How can I make a computer with a slow processor faster?

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xAbre1200

New Member
My friend has a 2-3 yr old computer and he asked me to help make a few upgrades to it since it has been very laggy lately. He mentioned that it had a 1.35ghz processor. Im not sure, but I bet its Celeron or something crappy. He also mentioned that it had around 700mb of RAM but his computer was prebuilt from FRYS, so he doesnt know what is the max amound of RAM his mobo can hold. This is what i was thinking....

1. Throw on at least 2 GB of RAM... if his mobo can hold it (by the way, do you guys know how to find out how much RAM your computer can hold?)

2. Throw in a decent graphics card

3. Add a bigger HD, he mentioned he only had 5GBs of free space left.

But thats all i got, im not sure if those upgrades will even be worth it if he has a slow processor. Besides defraging the HD and some spyware/antivirus scans.... im not sure what else i can do.

I think maybe i'll just install 1-2GB of RAM and leave it at that.

What do you think i should do?
 
What to do first? Aw gee a good lookover of the specifications will show what options if any for upgrade there. First knowing the make and model of the prebuilt system will point to the specifications found at the manufacturer's support site.

The First thing when looking at any prebuild is knowing that will have probable limitations to start off with compated to a custom case. For increasing memory as well as going for a newer video card knowing the speed and type of memory supported as well as the type of video card that will go in like AGP or PCI being an older system.
 
uh, that computer is going to be doing nothing but running the internet, and thats all its going to be doing that those specs if he is wanting to run games time to spend a little cash money.

if its just now running slow it might just need a good defraging, some spyware clean up and a virus scan.
 
I agree with the other poster, doing a defrag, or even reformatting and re installing windows can do wonders. The easy way to do it is to buy a new hard drive. Install windows on it, then hook the old drive up as a slave and transfer files onto the new drive. You will also have to re install any programs that the person needs. Once everything is transferd, reformat the old drive and use it as a back up drive.

But the best upgrade you can do to any system with 512 or so of ram is to upgrade the ram to at least 1 gig.
 
im thinking $30 for 2GB of RAM and $99 for HD. Would a good graphics card really help the computer be able to play games, cuz its only 1.35GHz ish...
 
xAbre1200 said:
im thinking $30 for 2GB of RAM and $99 for HD. Would a good graphics card really help the computer be able to play games, cuz its only 1.35GHz ish...
Click to expand...

with a processor like that you aint going to be playing games, i doubt the motherboard would have enough space for more ram. Your best bet would be a little bigger hard drive cause once it gets crowded that much it does slow down.
 
The first thing to look at still boils down to the overall system specifications to see what options are there for upgrading. You may even find a faster cpu being sold on EBay or be able to pick up a used system for a low price and put the best of two into one. But when you say 5gb of drive space is that being seen on a 13, 16, 20, 40, 60, 80gb drive or just on an old 7 or 8gb model?

One tip for many gamers is to disable the creation of the paging file that uses hard drive for virtual memory to supliment the amount of physical memory installed. Disabling the number of programs installed from automatically loading some part up along with Windows frees up resources. That is done by going into the msconfig utility and using the selective startup option in order to disable unnecessary items in the startup group found there.
 
PC eye said:
The first thing to look at still boils down to the overall system specifications to see what options are there for upgrading. You may even find a faster cpu being sold on EBay or be able to pick up a used system for a low price and put the best of two into one. But when you say 5gb of drive space is that being seen on a 13, 16, 20, 40, 60, 80gb drive or just on an old 7 or 8gb model?

One tip for many gamers is to disable the creation of the paging file that uses hard drive for virtual memory to supliment the amount of physical memory installed. Disabling the number of programs installed from automatically loading some part up along with Windows frees up resources. That is done by going into the msconfig utility and using the selective startup option in order to disable unnecessary items in the startup group found there.
Click to expand...
I believe it is on a 70GB HD. I am thinking on buying another HD, perhaps a 50+GB one. Since they already have 700+MB's of RAM.. i doubt 1GB or 2GB or RAM is gonna really make a huge difference. Maybe i'll just upgrade the HD..
 
Adding ram is always good, you will get the most performance upgrade with that. 700meg of ram can not be correct. It could be either 640 or 768 megs but not 700. But it is most likely 640. Increasing that to 1 gig would make a nice difference.

All a hard drive does is store information. More ram means the programs run/load faster. A new hard drive will not increase performance at all. Unless it is an old 5400 rpm drive, in that case going to a 7400 rpm would make a nice jump in loading speeds for programs.
 
The problem still however is not knowing the make and model to look over the specifications on the old system you are referring to. Those will show just where you stand and what if anything can be done as far as hardwares.

In the meantime there's a favored freeware good for cleaning up garbage temp folders that clutter a drive in order to free up some drive space. The obvious nickname of the "crap cleaner" should give you an idea of why the CCleaner can help a little there. http://www.ccleaner.com/
 
Have him download SIW to see what sort of current hardware he has as well as potential to upgrade. Then we can figure out what to upgrade.
 
oregon said:
Have him download SIW to see what sort of current hardware he has as well as potential to upgrade. Then we can figure out what to upgrade.
Click to expand...

Gee? You took my referemce there! :P I often recommend SIW since it will also display temps on the cpu, board, and hard drives as well as a breakdown on the softwares installed.

As far as the 1.35ghz cpu that could be a Mac G4 or one for a SUN Microsystems model. CPU-ID is another tool along with PC Wizard 2008, PerfMonitor, and ClockGen found at http://www.cpuid.com/
 
xAbre1200 said:
My friend has a 2-3 yr old computer and he asked me to help make a few upgrades to it since it has been very laggy lately. He mentioned that it had a 1.35ghz processor. Im not sure, but I bet its Celeron or something crappy. He also mentioned that it had around 700mb of RAM but his computer was prebuilt from FRYS, so he doesnt know what is the max amound of RAM his mobo can hold. This is what i was thinking....

1. Throw on at least 2 GB of RAM... if his mobo can hold it (by the way, do you guys know how to find out how much RAM your computer can hold?)

2. Throw in a decent graphics card

3. Add a bigger HD, he mentioned he only had 5GBs of free space left.

But thats all i got, im not sure if those upgrades will even be worth it if he has a slow processor. Besides defraging the HD and some spyware/antivirus scans.... im not sure what else i can do.

I think maybe i'll just install 1-2GB of RAM and leave it at that.

What do you think i should do?
Click to expand...

1) 2GB won't help. 1GB wouldn't even help with that crappy of an CPU...

2) No GFX will work with an slow processor. Better GPU = More tasks set for an CPU...

3) Defragment man, and an 5.2k RPM and 2MB Buffer with ATA100 doesn't help.
 
PC eye said:
Gee? You took my referemce there! :P I often recommend SIW since it will also display temps on the cpu, board, and hard drives as well as a breakdown on the softwares installed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, great program. It's kinda scary how it knows all your passwords though. The first time I ran it, it figured out all my online passwords in the secrets section... even paypal.
 
xAbre1200 said:
1. Throw on at least 2 GB of RAM... if his mobo can hold it (by the way, do you guys know how to find out how much RAM your computer can hold?)

2. Throw in a decent graphics card

3. Add a bigger HD, he mentioned he only had 5GBs of free space left.

But thats all i got, im not sure if those upgrades will even be worth it if he has a slow processor. Besides defraging the HD and some spyware/antivirus scans.... im not sure what else i can do.

I think maybe i'll just install 1-2GB of RAM and leave it at that.

What do you think i should do?
Click to expand...

1) Hmm, well if that's a Pentium 4 then it might use rdram, in which is it'll be VERY expensive to upgrade. Not even worse the hassle/money as you need to upgrade in pairs of ram.

3) A decent graphics card won't help you that much. For one, the powersupply might not handle it, and also, you'll get bottlenecking everywhere in the computer.

4) A bigger hard drive will help, but it probably won't increase the performance by that much.

I suggest that your friend first reformats his hard drive. That'll probably yield the greatest performance boost without spending any money.
 
That may be an Intel cpu but the clock speed points at a Mac G4 or SUN model system. I suspect it would more likely be a Mac for home use since gaming is involved there. At least if you can post the make and model things will go far easier for making any recommendations except going for a much system to work with.
 
oscaryu1 said:
1) 2GB won't help. 1GB wouldn't even help with that crappy of an CPU...

2) No GFX will work with an slow processor. Better GPU = More tasks set for an CPU...

3) Defragment man, and an 5.2k RPM and 2MB Buffer with ATA100 doesn't help.
Click to expand...

hell yeah, someone speaks the truth.
 
oregon said:
Yeah, great program. It's kinda scary how it knows all your passwords though. The first time I ran it, it figured out all my online passwords in the secrets section... even paypal.
Click to expand...

It's pretty thorough at gathering all typed of available information found when used. But that's what makes it useful for finding out just what is on your system when it displays specifics on just about anything. :eek: "how did it know that?" :P
 
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