Worth upgrading my computer?

Sue_S

My desktop computer is desperately slow and pretty old (not quite sure how many years but I know it's a lot). It's a Dell with the following spec (copied from Control Panel):

Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz 2.60 GHz
3 gb RAM
64-bit OS, x64-based processor
Windows 10

Do you think it's worth putting in a SSD drive and reloading Windows 10 or am I wasting my time and money and should just bite the bullet and buy a new PC?

Any comments gratefully received.

debitcardmayhem

Put your service tag on here and we can look further, faster and easier . An SSD will make a lot of difference with a fresh install, and buying an SSD is not going to be a waste of money anyhow

Sue_S

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Put your service tag on here and we can look further, faster and easier . An SSD will make a lot of difference with a fresh install, and buying an SSD is not going to be a waste of money anyhow

Is this what you mean? HHP1J4J

EveryWhere

Sue_S wrote: »

Is this what you mean? HHP1J4J

I agree with DCM. You can leave the original HDD on-board for storage. Simply adding an SSD and using that as the new Boot drive.
The processor is still good enough for day to day usage. So will be fast enough once an SSD is fited and a clean install of the operating system made to it.
Windows 7 or Windows 10, currently?

sal_III

The CPU is fine for internet/office etc. light work.
The RAM is your bottleneck even for internet browsing, some webpages take 100's of MB

Buy a cheap SSD and reinstall windows to it as a starting point, even if it doesn't improve the situation, you can transfer it to the new PC later, so not a loss.

EveryWhere

sal_III wrote: »

The CPU is fine for internet/office etc. light work.
The RAM is your bottleneck even for internet browsing, some webpages take 100's of MB

Buy a cheap SSD and reinstall windows to it as a starting point, even if it doesn't improve the situation, you can transfer it to the new PC later, so not a loss.

Totally wrong. The bottleneck is currently the HDD.

With an SSD, everything will change.

Worth taking it up to 4 GB of RAM at the same time, since it's cheap. Costing as little as £4 for 2 x 2GB of DDR2 800.

EveryWhere

Sue_S wrote: »

Is this what you mean? HHP1J4J

Can explain how to do it all if you decide to go forward.

getmore4less

I have a E4500 2.2Ghz with 3GB

SSD brought it back to life.

I left my paging file on the HDD so it can get a bit sluggish when I have a lot of memory hungry browser pages open( I run two screens) and move around them a lot.

Extra memory would help that.

Cisco001

Do you know what motherboard you have got.
Can it takes Q8XXX CPU
You can get a Q8300 for £5.50 on ebay.
Don't forget new thermal paste if you do so.

Max out the RAM

and get cheap 120Gb SSD for £16, 240GB for £24

Sue_S

Cisco001 wrote: »

Do you know what motherboard you have got.
Can it takes Q8XXX CPU
You can get a Q8300 for £5.50 on ebay.
Don't forget new thermal paste if you do so.

Max out the RAM

and get cheap 120Gb SSD for £16, 240GB for £24

I was following (and googling) until you got to thermal paste :rotfl:
so I think I'll just go with a new SSD (but thanks anyway)

Sue_S

Thanks everyone for your input it's much appreciated! Next question: any recommendations for SSD drive? 256 would be fine.

And thanks to brilliant previous posts I know how to install it, you're a great crowd!