Upgrading possibly?

[unorthodox7]

Hey guys first off thanks for all of the help i will be receiving on this thread.

I've noticed my desktop has been slowing down after 3 years or so.

I am bored and i am thinking about upgrading it.( I barley use it anymore but i feel like playing games on it again )

When i turn it on it is slower than it was when i first got it it. If defragged it and disk cleanup etc. I haven't reformatted yet that may fix the problem.. but Tell me.. What can i do hardware wise to increase the performance (at a reasonable cost)

Specs: Dell Insipron 531 or 530.. i think its the 531

Mother board : RY206 I think.. Duo Core Processor
500 GB Hard drive
6GB Ram
Nvidia 8600 Video Card



What do you feel I should do?

Should I upgrade hardware or update the driver's? Every driver site i go to, it seems to be false and requires me to pay.


Thanks for the help

 

[mx344]

Yeah, don't pay for drivers, haha. They should be free.

I would start by, defraggin it, deleting old unused programs and files. Scan for any viruses, malware, spyware. CClean, and it should be running pretty good. If its really bad, just reinstall the OS. i usually reinstall every 8 months or so, on my gaming rig.

It would be the 530, the 531, is amd, which I didn't know Dell used amds haha wierd

Looks like these are you options. For cpu's
Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E5200 (2MB L2, 2.5GHz, 800FSB)
Intel® Pentium Conroe Dual Core Processor E5300 (2MB L2 Cache, 2.6GHz, 800FSB)
Intel® Pentium® Conroe Dual Core Processor E5400 (2MB L2 Cache, 2.7GHz)
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E7500 (3MB L2 Cache,2.93GHz,1066 FSB)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E7400 (3MB L2 Cache,2.80GHz,1066 FSB)
Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q8200 (4MB L2, 2.33GHz, 1333FSB)
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q8300 (4MB, 2.50GHz, 1333FSB)
Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q9400 (6MB L2, 2.66GHz, 1333FSB)
Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q9550 (12MB L2, 2.83GHz, 1333FSB)

BTW: Are you running an aftermarket psu? You must be if you running an 8600gt.

 

[Kitsune]

Also with the defrag, if your computer doesnt have more than 5GB of free space on it I would suggest removing some of your programs. I see you have a 500gb Harddrive so I dont think this is the case but you never know.

I would suggest Tuneup Utilities for cleaning up your harddrive of crap, ie fragmented files, start up errors, ect.

And for the upgrade you are good on the ram and such I would just go for a quad core cpu and you should be good to go

 

[lincsman]

A few more suggestions for you, since you asked about hardware, and also for performance.
For performance, you could also run msconfig and hit "normal" - this would reset the programs that start up to the standard ones, and everything you need, and get rid of useless crap programs that are starting up. This concept changed the machine I'm running from a literal 5-10 minute start-up to a 1 or 2 minute startup.
Hardware-wise, you could upgrade the CPU, I believe you got a list of possibilities, and also, with that much RAM and a quad-core, you could also upgrade to a better video card if you're playing games. The 8600 is pretty powerful, but is nothing compared to the newest ones like the GTX 250. I have an 8800 GTX, and I would still upgrade it if I had the resources, granted with a quad-core and 5GB of RAM. Of course, make sure that you have enough power for a processor and video card upgrade, as CPUs also can consume more power if upgraded.