Quote:
Originally Posted by rosemaryknits
I don't use my desktop for much any more - it is mainly my Calibre Machine. It is a 10 year old Dell, Windows 7. It is an old and slow machine, but I really don't mind.
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If your current version of Calibre works for you and does what you need, you don't need to upgrade. The caveat here is that if you use the server and it is available outside of your LAN, you might want to consider upgrading. There may be some security enhancements that you are missing out on.
On a general note, a 10 year old Dell running Windows 7 will certainly be on the slow side. But a 10 year old Dell running Linux will be much faster. If you want to extend the life of your hardware, you might want to consider learning about and switching to Linux. If your 10 year old Dell is still using its original 10 year old hard disk, make sure you are backing that up religiously and frequently. You're pushing your luck with a drive that old if you don't have good solid backups. You might want to consider replacing your hard drive with something like a 256Gb SATA SSD. Your computer is probably SATA II, not SATA III, but you can still install a SATA III SSD since they are backwards compatible. Sounds like 256G might hold all your stuff per the type of usage you mentioned. You should be able to do this for less than $100, and you would definitely notice a speed improvement. Note that because of Windows restrictions, you probably can't just clone your hard disk to a new SSD and have it boot. You might have to call Microsoft and beg them to re-authorize your computer. Or just switch to Linux and say goodbye to those restrictive licensing schemes Microsoft uses.
With a computer that old, you can probably switch to an SSD, add more memory, and upgrade the CPU to a faster one for about $150. I'm not kidding. Those old CPU's are dirt cheap if you can find a faster one that will fit in your motherboards socket. Memory may be cheap, or expensive - it depends on what type you have installed and if you have any open slots. A SATA interface SSD (and mounting bracket) will be cheap if you keep the storage size small. You'll also need some thermal paste and maybe a new cooler (maybe not). Switching to a lightweight Linux distribution on top of those upgrades will give you a very noticeable speed increase for your old computer. I wouldn't put more than $200 into a project like this, above that point it's better to just buy a new computer.