Buy new PC or add RAM and video card to old one ?

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My main PC is a 2009 build HP Pavillion Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @2.33GHz with 4GB RAM (DDR2). OP is Win 7 Professional 64 bit SP1.

I feel as though it needs more RAM. It gets "stuck" some times, Firefox dies and freezes too much, especially when running lots of browsers and multiple windows. I run Advanced System Care Pro.

Because it is DDR2, another 4GB will set me back £40-50. As graphics are on board, I could add a graphics card but for £????

What would you do ?

globalds

I would mess you up and say stick an SSD in to speed it up ..They are getting so cheap

It really does depend what you spend most of your time doing , Gaming , surfing , watching HD movies ?

Empty_pockets

That system should be quick.

Have you tried a different browser? Chrome.

I would add RAM over a graphics card for multitasking.

closed

try it without advanced system care and with IE.

unless you are doing vast amounts of multitasking, ram is unlikely to be the issue, task manager will tell you how much ram is in use.

demystified

You'll get a warning pop up if you start to run out of RAM so unlikely to be that.

GunJack

before you spend ANY money on it, follow the sticky and post back on here for specific logfile help - as said above, there's no way that setup should be slow (in fact, wish mine was that well-specced)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

robmar0se

I concur with those that say you probably don't need extra RAM*, or rather I would defer any such decision, until you have performed some system cleanup first. Some of these systems such as Advanced System Care Pro, actually are their own worst enemies - really don't recommend them.

Go with the advice and try running IE9 with Firefox uninstalled for a time , and see if it responds better? Alternatively, You may find that after cleaning up that Firefox (re-installed) may run better anyway.

* the exception might be if running resource hungry systems such as Photoshop, or doing video editing etc.

thefishdude

when was the last time you reinstalled everything on ya pc ??

if you havent done it since you built the pc then that is your problem the pc is full of 3 years worth of crap even when you delete things little bits get left behine when you update cdrivers little bits get left behind and eventually it makes everything run slow. if it was me and it was getting that bad i would remove everything from the pc and re install it all again i bet it wasnt slow when you first built it. The only thing i would say that could make oit better is a graphics card HOWEVER that is only if you are doinggames, graphic intensive things. if you are just browsing net doing office work emails etc then you wont need a graphics card.

clangnuts

I'd also recommend re-installing to factory fresh. Did this with my HP a couple of months ago.

Also, if it's a HP and you want to add a graphics card, you'll probably need to upgrade the power supply. HP put very weedy PSU in their machines. Mine has something like 180w, which isn't enough for most modern GPU's. Not expensive or difficult to do, but something that needs considering.

GunJack

thefishdude wrote: »

if you havent done it since you built the pc then that is your problem the pc is full of 3 years worth of crap

I've got 6.5 year's worth on this pc, never had to rebuild it ever. Look after it properly as you go along and the need to rebuild diminishes significantly......

spannerzone

Firstly I'd uninstall Advanced System Care Pro! - I've yet to be convinced that any of these supposed performance programs do anything other than hog more resources.

That spec of PC should fly with Win7 - I've got similar spec machines and they're really fast for everything except any modern games.... plus they're a bit slow with HD video but that's to be expected.

Perhaps uninstalling any junk, toolbars and all the other crap that people seem to end up with on their PC will probably help, try another antivirus, defrag, run some virus and malware scans.

The cheapest option is to probably reload Win7 from scratch and only install what you need. Your spec PC should be perfectly adequate for the most everyday tasks.

4GB ram is plenty and another graphics card is unlikely to help but a cheap £25 ATI 5450 might improve HD playback if that's an issue.