Worth Upgrading?

FlyingIrishMan

So I'm back:

But this time I'm going to be asking about our family computer. Its mainly used for web browsing, some picture editing, and some casual games (nothing serious).

Anyway, its running VERY slow lately, not that its ever been fast but its worse than ever now. I've defragged it, and uninstalled lots of programs, even free'd up over 80GB of the hard drive a few days ago but its still very bad.

Here is the current specs:
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+
Brisbane 65nm Technology
RAM
1.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 301MHz (5-5-5-15)

Motherboard
ASUSTek Computer INC. NARRA (Socket AM2 )

Graphics
Belinea1730S1 (1280x1024@60Hz)
128MB GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 (HP)

Hard Drives
156GB Hitachi Hitachi HDS721616PLA SCSI Disk Device (ATA)

Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H653L SCSI CdRom Device

Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio
(Used Speccy so that should be alright)

I attempted to find the Motherboard specs to see if I could upgrade it to a new CPU and more RAM, but was unable to find anything about it.

Any recommendations of new CHEAP parts that would work fine, or if anybody knows anything about the current motherboard and what could be upgraded on it.

All help is appreciated, thanks in advance

ShadowHearth

is that prebiult system or custom biult one?

This system on its last breath and it will be more expensive to find stuff for it: ram etc.

If its prebiult system, then you might run in in to more problems too.



Unfortunatly there is no "casual gaming" thing with PCs. there is aither gaming, or not. Unless your casual gaming is flash games and angry birds.


you might as well scavange parts that you can from this pc and build some low end cheap family pc.

nesf

It's a HP pre-built system I think from the motherboard.

FlyingIrishMan

nesf wrote: »

It's a HP pre-built system I think from the motherboard.

Bingo .

I thought pretty much the same thing, the computer is only about 4-5 years old, so I was hoping it wasn't so old that it couldn't be fixed.
I guess you could drop the gaming thing, just thought I could use it to play some less demanding games if for some reason I couldn't play on my PC.

Money is tight at the moment, so don't have enough to get a new PC, was hoping 100-200 would do to fix this computer up to more use-able standards.

ShadowHearth

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Bingo .

I thought pretty much the same thing, the computer is only about 4-5 years old, so I was hoping it wasn't so old that it couldn't be fixed.
I guess you could drop the gaming thing, just thought I could use it to play some less demanding games if for some reason I couldn't play on my PC.

Money is tight at the moment, so don't have enough to get a new PC, was hoping 100-200 would do to fix this computer up to more use-able standards.

if you want to stay with it, try to get some more ram. ( 2GB )

a full reformat and fresh install will do wonders.

other then that i dont think you can do anything else, as it will be dead money.

I would even consider saving to 300-400eu and reuse Hdds to biuld something newer. this will really work if you have Windows bought already.

FlyingIrishMan

ShadowHearth wrote: »

if you want to stay with it, try to get some more ram. ( 2GB )

a full reformat and fresh install will do wonders.

other then that i dont think you can do anything else, as it will be dead money.

I would even consider saving to 300-400eu and reuse Hdds to biuld something newer. this will really work if you have Windows bought already.

Would I be able to transfer the Windows License from the PC to another?
I did a reformat about three months ago when I put Windows 7 on it.

Monotype

It depends on the license. If it's a retail license, then yes.

As opposed to system builder/OEM and I'm not quite sure where upgrades stand.

Serephucus

Buy this:

http://www.memoryc.ie/products/description/1GB_Elixir_DDR2_PC2_6400_800MHz_CL5_desktop_memory_module/index.html

And then this:

http://www.adverts.ie/hardware/ssd-cosair-32gb-nova-series/946655

And reinstall Windows. If you're worried about licensing, there's a program on that net that'll back up your key for you. I can't remember the name of it, or if it works with anything other than Win7, but a bit of googling should help you.

Should speed up your PC no end. The SSD can also be ported to a new computer down the line too.

ShadowHearth

I don't want to be a party pooper, but will that mobo even have sata 2 or sata 3 for that ssd?

I would not touch secOnd hand ssd too , as you won't know how much rewriting it had in its lifetime. Ssd drives are not as durable as hdd.

Serephucus

SSD's max read is 195MB/s, so well within SATA 2's boundaries. Even if it's had a fair bit of rewriting, it'll last for a few years yet. SSDs aren't nearly as fragile as everyone seems to think. Even a first-gen SSD will last for five or more years, and that's being treated badly too.

Monotype

Serephucus wrote: »

Buy this:

http://www.memoryc.ie/products/description/1GB_Elixir_DDR2_PC2_6400_800MHz_CL5_desktop_memory_module/index.html

And then this:

http://www.adverts.ie/hardware/ssd-cosair-32gb-nova-series/946655

And reinstall Windows. If you're worried about licensing, there's a program on that net that'll back up your key for you. I can't remember the name of it, or if it works with anything other than Win7, but a bit of googling should help you.

Here it is. I should point out that it will work for re-installing to the same system, not carrying it over to a new one.

Serephucus

AFAIK, Windows ties itself to something in the motherboard. As long as that's the same, it should work fine. (I've heard of Windows working fine with people who change motherboards too, come to think of it)

The one OEM copy of Vista I had installed perfectly fine on a laptop of mine, and it had previously been on my desktop. *shrug*

Gurgle

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Would I be able to transfer the Windows License from the PC to another?

Yes, you can. Every version.
Worst case you won't be able to activate online and you will have to phone M$ and do the phone activation thingy.

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

I did a reformat about three months ago when I put Windows 7 on it.

Found your problem.
Let me take a stab in the dark here... Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit?

FlyingIrishMan

Gurgle wrote: »

Yes, you can. Every version.
Worst case you won't be able to activate online and you will have to phone M$ and do the phone activation thingy.


Found your problem.
Let me take a stab in the dark here... Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit?

Nope, its the 32bit version (assuming x86 is 32bit which I think it is).
I still have the copy of Windows 7 so I could install it again if it would help.

Skerries

Win 7 needs at least 2gb to be able to do anything properly

Gurgle

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Nope, its the 32bit version (assuming x86 is 32bit which I think it is).
I still have the copy of Windows 7 so I could install it again if it would help.

Nope, no point.
As the others said, add RAM.

It might be worthwhile upgrading your graphics card too, I don't honestly know whether its really important to the Win7 Aero desktop. M$ would have you believe it matters.

I see no reason whatsoever to stick an SSD in there.

FlyingIrishMan

Gurgle wrote: »

Nope, no point.
As the others said, add RAM.

It might be worthwhile upgrading your graphics card too, I don't honestly know whether its really important to the Win7 Aero desktop. M$ would have you believe it matters.

I see no reason whatsoever to stick an SSD in there.

Would I be better downgrading to Vista, or probably better again XP?
Will buy some of the RAM that was linked soon, thanks.

Gurgle

Vista: Absolutely definitely NOT
XP: If you have a copy, and don't want to spend €100 or so on hardware then this might be the best option.

Serephucus

I'd go with Vista to be honest. SP2 makes is almost as fast as XP, and there are plenty of tweaks out there to speed it up. If you have a decent flash drive lying around, you can also used readyboost, if you don't want to buy any new hardware (though I should seriously suggest a look at an SSD).

FlyingIrishMan

Serephucus wrote: »

I'd go with Vista to be honest. SP2 makes is almost as fast as XP, and there are plenty of tweaks out there to speed it up. If you have a decent flash drive lying around, you can also used readyboost, if you don't want to buy any new hardware (though I should seriously suggest a look at an SSD).

Vista was what was on this PC originally, is there anyway to revert it back to that without a disc? Because I don't have a disc anymore
And I think I'd prefer Vista too, I had a lot of bad experiences with XP when I was younger and I just don't like the look of it.
I'll want to get a HDD for my own PC first then I'll look into some more RAM for this and then perhaps an SSD.

Serephucus

Yes. You just download an image of a Vista disk, and use that to install as normal.

As to where you can get one, I'm not sure. I know there's a legitimate link to a Win7 image here some place, I don't know if the same is offered for Vista.