In your case, it probably won't make sense to upgrade your current computer. The reality is though, eventually you'll be forced to upgrade. There are numerous components inside your computer that could fail at any time, and your priorities will change as software versions are progressively iterated.
Given issues (3) and (9), my recommendation is to eventually buy a new computer and perform a wholesale virtualization of your current computer onto it. This also gives you the choice of switching paths to an entirely different operating system (e.g. Mac OS X or Linux) rather than to Windows 7 or newer.
The cool part here is that you can start isolating components -- for example, building a virtual machine specifically to run SQL Server.
In your case, it probably won't make sense to upgrade your current computer. The reality is though, eventually you'll be forced to upgrade.
In a few months,
I intend to get a second computer as the production
computer for my startup. First, before going live, I
will install Windows 7 and see what it does/doesn't do.
Then I will install from the Microsoft BizSpark program
appropriate copies of Windows Server, IIS, and SQL Server.
I hope to keep running XP on my present computer at least until my startup is live. Then, with some Windows 7 experience, I may install Windows 7 on my present computer -- I have three
boot partitions and can put Windows 7 on one of them. If I really like Windows 7, then I will just junk XP.
Comments
In your case, it probably won't make sense to upgrade your current computer. The reality is though, eventually you'll be forced to upgrade. There are numerous components inside your computer that could fail at any time, and your priorities will change as software versions are progressively iterated.
Given issues (3) and (9), my recommendation is to eventually buy a new computer and perform a wholesale virtualization of your current computer onto it. This also gives you the choice of switching paths to an entirely different operating system (e.g. Mac OS X or Linux) rather than to Windows 7 or newer.
The cool part here is that you can start isolating components -- for example, building a virtual machine specifically to run SQL Server.
In a few months, I intend to get a second computer as the production computer for my startup. First, before going live, I will install Windows 7 and see what it does/doesn't do. Then I will install from the Microsoft BizSpark program appropriate copies of Windows Server, IIS, and SQL Server.
I hope to keep running XP on my present computer at least until my startup is live. Then, with some Windows 7 experience, I may install Windows 7 on my present computer -- I have three boot partitions and can put Windows 7 on one of them. If I really like Windows 7, then I will just junk XP.