Desktop getting a bit old and slow - upgrade or start again?
 

It was quite fast when I put it together all those years ago....

Athlon 2500+
ASUS N-Force Motherboard
2x256k DDR RAM = 512k in a dual channel config.
ATI 9800 All-In-Wonder Video Card (with analogue TV tuner :cool:)
160Gb SATA hard drive
etc.

Running XP Pro.

Seems to have slowed down dramatically over the last year or so probably because of all the cr*p I have installed plus various M$ updates to XP. I know the memory is probably the main limitation and I could just get 2GB for £50.

Eventually I'll replace it with something a bit more cutting edge, i.e. something based on an i7 but can't really justify the £1k spend at the moment.

Also want to get a new monitor, currently drives a 19" CRT at 1600x1200 but things have well and truly caught up on the LCD front and a nice 22"-24" job is calling.

So either:

1. 2Gb RAM - £50 - May make a difference.
2. Dual Core Pentium (E6300 maybe) £56, new Motherboard £46, 2GB DDR2 Ram £24, 1TB SATA2 HD £67, beefed up PSU £40 = £233
3. As above + Core 2 Duo (E7500) £92 = £269
4. As above + Core 2 Quad (Q9400) £140 = £317
5. Save up for the i7 mega build.

I tempted to go for option 2 as a cheapy speed up to my current system for now and then buy something better later. Any of those options are going to seem way faster than the current system :D

it depends how you have your OS setup

I try and separate all my "user profile" settings and program data onto a seperate drive (either logical or physical)

also any software I install I keep the MSI installer filed away too

this means that I can very quickly reload my OS because I wont loose any settings or data -- and can reinstall and software from the MSI repositary as and when I need it

I tend to do this a couple of times a year tbh -- and it always speeds up my machine