Brewology

my computer is getting kinda old now. i got this computer around 2003 i think. i know i have to buy a external hard drive because i only have about 4 gb left of free space. I also have to buy 2.0 usb ports because i still have 1.0. What else do i have to buy to make my computer run faster? What would be the price to get the things i need?

thnx

Mmm, well if your computer doesn't even have 2.0 usb ports, I would suggest getting a new computer :p But if you just want to update your computer I would just suggest the usual, Get bigger hard drive (Whats the one you have now?), get more RAM (Make sure your motherboard supports it), Newer OS (What do you have now? make sure you ahve the minimum requriements for the new one), get rid of whatever spyware/adware you have(if any), possibly get a faster processor that your motherboard supports (Might be pretty cheap since it's old{ish}). Maybe a new video card/sound card. That's pretty much it. DVI>VGA. I believe that's pretty much the basic stuff to upgrade your computer.

maybe defragment your computer. go to 'Start Menu/My Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter' usually after a while a lot of files get corrupt or something and all this other stuff, so u gotta defragment them and it frees up space and deletes files you dont need. after i did that and deleted a lot of programs i didnt use, my computer ran super fast.

dangg hmm i dont know what i got on this comp. im not really a computer genius. well i think im just going to take it to a shop or something or maybe just buy a new computer! Well how much will it cost to make it faster?

you can try doing a disk clean up, running Ad aware, and like he said disk defrag. It always helps me.

Um just on the computer for a minute right now and I am not reading the top posts but I would just say buy a new computer. For the amount of stuff you need to buy for your computer to run faster you can just buy a brand new one for the same price.

Check newegg.com or computers.com for prices. It really isn't a certain price at all. Anywhere from $100-$500 should be a good range lol.

I'd first look if your motherboard has a pci-e x16 slot on the motherboard. If you don't know what that is, you can use a tool called PC Wizard to identify your motherboard further. That slot is used for the newer graphics cards on the market. The interface hasn't been around too long, but maybe your computer has one. Chances are, you have an AGP slot for graphics, but are only using onboard integrated graphics right now.

In my opinion, if your computer's graphics can't be upgraded substantially, then putting in a faster processor/ more RAM/ and larger hard drives will be money down the drain if one of the purposes of the computer would EVER be to support computer video games or emulators, as well as intensive photo editing software. If gaming/ photo editing will pretty much never be used, then hey, go ahead and upgrade. If you ask me though, I'd say it's not worth it. Best to buy a new computer IMO.

Your RAM is older, most likely DDR 400 or lower, and your processor is a socket 939 AMD or 775 Intel that is dated. Even if you may have a 775 socket Intel processor, upgrading the processor to a new core 2 duo processor would be a waste because no doubt your motherboard only supports a maximum front side bus (FSB) of 533 or 800, which would cap the power of what I could call a recommended upgrade. Also, since your computer is aging somewhat, the power supply isn't in it's tip-top state anymore, so adding new hardware may hinder the performance or cause the unit to malfunction. In order to "upgrade" any computer, I'd suggest a new power supply to support a graphics card, more ram, and a more powerful processor. Those are really what will get the computer zooming. But in your case, you need more hard drive space as well... which means that other than that stuff, all you need is a new case and an optical drive for CD/ DVD and you will have remade an entirely new computer! lol

My choice - new computer. My recommendation - buy parts from newegg.com and build it yourself. You said you weren't a computer genius, so idk if you are capable of doing this, but maybe a local computer store will assemble/ configure it for you if you just provide them the parts - in which case, I can help suggest parts for a new computer.

-DarkPacMan77-

Download tuneup utilities, that program will DEFINATELY help you clear up tons of space...it scans your whole hard drive n shows you duplicate files and other random stuff the you dont need, does a disk cleanup, defrags your computer and a bunch of other stuff as well. You might also want to look into downloading advanced uninstaller pro as well, it helps a little bit. Other than that, i would suggest getting a new external hard drive to transfer all your files to and then leave your main hard drive pretty much clear of anything (just make sure to create backup discs of all your data in case your files get deleted) and then pretty much what ace had already suggested and you should be running at optimum speed

alright thanks all of you... i think i will just buy a new comp later on when i get the money. ill do what staxx said and download tuneup utilities and go from there. im going to buy 2.0 usb ports because i know what those are.. Any other programs that can make my comp faster please post or pm. thnx!

Wait, what OS are you on? I know there's this program called like XP Optimizer for xp that's pretty good. You could always go to the control panel> Performance & Maintenance> Adjust Visual Affects, and tick the one for "Adjust for Best Performance".

im on windows xp home edition

you could get a new mother board, your processor may be to outdated to handle XP, may be a Intel core duo?

I use Tune-Up Utilities alot aswell. Great program and it helps clean up your computer abit. It recovered 15mb for me ^^.

It did delete some unnecessary files that were slowing me down. So the space recovery was kinda just a bonus I guess.