Looking to improve PC performance

[buster44]

Hi. My pc has been running pretty slowly over the past few months and before I just buy a new one decided it was worth checking if I can make some simple adjustments (additional RAM?) first.

I have a HP / Compaq with Intel Core 2 duo E4600 2.4ghz and 2GB RAM. 32-bit o/s. It's at least 5 years old. Windows Vista Home Premium SP2.

I use the PC generally for internet browsing, updating and backing up phone via iTunes and running MS office apps (predominantly Excel and Powerpoint 2010). I hold any saved photos etc in a separate external hard drive.

Probably worth mentioning I also have McAfee antivius running.

Any thoughts for improving performance? Often just seems slow to load pages, even when veryfew pages are open concurrently. Any upgrades, or is it time to move on to a new and improved system?

Many thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[jetzofly]

I would just move onto a new system. That PC is pretty old. For what you're doing, you could get something cheap and it would do a good job.

 

[mlga91]

Is most likeley the ram, modern browsers tend to eat a lot of ram, open a few tab and it will fill those 2 GB, 4 GB is the minium for office use right now. You need to check if there is a slot for another stick, and the type of ram that you're using right now.

 

[jakegroves]

windows operating systems are not smart. They learn by storing huge amount of cache and 'temporary files', over time it slows down your computer. If you are not running on a SSD or good quality HHD your performance slowly detiorates i.e start-up time and loading. Might be worth noting itunes is very intensive.

I would personally move to 'lubuntu' operating system it is famous for reviving even the eldest of computers.

 

[buster44]

Thanks for all the responses. Think I'll take a look at a new system. Any advice on what I should be looking to upgrade to? Based my relatively moderate use?

 

[synphul]

On a 32bit os, you could increase ram to 4gb and it should use somewhere between 3.5-3.8gb (the limit for 32bit systems, need 64 bit to take advantage of more than 4gb). Does the browser slowly open a new page/tab or is the webpage content itself slow to load? If pages themselves are slow to load and show up, sounds more like your internet connection. A top of the line $2000 pc won't make your internet faster.

Otherwise you could upgrade to a nice relatively inexpensive i3 system. Less than $500 with a new os and 64bit to support more than 4gb of ram. The psu is way overkill, just happens to be a good quality unit at a good price. Would be silly to go with a lower quality unit just for lower wattage to save $5-10. No video card in the build, given your usage and lack of gaming, the integrated graphics of the i3 is plenty.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($108.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.67 @ NCIX US)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($32.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit) ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $481.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-29 16:50 EDT-0400

 

[buster44]

Wow, thanks for the detailed response. It's not just the browser that's slow - often just accessing excel or other software can be painful. Anyway, this gives me a really good start!

 

[mlga91]

If you want to upgrade your current system, you can consider something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103930

 

[synphul]

The ram and the speed of your hard drive will largely affect that. Hard drives are slower to begin with, especially if 5400rpm. 7200rpm would be faster and ssd even more improvement yet but at the expense of capacity for speed for the same price. How full the drive is, a drive that only has 500mb to 1gb left and is jam packed will slow things down. Defragging can help some (on hdd, not ssd as they work differently).

Having low amounts of ram means the system will run out faster and be forced to access the swap file on the hard drive more frequently. In essence using the hdd instead of much faster system memory which can slow things down a great deal. It only compounds the issue when this happens since say you're loading a program - the hard drive is seeking those files to load and then system memory becomes full and now has to stop and write that data to a different location on the physical drive. Fighting itself and can create quite a bit of noise from the hard drive as it scurries to load the program you've selected and handle the swap file, otherwise known as 'disk thrashing'. It just doesn't have the physical speed or input/output capabilities to keep up with so many different data streams.

 

[3ogdy]

If you want, I could connect to your computer and see if there's anything tweakable to improve system performance.

Having said that, keep in mind Vista NEEDS 2GB of RAM, so your PC would definitely benefit from at least 2 additional GB.
Moreover, you can always upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium without formatting or losing any files. That should also improve your computer's performance.