Over the years my computer has gotten slow as shit. I have virus scanned it, de-spammed it, etc... and its still slow. Its a Compaq Presario 6000

Specs are:
Memory: 512MB
Processor Type and Speed: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.67GHz
Floppy Drive
CDRW/DVD Combo: Drive
Video/Graphics Card: Integrated S3 Graphics Pro Savage
Sound Card: Avance AC'97 Audio for VIA
Modem: Lucent win 56k
Ethernet: Realtek RTL8139 10/100
USB Ports: 6 (2 x Front, 4 x Rear)
O/S Installed: Windows XP Home
Hard Drive Capacity: 60GB

I want to upgrade it and make it faster. Maybe a new processor and all the ram she can hold. Oh yeah and wipe the hard drive clean again. I know how to put ram in, but can I swap processors with a faster AMD model or do I have to replace motherboard too?

1/6/2008 2:28:46 PM

first:

more memory

[Edited on January 6, 2008 at 2:32 PM. Reason : for the processor it's likely you'd need a new motherboard. not sure though.]

1/6/2008 2:31:55 PM

That's an old system. I would add some more ram and that would probably be it. Any more money would be a waste. Time to think about getting or building a new system if you want more use out of a computer to use today's applications. That system is at least from 2002 if not older. What are you using the machine for? Simple email and internet, you just need to keep up with maintenance. A $300 cheap dell machine will be much faster then that POS, so just weight that into your decision.

1/6/2008 2:46:52 PM

i use it just for email, burning cds, internet, and msword

1/6/2008 2:49:11 PM

get a copy of ghost or any other type of imaging software, do a fresh install of XP home and update it, install your anti-virus and other programs you mainly use; then image the machine. When the system bogs down again, just restart from the image. Note, will work better if you have two partitions or hard drives. That way you can store you files off the main image.

1/6/2008 3:59:51 PM

Quote :

"i use it just for email, burning cds, internet, and msword"

If that's the case, then I would just upgrade ram like dakota_man said and reformat the Hard Drive. It's not worth the money for a new processor unless you want to upgrade the motherboard too. I doubt the processors that are compatable with the existing mobo would be much faster. Then you'd need new RAM anyway.

1/6/2008 6:37:24 PM

I got an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (333 fsb) and 512mb stick of ram and two or three video cards that would be perfect for this. ill even throw in a case and some optical drives while im at it. $30 bucks and all the stuff is yours!

[Edited on January 6, 2008 at 7:08 PM. Reason : ]

1/6/2008 7:06:13 PM

would that stuff work with my current motherboard?

1/7/2008 7:13:31 AM

yes

1/7/2008 10:31:14 AM

just get ram, its all you need

if you wanna do a great job also reinstall windows (or have it done)

1/8/2008 12:55:47 AM

i want to restore it, but i lost the damn disk. what now?

1/14/2008 9:36:46 AM