Sensibility in upgrading old laptop

[tungtung]

Ok here's the question ... I have an old laptop, a Dell Inspiron 4100 (1.1 GHz P3, 384 MB RAM, 30 GB HD, ATI Radeon Mobile 16 MB video) ... so basically I'm pondering whether or not to add memory on this old guy.

Currently the OS is Windows 2000, however I realized that as days go by there are more and more program that require at least XP SP2 to work. So basically I'm seriously considering installing XP again on the machine. It originally come with XP Home, but it was running at total snail pace, so I put Win 2000 and it works much better.

Now since I'm planning to put XP Pro SP2 on it, I was thinking of adding 512 MB RAM into it, however it seems that the cheapest price for a PC 133 SO-DIMM is still like around $60 something (might end up around $70 with shipping and that's from eBay already, it's more expensive on stores).

So here is my question do you people think that $60 (or $70) on this old machine, or should I just save that money to invest in a new laptop down the future. I do have a desktop and this laptop is basically just a supplement, not a replacement, of my desktop. Which in itself kinda makes me wonder if I will even need to buy a newer laptop (be it used or new).

Thanks for any comments and/or suggestion.

 

[Fraggable]

My opinion is to save your pennies for a dirt cheap basic laptop in the near future. You can get a $400 system from a BB or Micro Center or Fry's almost every week, sometimes even cheaper. It would come with XP pro more likely Vista Basic, and 512MB or 1GB of memory and be dual-core. Overall it would run much better than what you have now and be easily upgradable with cheaper, current parts like memory.

So no, I don't think it's worth upgrading.

 

[Zap]

You can probably get a couple bucks for selling that notebook, and then put it towards a new one. I'm thinking come Black Friday we'll be seeing $300 notebooks. There has already been $350 notebooks recently (Labor Day sales, Compaqs and Toshibas with 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, CDRW/DVD, 15.4" widescreen, Vista basic).

 

[tungtung]

Personally I don't think selling it will give me much ... I looked around at eBay and as of this time there is only one "functional" unit on active auction, and at $180 noone is even care bidding ... so I think I'll just keep it for some other stuff. Oh by the way I actually live in Canada, so well I guess I'll just wait till the Boxing Day (our version of Black Friday) see if there are any bargains to grab.

Ok ... so no upgrade then ... thanks for the input ... much appreciated.