There are many people who have realize that they have been getting tricked into thinking that they have to buy a new computer every their computer gets old. However, some have realized that many of the brand name computer companies such as HP, Dell, and Toshiba are simply putting parts together from another company. The real companies are those who make the actual internal pats of the computer. Therefore, upgrading old computers can offer you the same or better performance you could get from a brand new computer. Let's take a typical old computer.
Many people still have old Pentium 4 and Celeron computers that have 128MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. The processors were single core usually clocked below 2GHz, and the graphics controller usually had less than 32MB of VRAM. The Newer HP 505B desktop is sold for about $350 on the Newegg website. It has a 2.8GHz dual core processor, 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, and integrated NVIDIA graphics that allow well over 256MB of VRAM. Most people would jump on this product thinking that they are getting a deal.
But before you do that, let's calculate the cost of upgrading old computers to dual core systems. You will need a motherboard, a supporting CPU, RAM, and possibly a power supply. In most cases, power supplies that supported Pentium 4 CPUs will most likely be capable of supporting this newer computer build. However, if your power supply does not have a P4 plug then you may have to buy one.
From the same Newegg site, you can find an AM3 motherboard for $50, a DDR3 2GB RAM chip for $20, a boxed retail AM3 Dual core CPU clocked at 3GHz for $60 (boxed retail CPUs come with necessary heatsink and fan), and a power supply for less than $20. That totals $150. You can reuse your old hard drive, but you'll have to remove everything out of your computer that is being replaced. With an excess of $200 to spend, you could save money even if you paid a local shop to assemble the parts for you. You can see that upgrading old computers can save more than half the cost of a new one.