Using old drive in new computer

I guess my original idea is becoming more needed, sticking this hard drive into a computer that is more "modern". I have such a machine, it had 7 on it that apparently was bootlegged, I got the machine in a trade and the harddrive crapped out within a week of plugging it in. As best I remember it is either an ACER or ASUS

Bob Myers said:

Friend has one of these cards, is it a worthwhile upgrade fro me, at $25?
XFX ATI Radeon HD 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
HD-465X-ZDFC

It's a "better" card than you have now. Scoring 263 on the Passmark benchmark.

But it's anyone's guess as to whether it will improve your performance noticeably on your CAD/CAM programs.
Those programs may be highly dependent on CPU power and not so dependent on graphics.

Every dime you spend on what you have is money you could spend on a legit upgrade. I hate to see you buy more low end stuff on nothing but speculation that it will help enough to be worthwhile.

We still have no idea how much CPU or graphics horsepower is required for your chosen programs. Maybe you can make a noticeable difference for say $75 or $100 and maybe not.

Bob Myers said:

I guess my original idea is becoming more needed, sticking this hard drive into a computer that is more "modern". I have such a machine, it had 7 on it that apparently was bootlegged, I got the machine in a trade and the harddrive crapped out within a week of plugging it in. As best I remember it is either an ACER or ASUS

What PC is represented by this Windows Experience Index picture?

The more modern Acer/Asus?

Or the old one that you are upgrading with the new processor you just bought?

That Windows test is nearly useless at any rate.

that is screen shot from one I am ready to throw out the window! I was ask to provide a W.E.I., I did a search and this is what I found, had it do a current update. Is this not what I was ask to show?

Bob Myers said:

that is screen shot from one I am ready to throw out the window! I was ask to provide a W.E.I., I did a search and this is what I found, had it do a current update. Is this not what I was ask to show?

It is what you were asked to show.

But it doesn't tell us much we didn't already know.

You have an antique. Maybe you can upgrade the antique cheaply and make a noticeable difference. Maybe not.

The WEI doesn't answer the question. It's still speculation because we DON'T know how much power you need to run those specific programs reasonably well.

You are still limited to 4 GB of RAM. You are still limited to minor upgrades in the processor and video card.

here are the minimum specs for the program i am running, looks to me to be well within the machine capabilities;
Minimum Specifications
32 or 64-bit Intel Pentium 4 processor (2 GHz or faster), Intel Xeon, Intel Core, AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, AMD Phemnom or later, in single, dual or quad core versions
2 GB for Windows Vista/Windows 7 and 4GB for 64-bit operating systems
10 GB free disk space for the OneCNC installation
Graphics card
CDROM or Internet connection for installing the software and for updating the software
Graphics Card
OpenGL compliant - Minimum 128 MB memory for wire frame or express systems - Minimum 256 MB memory for solid model systems
We recommend NVIDIA graphics cards or equivalent and that the latest driver for the card is installed.
17" Colour monitor (1280 x 1024 screen resolution)
Mouse including wheel (Intellimouse)
SpaceMouse/SpaceBall (optional)
Internet Explorer 6 or above
Internet connection for license activation/updates
USB port for the OneCNC software security key (dongle)

If I were to just toss the machine and keep the hard drive with all my programs and info, can I just purchase another machine without a drive, and install this? If feasible, what, currently is on the market that would be at least 3 times the minimum requirements for my program.
WHM; I just paid over $3k for the program, not using it is not an option