upgrade desktop or buy new?
 

1.60GHz Pentium Dual Core Processor
It includes 1GB ram
Its capacity 80Gb
It has 16x DVD-ROM
Windows XP Home

My family's computer is piss slow. It wouldn't open a word document just now. Above are the specs as far as my searching could find. It just needs to be able to do regular web surfing and word processing and itunes of course. The problem is my dad is hard-pressed on opening every email he gets, and downloads every attachment. Therefore, I have two antiviruses running. Even without them. it stinks how slow it is. My question is this, should I just reinstall Windows (probably 7) and get more memory, or just suck it up and get a new computer?

Thanks guys.

hard to tell how upgradable it is without knowing a little more about it. Is this a store bought desktop like an HP or something? If so, what's the brand / model number?

- Justin

It's a Dell Vostro 200. Is it possible that the inners are just wore out? Like, does a computer just get tired after a while?

dell for some reason just gets slow after a while. my brothers 2ghz p4 is slower than my p3 1ghz which was home built. i guess it comes to the money you want to spend. as far as i know dells really arent that upgradable. I think you can put more ram in there but thats it i think.

Can you post the Service tag?

The hardware itself won't slow down - the issue that the OP and your brother are likely seeing is software related. But both computers are relatively slow by today's standards, and would likely benefit from a hardware upgrade. And while Dell often uses proprietary components, there is usually a fair amount of upgrades that can be done to make improvements.

- Justin

wrong one!

what kind of antivirus programs you got running on there ?

sorry, that is BZCB3F1

AVG free, and Microsoft Essentials.

Microsoft Essentials is great by the way!

Ok, I was just about to post up that it actually seemed to be a pretty decent machine and just needed some more memory.

While yours certainly isn't a speed demon (Intel E2104 - 1.6GHz dual core cpu, 2x512 RAM), it's capable enough to handle what you are asking it to do. In your shoes, I would do a memory upgrade and then backup your important data and start over from scratch. Chances are the mix of software and useless crap that has built up in the almost 3 years you have had it are what is really dragging the machine down.

- Justin

Yeah Microsoft Essentials is def FTW IMO, AVG free can burn though, its slow and didn't protect my comp.

First thing I did with my laptop was see what programs and processes come up on startup. Theres a lot of programs that tend to turn themselves on when you boot up that take up valuable processing power (IE aim, itunes, limewire ... etc) By disabling a few here and there my comp is still running strong (hp dv5t w/ vista home pre)

Thanks! While I'm at it, I'm gonna read up on how to overclock that bad boy! I'll post up an update once I get the memory in there.

Format and reinstall windows.

You should have 3gigs of ram to top out that computers capability. Theres no reason that that computer running well wont serve perfectly fine as an email reader and internet browser.

Absolutely. My old compy from 2001 performs those tasks flawlessly. You do not need a hot rod computer for basic things.

do a good system cleaning too...
adaware/spybot
ccleaner
regscrub xp
system mechanic
ultimate defrag

should help out tremendously and will establish where the comp really stands

thanks guys. The computer was once a pretty sharp. It just has a ton of junk on it now.

open the case and blow all the dust out. funny how things get hot fast and stop working.

Tell that to my XPS... things made with upgrading and expanding in mind

I miss those commercials....

craigslist is great if you don't want to spend money on a new one!