure is fast but only when you have 4GB or more, the same with Vista but 2GB+. (In my experience)

I don't know if this is a mistake but I'm going to do this and if it turns out like you pictured it would, I will pass that information on to others!
I think I'm gonna make an update on this thread in 6 months and tell how it has all worked out. See you all in September!

It's a netbook, not a laptop. Basically, the precursor to tablets. It's only 10" and has a full keyboard and a 160gb hard drive. The problem it has is the single core processor, not the amount of ram. It's the processor that bottoms out first, not the ram. Also, win 7 32 bit won't ever use more than 4 gb of ram, and it will have a hard time even using the full 4 gb unless you're gaming or doing some video editing.

However, internet browsers and skype will hungrily eat up your processor bandwidth and gladly ask for more. Win 7 is more efficient than XP, especially when you consider that XP is no longer being supported by Microsoft or any software developers.