I was asked a short time ago, the best way, to make your old computer, run faster and how to upgrade it, if you don’t have cash on hand to buy a new setup.
The answer is actually fairly easy, it’s a matter of identifying pieces of your computer which are slowing it down, and then replace or upgrade those pieces. If you don’t have a lot of cash on hand, then we can do this gradually. If you can afford to replace all the slow pieces, buy a new computer instead. On average, it takes 2 years for your brand spankin new computer, to be completely outdated.
The first thing you will want to check out is system memory. In 32 bit Windows operating systems, you can have a maximum of 4gb of memory. If you have less then 4gb, then maximize upto 4gb. You can do this 1gb at a time, or all at once, if money permits. If your motherboard can handle 8gb, and you run a 32 bit Windows, don’t go out and buy 8gb. Instead, remember that your maximum is 4gb, it’s built into the kernel, and 8gb will just waste your money, when you can’t use/see the other 4gb. If you are on a 64bit OS, then you can have 64gb of memory. Get as much as you can afford.
Next, we want to upgrade our video card. Most programs run in system memory, and if you don’t have enough memory, it swaps data to the HDD. But since you are on the second step, it means you already have as much memory as you can handle. Why a video card upgrade and not HDD? For one thing, games utilize video memory. So upgrading your video card to something a little better, with more video memory, will go a long way to speeding up your system.
The next step, is not the HDD. We want to try and get the fastest response time on the HDD, but we also want a larger size. It’s a balance between performance and space. Performance will do you better on an older system, but space will help with memory swapping as well as just having more space to keep things. Memory swapping, occurs when there is not enough space in memory, and the system will swap data back and forth from memory to the HDD.
The Processor is not a step you will normally want to upgrade. The reasoning is simple. To upgrade the processor you will need to upgrade the motherboard. If we need to upgrade the motherboard, we may also need to upgrade the HDD, the memory, and the video card. Essentially, this is where we buy a new system instead, as prices are so cheap anyways.
Should you buy a new system, you can actually get away with most stock computers. Just remember these things, buy the fastest processor, with the most space on the HDD. We also want to make sure there is space to upgrade the memory and the video card. After you buy your system, maximize the memory and get the second best video card on the market. If you do these things, you will pay probably about 2x what you bought the actual computer for, but in return the computer will last you 4 years before you start noticing it as being “too slow”. If you’re wondering why I said second best video card, it’s because they will be a couple hundred cheaper, and almost exactly the same speed as the fastest.
Additional things you can do to speed your system, are to run anti-virus, anti-spyware, have a good firewall, and defragment your HDD regularly. Also, see what’s starting on your system automatically, and experiment with closing things down, and if no harmful effects happen when closed, then stop having them startup (run -> msconfig.exe).
One last thing… Norton’s AV/System Protection will slooooooooooow you down. Don’t use it.
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How can I tell if my computer is running a 32-bit or a 64-bit version of Windows?
To find out if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, do the following:
1.Open System by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.
2.Under System, you can view the system type.
If your computer is running Windows XP, do the following:
1.Click Start.
2.Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
If you don’t see “x64 Edition” listed, then you’re running the 32-bit version of Windows XP.
If “x64 Edition” is listed under System, you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows XP.
Many pc’s support more than one drive so instead of replacing a drive and having to re-do all your installation of programs adding a second drive as a “slave” might work
http://askbobrankin.com/add_a_second_hard_drive.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-5021305-1.html
then if your replacing things like cards don’t forget Spitt’s great motherboard info:
http://rpg-exploiters.com/tools-programs/how-to-read-your-motherboard/
Some great Info in there! I am running on a 10+ year old computer, with a upgraded memory, video card, and monitor.
Something I found out about, which I didn’t know initially is that a good monitor can actually increase your FPS (Frames Per Second) In game and when watching videos.
For those of you who don’t know what FPS are, they are how fast your monitor displays each image.
Think of one of those old movie reels with all the hundreds of pictures on the film. Now image each of those different pictures as 1 Frame. If you run the film slow, the picture will look choppy, but if you run it faster, things will look much smoother.
Essentially computer monitors work the same way.
I also highly suggest getting a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display; Also known as Flat Screen Monitors) “HD” (High Definition) monitor, since the picture quality is 1000% times better then regular monitors.
I am currently running off of a NVIDIA 8800 GT videocard and used to get 20-25 FPS in most of my games using a Samsung 17 and 22 inch monitors. Then my old 17 inch monitor broke and I bought a new 23 Inch HD monitor. I was completely surprised when my FPS jumped from 20-25 to 35-50!!
Now usually a monitor will not make this large of a difference, but after speaking with many others, I learned that a good monitor can improve your FPS, on average, from 10-15 FPS.
I also recommend only getting flat screen monitors and not the old clunky CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors.
A. Flat screens take up less room.
B. Flat screens get better FPS and refresh Times
C. Flat screen monitors release less radiation
Yes, your monitor, computer, Cell phones, and many other electronic devices, including TV’s, are constantly releasing small doses of radiation as you use them. Most electronics companies do not want you to know this information, but just keep in mind that you using one of these electronics devices for a couple years definitely can have repercussions!
But anyway, just remember, buy a flat screen HD monitor, for the best increases in performance.
Can we slightly veer the subject to be more of an extending the life of an old computer because one simply can’t afford a new system in these hard times?
Maybe something like The Frugal Computer user.
I’m sure we would all like to improve our video cards, memory, monitors, etc. but probably the biggest issue (especially for gamers) is a lack of hard drive space, just no room for new games, and no desire to delete a game and then have to endure a day of re-downloading, extracting, updating a game if we decide to play it again
can you use an external hard drive to play games off of?
A frugal tip (C’mon everybody fess up some too:)
Save ink every time you are asked to print a receipt for an online transaction by printing to pdf
or copying the page, and pasting it to a word doc
then create a new file like pdf confirmations and move them there…
I always thought print to file would do this but print to file does:
Q) when i print to file and view the result all I see is rubish, how does print to file work?
Q) Print to file is just that – a document that has been formatted according to the printer driver being used. All that “rubbish” is how a printer is able to know where to set the margins, font type, etc throughout the document. You can take this .prn file and at a dos prompt go “copy xx.prn lpt1″ and it will print the file just as if you were in Word and said print. You are smart enough to know that you would not want to send a laserjet formatted file to a inkjet. They use different formatting.
When it comes to updating your computer, with little money, the best route is more memory. This will increase the performance of your system as well as games. If you are running out of HDD space, then you need to unload some things. I use Revo Uninstaller, to go through and remove programs I no longer use. One thing I like to do periodically, is remove every Java update, and then reinstall. Each time Java is updated, it seems to leave the old update, and each of these might be 100mb. It was a while since the last time I did this, but I managed to free up 1gb of space with this technique. You can also run CCleaner to remove temp files, which can bog down your system. Another method, is to defrag regularly, as fragmented files can also slow your system performance, and take unnecessary space.
Instead of running games off of an external HDD, you might consider instead moving other files to a CD or DVD. For example your MP3 collection. Mine happened to be 45GB. I am not really sure if it’s a lot, but if you move it to a DVD, not only do you back everything up, but you open more space on your HDD.
If you are the truly frugal, and are trying to extend the life of your system, consider also downgrading to an old version of Win 98/ME, instead of XP/Vista/Win 7. Alternatively, run a version of Linux, Free BSD, or Ubuntu. Either of these solutions will net you more performance, as newer OS’s will slow your system down.
If you are a follower and use Norton’s AV, and fully believe in this program, you’re an idiot. Not only is it bloatware, but it steals your computer’s performance – it’s also not the best AV out there. Likewise with most combinations of FireWalls, AntiVirus, and Spyware detectors. Combo’s aren’t usually that good.
If you want to help speed up games, consider using a program where you can order which programs are found where on your HDD. The outer portion of the Spindle, is faster then the inner. So documents, put on the inner, games on the outer. GameBooster, can also defrag just your game, as well as unload things from memory.
If you are truly frugal, and the above doesn’t help, or you have a little bit of money to spend… buy more memory.
Cnet’s page describes UltimateDefrag Freeware Edition 1.72 as:
More than just a defragger, UltimateDefrag is also a hard drive file placement optimizer that enables you to defrag and place your files in the areas on your hard drive where you achieve maximum performance. 80% of the time you only use 20% of the files on your hard drive. UltimateDefrag places your rarely used files out of the way and onto the slower performing areas of your hard drive making your drive perform like a new, almost-empty drive.
Version 1.72 includes unspecified updates.
Price: Free
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista
http://download.cnet.com/UltimateDefrag-Freeware-Edition/3000-2094_4-10582157.html
user describing ultimate defrag file positioning
http://rahmanmillenium.multiply.com/reviews/item/638
Optimize Swap File Location on Your Hard Disk Volumes
http://www.pcguide.com/opt/opt/osSwapLocation-c.html
My computer is running slow what steps can I do to fix it?
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000179.htm
How To Make Your Computer Faster: Registry Cleaner, Improving PC Performance
http://www.howtodothings.com/computers/a3415-how-to-make-your-computer-faster.html