To keep or not to keep

asillars · 26 Jan 2010 at 13:49

Ok so i have a nearly 3 year old computer which was a budget one at the time. Got a good deal from Dell at the time after a long phone call haggling down the price.

I will be looking to build from scratch in the summer. What i'm not sure of is if its worth buying a new hard drive and windows 7 or keeping my current hard drive and upgrading to windows 7?? My current one has a 138gb capacity but i also have a 500gb external where i keep my gaming,music,video, files etc.

What do you guys think?

If its more worthwhile to keep my harddrive then it'll give me more money to spend in the summer.

silworth · 26 Jan 2010 at 13:51

Given the low cost of HDD's (you can get 500GB for under £40 these days), I'd just get a new one (or infact, probably 3 and run a RAID5 array).

asillars · 26 Jan 2010 at 14:02

so i would be just as well putting up with vista until the summer then? before buying windows 7 and starting from scratch?

what is RAID5 array?

Ast3r · 26 Jan 2010 at 14:04

Read this http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/singleLevel5-c.html

Corasik · 26 Jan 2010 at 14:34

If dell supply you an OS, it will most definatly be an OEM copy, and you wont be allowed to transfer it from the dell to a new computer in the summer. If your existing computer has a "Retail" non oem Windows XP, then you can use an upgrade pack, install it on the dell, and then reinstall it on a new computer in the summer (after removing it from the dell).

Of course if your going to keep the Dell as well, or sell it, then it will need an OS anyway, as you cant use 1 copy of windows on 2 machines (unless you buy a Home pack which includes 3 license)

Using your existing hard disk in either the dell, or a new computer in summer is most likely going to make it considerably slower than it should be, none of the 138gig hard disks are even remotely quick by todays standards.

What I dont get is why you would only upgrade if you keep the disk.. Whats wrong with buying a new disk, and still upgradeing

. If you have a Retail XP or Retail Vista, you can use a W7 upgrade based on the original CD/DVD. Upgrades work perfectly well as "clean installs"

If you only have an OEM XP or Vista, then I believe the upgrade is also considered OEM, in which case its not a great advantage anyway.