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Should I upgrade my old computer or buy a new one?

I am after a really powerful computer, but I don't know if I should go out and buy one or upgrade this old HP Pavilion t900a that just sits in my garage collecting dust. While I know hardly anything about computer hardware and upgrading, its something I always wanted to learn and I thought it would be a fun project to do in my spare time. The only reason I wouldn't upgrade it would be if the price of all the parts needed to make a incredibly powerful computer exceeded the price of purchasing a new computer with the same processing power, hardware, accessories, ect. The computer specs can be found here: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00373547&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=&prodSeriesId=470593&prodTypeId=12454 Money isn't really an issue with purchasing hardware. Should I upgrade or just buy?

Public Comments

1. Buy some computer magazine and do research online
2. Don't upgrade get a new one. It will cost more on parts than getting a new one.
3. That computer is ancient mate, it's still using a single core processor. Definitely buy a new computer. Old computers (more than 4 years usually) are not worth upgrading, as new CPU's get released they also require new motherboards with different sockets, and perhaps also better and faster RAM. Also when your computer gets that old you'll probably get less trusting of your hard drive and power supply which may need to get replaced sometime soon. At which point the upgrade almost becomes a total rebuild of the entire computer -- may as well get a new system every 4 or 5 years.
4. The processors is a little slow but it all depends on what you plan on using the PC for. 2 gigs of RAM would run about $66 US. According to HP the highest you could bump the Processor is a 2.4: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ processor (Clawhammer, 2.4 GHz) AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor (Newcastle, 2.4 GHz)AMD Problem is you most likely would have to buy a used one since I don't find any new ones for sell. eBay has the Newcastle for $60 US. So all in all you could get a decent PC for about $130 US but not a "really powerful" one. But if you want to have the fun of tinkering.... though there really isn't much to adding RAM and upgrading the CPU. Best to go with a new one though I must warn you the newer PCs are not as dependable as the old ones. Competition has caused all vendors (except Apple) to start cutting prices and they are doing that by using cheaper (less quality) components.
5. that computer will be a bit difficult and expensive to upgrade. it's five years old, still using ddr memory, using a socket 754 processor, and uses the older agp bus. usually my rule is that three years is the timeframe for mainstream desktops where you should consider a complete upgrade (motherboard and all) or buy a new system if it is too slow for you.
6. Don't upgrade this one. Buy a new one. When buying, choose the one with:- minimum 2gb of ram. good gpu(nvidia or ati) good processor(intel i5 or i7 or amd quad core,) Motherboard which have 2 pci,pci-e,...slots