11-16-2014, 01:12 AM
Just to add my 2 cents to the mix (lots of good info above) - If you have a Core2duo 3,0 ghz or anything close I would just stay with that for now. Some of the later P4s I think (XP era) should be fine; guess i depends what you are looking to do. I have a C2D 3.0 in a HP dc5800 that I loaded 2.0 LL on a couple days ago and with the low resource usage of LL it seems to scream. It only had 2 G RAM initially and still screamed (eBay'd 4 more G so up to 6 GB now). Awesome machine, especially for $30 at the local resale shop (they had a pallet full of them). Even with the 2 GB ram it seemed to out-perform my Windows 7 I5 2.4Ghz/8 GB ram laptop for normal tasks.
If you decide to get a different machine than you have and go the used route rather than build one, I can only recommend you stick with HP or Dell (there may be others, just not in my experience) as they seem to keep supporting their machines. I have an old Dell w/P4 from 1999/2000 or so and can still go on-line for a bios, etc. if necessary; not the case with 2 MUCH newer Gateways ... after a few years they just pulled all support and I can't even locate anything about them on their site never mind a bios update, or any other download. Can't imagine there is a lot of cost in leaving resources like this available to customers.
I had planned to build a computer in a few months but realized that I seem to have more fun rescuing one from the scrap heap and restoring it to life as a usable machine.
Chris
If you decide to get a different machine than you have and go the used route rather than build one, I can only recommend you stick with HP or Dell (there may be others, just not in my experience) as they seem to keep supporting their machines. I have an old Dell w/P4 from 1999/2000 or so and can still go on-line for a bios, etc. if necessary; not the case with 2 MUCH newer Gateways ... after a few years they just pulled all support and I can't even locate anything about them on their site never mind a bios update, or any other download. Can't imagine there is a lot of cost in leaving resources like this available to customers.
I had planned to build a computer in a few months but realized that I seem to have more fun rescuing one from the scrap heap and restoring it to life as a usable machine.
Chris