upgrading my slug

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

unwashed potato!

Soldato
Joined
12 Feb 2006
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Surrey
well not mine, but my dads slug. his computer is going unbelieably slow these days that im forcing him to upgrade it so that when im at his house i can use it.

im thinking that his main problem is the RAM, or lack of it as he only has 256mb and is running xp home and many other resoure hungry programs such as norton :mad:

We have opened up the pc and this is what was written on the RAM:

Samsung, 256 MB, ddr, pc2100, CL2.5

Looking at OCuK there is many RAM's to choose from and im concerned that they wont work with what he currently has.

his budget is only £40 and that is at the top limit so obviously not looking for 1gb. We were looking at either of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Samsung_Memory.html

Will either of these RAM's, espcially the second one, work with what he currenlty has? theddr2 and pc5300 parts worry me as they are different

The reason ihave put this in GH instead of the RAM section is because of the following.

What i am also concerned with is that he will buy some RAM and it wont improve the speed of the coputer much if at all as the RAM wasn't the problem, it was something like the CPU. Can anyone tell me if this will sort out the rpoblem buying the ram and if not what will be letting the computer down

this is what we currenlty have:

CPU - intel pentium 4 CPU, 2.00ghz. northwood, 2003MHz, L1 cache=20KB, L2 cache=512KB, slot-1

GPU - i tihnk that this is onboard as i didn't notice any

thanks all
 
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Both of those are DDR2, whereas it seems the PC is using standard DDR. Check out the Corsair page, there's a 512MB ValueSelect DIMM for £30. Good RAM that.

Norton is definitely killing performance too, though.
 
The best improvement you will get is from more RAM and also getting it running in dual channel mode. The CPU should be up to anything non-gaming related (which isn't a problem due to the integrated graphics).

However that RAM you linked to is DDR2 and not compatible with his current PC. What you need is either of the 2 at the bottom of this page:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/OcUK_Memory.html

The better choice would be to get the 1GB (2x512MB) OCUK kit on that same page for £58.69. However this is a little over your budget. Otherwise you should get a 512MB (2x256MB) kit and simply take the old RAM out and keep it as a spare.

Edit: Spelling.
 
Dureth said:
The best improvement you will get is from more RAM and also getting it running in dual channel mode. The CPU should be up to anything non-gaming related (which isn't a problem due to the integrated graphics).

However that RAM you linked to is DDR2 and not compatible with his current PC. What you need is either of the 2 at the bottom of this page:
Click to expand...

so the 2 at the bottom of the page, preferably the 512MB will work the the current samsung one even though they are OCuK ones?

how doi get them to run in dual channel mode?

OT but i also have a problem with the computer as i can't get into the bios as the keyboard doesn't seem to work until windows starts up.

well my dad and his gf wants to play CSI game, which wants 32mb direct drive 9.0 compatiable, whatever that means. Is this what a onboard GPU will have?

thankyou all again
 
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It might be worth killing all the unnecessary services as this will kill a lot of the processes running and using up RAM. Windows by default enables loads of services that aren't needed, I've closed them all down on mine and am down to 21 processes running, thats including Opera, firewall, anti virus, msn and ATI Tray Tools!
 
Street said:
It might be worth killing all the unnecessary services as this will kill a lot of the processes running and using up RAM. Windows by default enables loads of services that aren't needed, I've closed them all down on mine and am down to 21 processes running, thats including Opera, firewall, anti virus, msn and ATI Tray Tools!
Click to expand...

what vservices aren't needed? would list them all but there is hundreds of them
 
It might be best for you to look in the MM, people are always selling ram. I have 2x256mb of corsair to sell atm... but here isnt the place :(

You will ahve to enable your trust
 
how would i know if i can get dual channel? what is the difference of dual channle to just having single channel or whatever it is called?

so getting just one 512mb of corsair ddr would work with what i currently have?

norton is a much to go then?
 
addy_010 said:
ok ill look in MM. how do i enable my trust?
Click to expand...


Click where is says trust below your posts and the option should be there.

I would also say remove norton, load of crap it is - get AVG or avast to replace it as they are free.

It doesnt matter if you get a dual channel kit or or a single stick, either will work just not in dual channel mode (faster than single)
 
ok ill get him to get rid of norton then. im currently trying to diable serives aswell but worried at the same time.

so before i buyu what is most recomened thing to do?

im looking at either 1 or 2 512mb from corsair.
 
I think your bets bet now is to just buy a 512MB stick of RAM and put it in there. Un-install Norton and then install Avast AV.

Also be careful what services you disable, I'm not sure what your turning off but it may be important. The main things to stop will be in the startup folder and the "run" registry entry.
 
Here is my services list...



Thats cut down to the bare minimum that keeps everything functional:) As TheVoice said, there is a PDF file floating around the net, BlackViper or someone I think made it. Thats where I learnt about which services do what and how pretty much most of them aren't needed for daily usage.
 
looks like he's probo got a very early system, the first dual channel board (granite bay mighta "just" beaten this) was the sis i think 655fx chipset(was god damned great). i think the chip i woulda bought with that was maybe a 2.4, or 2.8C maybe. its very very unlikely he'd have a board that is dual channel, possible but highly unlikely.

memory should do it, i mean it depends what you're doing but surfing, e-mail, word processing, anything will run fine on a 2Ghz p4, anything like that. if theres sluggishness and slowdown running those kind of apps its definately down to memory.
 
A 2Ghz P4 can be upgraded in quite a few ways, obviously ram, XP thrives on more ram, adding a 512meg stick, will give 768 which should be more than ample for XP, on a 2Ghz PC.

Something to consider in addition to the memory is that hard disk.

The average hard drive that came with a 2Ghz P4, probably just about managed 30-40meg/second transfer rates (Possibly less if the system was fitted with a 5400rpm disk). But virtually all (if not all) P4 motherboards support DMA Mode 5 transfers, which is the same standard current PATA hard drives use. A new hard drive like a Seagate 7200.10 drive can deliver over 80meg/second, with minimal cpu overheads, and is available in a PATA version.

It's possible that the computers BIOS wont accept the biggest disks, so there's no point buying a 750gig drive, but normally the worst thing that happens when you install a disk thats too big, is the computer only uses the maximum size its bios allows.

With a good amount of memory, and a fast modern hard disk, the computer should perform considerably better.

Direct Drive 9? Surely you mean DirectX 9, its current graphics system is probably pretty underpowered, and even hampered by a 2Ghz P4, for gaming a good graphics card can still give a massive boost to gaming performance. How much do you want to spend. You'll need an AGP card, and I wouldnt bother spending more than £130. ATI Radeon X800 GTO is a good fast card for AGP systems.

Just spotted you said budget £40, with that budget then take the ram upgrade. But its still worth pointing out that the system still has potential to be faster, with other upgrades.
 
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