I have a 5 year old computer that continues to work okay but have the opportunity to purchase a new one. Is this a good idea? I have been given a lot of software that I am not able to use on my computer as the OS is so old.

My current computer is a HP Pavilion with Windows 98 SE, a 500 mh Celeron processor, a 10.2 gb hard drive, with 319 mb RAM.

New computer would be a Compaq with Windows XP, a 1.8 gh Semperon processor, a 160 gh hard drive, with 512 mb RAM.

This sounds like a good deal as I will be able to purchase computer-only for 199.99. I have put off purchasing a new cpu as I am rather restrained as to money.

Any advise will be appreciated!!

Compaqs are good machines and you can hardly go wrong for that price. The drive and the RAM alone are worth it. The Sempron processor is on the low end, but it should serve depending on what you use your PC for. Don't expect this to be a speed demon, number cruncher or game player. But for word processing, Internet surfing and most basic tasks it will serve nicely.

Hi,
Sounds like a good deal to me.
If you have any older type programs that will run with Win98, depending on just how old they are, they might not run with XP.
That would be the only disadvantage to XP.
Best wishes,
fredg