> When it happens, I'll probably play the same 'upgrade game' with the next
> 'elderly' candidate (CPU Athlon XP 2500+ 1.84 GHz, 512 MB RAM). I purchased
> it some ten years ago as then second-hand, for some 70 US$, incl. CRT
> display, keyboard, mouse ... I have recently upgraded it from Deb 8 to 9,
I also like to use my machines "as long as possible" and my game plan to
maximize their life expectancy is to max-out their memory (since a slow
CPU will just be slow, but a lack of memory will result in thrashing
which renders the system much slower than just "slow").
An Athlon XP 2500+ should still be quite usable nowadays, but 512MB is
on the small side, tho it's probably still adequate for most non-GUI
uses (my oldest machine is a Thinkpad X30, with a 1.2GHz Pentium III and
its 1GB of RAM is the main limitation (along with a silly "fallback on
30MB/s in absence of 80wire cable" on the PATA port which makes it
access its M.2 SSD at a rather pedestrian 30MB/s)).
The price of RAM tends to go down over time but only for some years.
After that, you'll find that the price starts rising again (because
the kind of RAM you need has become old&rare). So you want to keep an
eye on the price of your memory and max it out before its price starts
rising again.
Stefan
