upgrading my slug

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 17:44

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

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 17:59

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:

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

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 18:08

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!

what vservices aren't needed? would list them all but there is hundreds of them

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 18:13

ok ill look in MM. how do i enable my trust?

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 18:21

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?

unwashed potato! · 16 Jul 2006 at 18:36

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.

unwashed potato! · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:45

just want to say thanks for all the help you have been giving me, i really appreciate it