Need help with an old system

Vantis

Vantis

Vantis

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Joined
3 Oct 2011
Posts
216
Location
Exeter
My gf has an oldschool pc that is reeeeealy slow, i can even type this message faster than the pc can show me what i type, she wants it upgraded so youtube videos load and web sites take less than 5 mins to load. This is the amazing spec

Intel E2140 Pentium Dual Core Socket 775 2x1.60GHz
448mb of ram
75gig hdd

Could the ram be upgraded to make it a bit faster?
no idea how to find out the motherboard :)

i told her to get a new pc, she wont listen

Cheers :)
 
Well I upgraded one my oldish PC downstairs that had Intel Celeron D 352(pretty old) it also had only 512mb RAM. it was pretty slow and froze a lot but I recovered the PC just like new. Upgraded it 2Gb(Max the mobo support). and it works a treat opens everything easily and web-surfing is great. so that what I would do with yours. The CPU must be better than mine since its dual-core so it should'd be a problem.
 
ok thanks :) the mobo is

P5VD2-MX SE
Socket 775 for Intel Core 2 Dual / Pentium D / Pentium 4 / Celeron
- 2 x DIMM, max. 2 GB, DDR2 533/400, Non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- ALC660 6-ch Audio
- RTL 8201C 10/100 LAN controller
- 8 x USB 2.0
- 2 x SATA support RAID 0,1,JBOD

Can i still buy that ram anywhere? im cluless about pcs really
 
There seems to be some used on the bay but they seem quite expensive 2GB is about up to £50 pounds.(I bought mine from there used aswell)
 
It looks suspiciously like there's on-board graphics using 64MB here (hence 448MB RAM reported). I'd suggest getting a cheapo gfx card will help a shed load.

Edit:

Integrated Gfx in North Bridge :D Knew it! 'VIA' is about all I could figure out, it's probably quite a bottleneck in the system. You'll still want the RAM tho :) (and a fresh install never hurts)
 
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Check if the drive is still 5400rpm one and then change it to a 7200rpm model, will probably get a nice speed boost here if it is.
 
RAM and gpu, but a faster processor will help immensely.

I've got a 1.6 chip in a win7 pc in the office. Is very slow compared to the faster chip in my netbook.
 
No need for a new PC, just up it to 2gb memory and stick in a decent hard-disk.
I ran an optiplex 745 usff with an E2140, GMA965 & 2gb memory, it was more than capable of generic office/web/media (and Minecraft) use.
Used a hell of a lot less power than the main PC also...

The E2140 was a decent CPU, pretty much just a low clocked Core2 with 1mb cache.
 
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Just posting to reiterate what everyone has said really, adding more RAM, a cheap graphics card, also freeing up some hard drive space & defragging can speed things along if it's cluttered.

If you aint gaming you really don't need much!
 
20 gig of 75 is used up, i will try the ram first and see how that works out, then go with a gpu, if all that doesnt work then ill tell her to get a decent gaming pc worth about 1k so i can play games when im there :D

Cheers
 
If windows slow why not try linux :)

Vantis said:
20 gig of 75 is used up, i will try the ram first and see how that works out, then go with a gpu, if all that doesnt work then ill tell her to get a decent gaming pc worth about 1k so i can play games when im there :D

Cheers
Click to expand...

Save her the cash lol, just install a nice linux system that will defo freshen it up a bit :D
 
get some more RAM and remove all the pron and spyware that's slowing it down :) Personally I wouldn't bother with a GPU it's not needed here, that chip is fast enough for what she uses it for. hth
 
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