Upgrading a Dell 5150 on the cheap.

Redfox25

Hey folks

Basically, i have an old Dell 5150 machine which is used for internet surfing and a bit of MS office use.
Nothing major.
It has gotten very slow in the past and after a few checks I spotted that the HDD , 145gb is full.
Here is the spec , from speccy.
After a quick check on memoryc memory checker, this machine will take 4gb ram max. I think xp 32 bit will see that much.
Im thinking another 2 gb of Ram and a new HDD would give this a new lease of life.

I dont know if a ssd would be worth it , maybe a small one for win os perhaps.
Any thoughts.

Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium D 805
SmithField 90nm Technology
RAM
2.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 199MHz (4-4-4-12)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0HJ054 (Microprocessor)
Graphics
DELL E196FP (1024x768@60Hz)
256MB ATI RADEON X600 256MB HyperMemory (ATI)
256MB ATI RADEON X600 256MB HyperMemory Secondary (ATI)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
149GB Western Digital WDC WD1600JS-75NCB3 (SATA) 23 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-H53N
Audio
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

Redfox25

I wonder would going from 2 to 4 gb ram make much of a difference or would a wipe and reset to factory settings do more?
I don't have the xp disk for a reinstall.

Its an old machine but still should be capable of more than its doing atm.
cheers lads

Xenoronin

The ram won't really make a difference for web browsing and such. Also, it's recommended to use one type of ram so you'd probably have a problem finding the specific ram installed in the machine.
An ssd could give it a little bit more life, and a good hard drive for bulk storage. It's pretty old though. The CPU is a pretty big bottleneck. It'd run better with the ssd but overall, it's asking yourself if you want to spend 80quid on the machine for an ssd, and then maybe another 50 on a hard drive. You'd also need to make sure both SATA ports are free for the new equipment.... which also might bottleneck depending on the version the port is. SATA revision 2 is the minimum to not limit an SSD, and even then, newer ssd's are faster than the max transfer rate.

Looking at a picture of the motherboard, it looks like there is a SATA rev. 2 port.

Having said all that, and that you don't want to spend about 300-400 on a new machine. You can grab an ssd and i'd say ditch the old hard drive altogether. It is old and slow and if you are able to work with 140gb, you can work with 240gb ssd.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT240M500SSD1-2-5-inch-240GB-Internal/dp/B00BQ8RM1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397332616&sr=8-1&keywords=m500

Or go down to 120gb and save money if you don't mind managing space. One nice thing about an ssd is, if you do choose to upgrade your pc, you can just bring it with you into the new machine.

Read this on finding your product key.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/findxpkey.htm

Find a person with an installation disk. They are everywhere. Just remember that it's now obsolete (microsoft stopped support this year) and it could be a security risk.

You could purchase windows 7 and not see a big difference in performance if that's a worry.

Redfox25

I see what you mean. It might be easier to start from scratch. 300-400 would prob spec a decent enough work pc.
I don't need a monitor atm.

beauf

I have a pentium d as one of my test machines at work. That cpu is simply to slow for modern websites. Pick up a 2nd hand pc with a win 7 licence and a fast dual core 2 like a e8400 or quad on adverts for 100~150 .

or buy a new machine. A new haswell celeron, pentium or i3 is a very nice machine for office and web.