Mercutio:
I spent time, which is something I had when I was doing this, and learned a bit.
I don't really see tossing the components, and peripherals, of what at the time was a 2500 dollar system for something maybe twice as fast, when I can double the speed of the system with a 33 dollar upgrade.
So, lets really look at the system. The X2 for 33 dollars doubled my passmark score, from around 600 to 1200. It dropped the CPU usage on that one webpage from 100% to 53%. All other functions are fine. XP Pro 3 boots in less then 30 seconds, using the Vertex Turbo that was an RMA from Vertex, when the drive failed in the raid array on the Supermicro server.
No Cost.
The 9600 Sparkle card has as much VRAM as the system, and, all players, including
PowerDVD 10 play flawlessly at low cpu usage.
My girlfriend much prefers XP Pro to Vista, and doesn't know 7. It's primarily her machine.
I don't have to buy another printer, or picture printer.
I now have new ram, no cost, and it's faster, and the system sees all of it.
With the hotswap setup, I don't need to worry about file transfers, and networking between my 7 machines and XP. Just move the drive, much faster then wireless.
In fact, I like having the XP machine pretty much invisible.
I've found the SSD's give these machines new life, not to mention the X2 doubles the processor speed for 33 bucks, no shipping, and, I get to use dual channel ram, rather then
single, a no cost extra.
CT: I didn't know you typed with two fingers;-) and your head.
In another thread, you all were discussing the terrible condition of the consumer laser market, and the problem of the new motherboards not having the old style printer ports for HP 4-5's, not to mention my 4000N.
Also, there are games I can now play on that machine that don't run on 7 that I really enjoy. Quake 4 comes to mind, and on a 40 inch TV, with a full Klipsch system, it's pretty incredible.
It's odd, but there are certain games that I played with my girlfriend that we really enjoyed, and wish we could do again.
The Tex Murphy series for instance. Wish I had a box that would run those games, and wish I still had the games. Titanic, more of the same, though I think that will play on the XP Pro box in the other room.