time for a new computer, or upgrade??

tubster

Hi y'all.

I need a bit of techy advice please; I've got windows XP pro SP2 running on on the following and it is a bit slow, sometimes awful (like 10 seconds for the options to come up when you right click on a folder). My 'remote desktop' network system doesn't seem to work anymore which is annoying and I need to decide what to do.
I don't run games, but I might have 15 word documents open, 10 web pages, outlook and excel running all at the same time.

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (socket A, 1.92ghz clock speed)
video card geoforce 4MX4000
512mb memory

My choice(s) are:

reinstall XP
increase the memory (to 2 or 4?)
upgrade the processor (can I go much faster with Socket A? Any recommendations?)
replace motherboard and processor
get a whole new tower (any recs?)

I just want it to be a lot more responsive. I don't really want to spend more than two or 300 quid and I am happy to assemble/re-use componants etc.

Any advice would be very much appreciated

Tubster

isofa

The cheapest option which will result in the best result for spending nothing, is to back everything up, wipe and reinstall, it'll run a lot faster.

Then you can see if you want to do anything up, upping the RAM to 2Gb will definitely help, that's the second most cost effective thing to do.

Fonz_2

Memory has got to be the cheapest quick win here - 512mb is very rare these days. Upgrading to 2gb will give an enormous improvement.

RichardB1

Hi there, I'd suggest a reinstall of XP to start with its always amazing how much it can improve speed esp. if you've installed lots on the machine. Just remember to back up your files, emails, favourites, etc first though!

A memory upgrade as well would be a good plan - you need to check the motherboard to see what it can take as it might not handle as much as 4gb (I'd say that's excessive anyway). Check out a company like Crucial who's site lets you find the right memory for your machine - you might need the motherboard model number though which will be printed on it. I'd say an upgrade to 1 or 2gb would be worth considering alongside a reinstall of XP.

Knub

To be honest, if you only use your computer for browsing and office document use:

www.crucial.com - run the memory diagnostic tool and find out what RAM upgrade options you can get. It will tell you your motherboards capacity and recomend the ones to buy. Very useful.

The RAM is probably your biggest bottleneck and if you increase from 512mb (bin it?) to 4gb (more like 3.5gb due to windows XP 32bit) and then do some standard system stuff like Disk Defragment/clean up - I think you will notice one HELL of a difference.

Also, this is probably realistically going to set you back around £40 these days as RAM is cheap but often the best upgrade in terms of "bang for your buck".

Take a look, see what you think and come back if you have any questions.


Edit: - Just seen the poster above me. Pretty much same lines. Few other things, make sure the crucial site is the UK and not US one (duh:)) and if you did upgrade the memory to 4gb then I would consider a format and clean install also but you'd have to backup your important stuff first. If you haven't done that or aren't confident a disk defrag/cleanup/etc can almost be just as good.

tubster

That is great. I was thinking that these dual core processors would be better for running lots of applications at the same time, but if you think this will go well with more memory I'll give it a go.


Crucial can't detect my memory exactly, it came up with this (see below)
I'll pull it out and have a look?

I have installed the system on an older 20gb drive and most of my progs and all docs on a 250gb drive - so I'll just wipe the 20gb one and reinstall all progs/make sure my email isn't stored on the 20gb one?

Or should I put a new partition in the 250gb one and chuck the little one now?

Many thanks for this
Tubster




The following is a list of what our scan was able to detect:

System Manufacturer: NVIDIA
System Model: AWRDACPI
Motherboard Manufacturer: N.A.
Motherboard Model: nVidia-nForce


Your Computer Specifications




512 MB

EMPTY

EMPTY

• Maximum Memory Capacity: 1572864 MB
• Currently Installed Memory: 512 MB
• Available Memory Slots: 2
• Total Memory Slots: 3
• Dual Channel Support: N.A.
• CPU Manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
• CPU Family: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+ Model 10, Stepping 0
• CPU Speed: 1921 MHz

Knub

tubster wrote: »

That is great. I was thinking that these dual core processors would be better for running lots of applications at the same time, but if you think this will go well with more memory I'll give it a go.

• Maximum Memory Capacity: 1572864 MB
• Currently Installed Memory: 512 MB
• Available Memory Slots: 2
• Total Memory Slots: 3

First question, yes backup anything you need from 20gb partition. Emails for example export them to or whatever. Then just format that one.

That looks a bit dodgy. In terms of maximum memory capacity from the crucial site. I think it's gone a bit mental. I'm guessing its going to have a 4gb Max in all honesty so getting 2*2GB sticks would be the way forward (remove the current one so all 3 slots are free and then use the first two sticks int he first two slots).


The reason you are having to wait for so long when you have loads of items open is purely for the fact that the HDD is constantly in use and you are having to "reload" whatever the CPU needs into RAM each time. The more RAM you have once it's loaded in its quicker and can be recalled from RAM rather than going back to HDD each time. Of course all parts play a role but your bottleneck without a doubt is the RAM.

CPU is loading time but to be honest yours isn't that bad. It just NEEDS more RAM!

I need more time to find out the exact memory. If you can get motherboard make/model or take out the RAM of your system to see whats on it that might help!

spakkker

If you get a prog called SIW - http://majorgeeks.com/SIW_System_Info_d4387.html this will tell you what motherboard you have and it's memory capacity and type. Trouble is, it's probably old DDR which costs nearly £30 a gig. Maybe try another matching 512mb as it's diminishing returns with more memory.
A system re-install is maybe best start as posted #2.
An E5200 cpu,£50 , G31 m-es2l mo/bo,£35 and 2gb ddr2 ram £20 is one other way to go

tubster

Hey this is brilliant, thank you.

These are the results from system information; does this mean I can only go up to 1.5gb memory? Is G31 m-es2l mo/b a motherboard? Anyway, here goes:

Motherboard:

Property Value
Manufacturer
Model nVidia-nForce
Version
Serial Number

North Bridge NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Revision C1
South Bridge NVIDIA nForce2 MCP Revision C1

CPU AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+
Cpu Socket Socket A (462)

System Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP

Memory Summary
Maximum Capacity 1536 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 32 MBytes
Memory Slots 3
Error Correction None

Memory:

Hyundai 512mb DDR(PC3200) 200Mhz 64 bit

ON the memory itself it says hynix 512mb DDR 400mhz CL3 PC3200U-30330

This is all very much appreciated...

Tubster

tubster

er , I guess mo/b means motherboard, apologies, need to keep up!

Zeitgeist

Hope this helps:

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L iG31 Socket 775 onboard VGA 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard

Crucial 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL6 Lifetime Warranty