Yeah but I never did have a strong love for Intel processors.

Wrong. MS has backtracked on that.

Microsoft has announced this that it will continue to provide anti-malware support for Windows XP until July 2015 - a little over one year after its end-of-life date on April 8.

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/operating-systems/microsoft-backtrack-on-windows-xp-security-offer-malware-support-1215734

XP loses product support, but not security support. There is a deadline for being able to install MSE on it though.

Nice pick-up, Paul..........to use another British phrase related to your use, in the first instance.........I would say your 'find' is "the dogs bollocks" 

For those of you that are not familiar with such 'Britishisms'.................http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dog's%20bollocks.html

BTW, my cpu score for this old dog.......

Ya it's always good to feel like you get your money's worth on an upgrade. On the other hand, if you keep scratching up machines for $6... well it kind of takes the edge off

Now the conundrum....

The MoBo has a PCI-E slot ....and I have a 'spare' XFX GTX285 'black' Graphics card.... that'd get that WEI up to more like 5.9...

Except for 2 things....the power supply is one of those 'compact things' and no way big enough to push the GPU....

...and the darn card is about 2 miles too long for the case....so everything would need to be dumped into another box....

I 'could' chuck it all into Terry's Lian Li....and she'd end up with a processor that was 4 times better....and not relying on an AGP card....

Just need to pop in a few sata power adapters...and rethink a few other bits.

It'd give me the chance to clean everything thoroughly too....

That old machine would have been the better part of three grand .... and now it's to be upgraded thanks to a $6.40 purchase from a 'junk' shop....

My yard sale special started out as an eMachines T3104 until I yanked its guts and tossed it into a custom case with side window and blue led fans that I salvaged. The front of the case looks like a BMW Coupe. I think it dates back to '02-'05. With the big "e" boot logo disabled, you would never know  it from a "real" computer. The VIA chipset absolutely refused to play well with a modern OS, so it stays XP. The FX 5200 does OK, but if the mobo wasn't AGP, I'd toss my 8800GT GFX card in it as well. The old dog will probably outlive me.

It's now happily residing in the Lian Li case.... with a suitable PSU to run the GTX 285...

WEI is now 5.5 ....

Scores are...

5.8

5.5

7.4

7.4

5.9

Best I'd be able to do is 5.8 ...if I up the ram.

Not worth it, really...

Nope.

As is always the case...you get too eager to install 'shit' and something bites you on the bum.  This time it was DVD capturing software I'd had on the old 32bit XP...and of course arse-sumed it'd be fine on a 64bit 7.

It wasn't.

Explorer didn't quite 'crash'...it went on a very extended 'go-slow'....eg. right-click on the desktop....and go read War and Peace while something showed up.

Jumping back to a suitable restore point fixed things....followed by careful poking and prodding to be sure...

Anyhoo ...it's been hanging in there all day...not missing a beat...so tomorrow I may just start on the next phase of 'hand-me-down' rebuilds....

....and the BIOS flash and other tweaks and my WEI went up a bit in the drive dept...

5.8

5.5

7.4

7.4

6.2

It's all fun....'til someone gets hurt...

Well....that went well... attempting to stuff the recently removed P4P800E [ATX] MoBo into the hand-me-down location didn't happen...it's an AT case.  The PSU was therefore going to argue with the CPU/cooler....

So, off I went to my 'local' and grabbed a Thermaltake Versa II with included 500w PSU for $78.  It has 'quaint' tool-less fittings for HDs, etc., but you get what you pay for .... it ain't no Lian Li.....  but it's cheap.

So...at this stage [it's together] the cheapie has cost $84.40 ...

The P4 is up and running OK...so now to transfer all of Terry's settings and docs, etc to the 'new one' .... then the oldie can be left as that oddity you use to experiment with.

Ultimately the plan is to avoid divorce by relinquishing one of them to 'recycling' via a thrift shop. - there's only so many computers you can have at any one time...and currently it's 7 ...

You've heard the stereotype about old ladies and cats.

Old techies collect computers and computer carcasses.  It's only a matter of time before they're the next stereotype (if not already.)

(I won't say how many I've got squirreled away myself   )

For me personally, it's 3... er, complete ones, that is.  My AMD FX8350 8 core Win 8.1 rig; my AMD FX8170 8 core Win 8 rig, and my P4 XP gaming rig.

I'm also building a i7 9770K rig that'll take me a while cos [none of my parts are give-aways/hand-me-downs] I'll have a wait for the new case. The one I ordered came in damaged during transit, so I'll have about 3 -4 weeks 'til a replacement arrives.  Not to worry, though, while I have the CPU, mobo, RAM and liquid cooling kit, I still have a few parts to get, and that means saving, which will take a while.  I'm hoping late Feb early March but it could be longer.

And will anybody be getting me to donate/get rid of one?  Not feching likely!  This is a big place, and I want a PC handy wherever I am...'cept the dunny.  Besides, Shaunna's moving out Monday so won't be here to blackmail me into with parting with any.

File Transfer Wizard.

I thought I'd use that....and get Terry's stuff off the old XP and onto the new 7 Ult.

Here's an idea, MICROSOFT .... if you WANT people to move on from XP to newer OS vers.... provide XP's updates with the 7-compatible version as a compulsory/essential/critical/whatever update.

So I don't waste my effing time offloading from XP with 2gig of junk 7 can't even see....

Hell, I just take my android tablet, or my iPad there with me. Much more portable.  

I need to concentrate all I can while I'm on the dunny...

...cos I take salts.

What, Epsom Salts to help you go?

No, somersaults! 

so my Android is NOT a prerequisite to toilet time.

Hmmm, my daughter took me to pick up some parts today and I was told the case I want has become as rare as hens teeth due to it being a discontinued line.  The guy didn't say whether it had been discontinued by Thermaltake or his company [and it was too busy for me to hold him up with questions about it] but he did say they had other outlets with stock and that he will endeavour to get one for me... and at a better price. 

The catalogued price is $265 but he will let me have it for $239.  I'm not complaining!  I might be having to wait but that's not a discount I'll sneeze at.  Besides, finances dictate that the rig won't likely be completed until early March, so a little longer is no skin off my nose.

Ah, how it pays to look just a little harder sometimes.  While the store I went to yesterday didn't have the case I want in stock and would take a while to get one in, I looked at another branch nearby and they had one in stock, so I ordered it and will have it delivered for $19.00 instead of going out of my way to pick it up.  It'd probably cost me around that in fuel to have my daughter run me down there, so I'm breaking even.

According to the delivery schedule listing, I should have it mid next week sometime... well here's hoping, and that it's not damaged in transit this time.  So yeah, if I cannibalise this rig for the other parts I need to complete the build, I could have it up and running sooner than first expected, and then I can take my time to replace those parts for this machine.

Yipeeeee!!!

Here's my den-of-iniquity where I do stuff...  The huge 'monitor' is a Telly I got for nix....running at 1380x768 ...it's Terry's...and she can almost see it OK.

The Lian Li on the left is my hand-me-down ....and the little thing open on the right is the 6.40 machine that now resides in the other case.

Since then they've all been swapped over...and I'm still 'tweaking' her new system to match as it was...though now 7 Ult rather than XP Pro ...