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Possible computer upgrades for Christmas?

L

l Thomas l

Senior member
I got this PC about 3 years ago. It's a Dell Dimension 4500 (yeah I didn't know much about what to buy back then). The only upgrade I've ever made is this past summer, an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and another 512mb stick of RAM.

I'm looking to upgrade my computer. Here are my specs:

OS:
Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP1

Monitor:
Refurbished Dell Monitor (everything works fine though) 15" I think. Flat screen (not flat panel, haha i was tricked)

Case:
Stock Dell Dimension 4500, no additional fans or cooling, nothing's overclocked though

Hard Drive:
WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 (120GB, 30GB free space)

Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz

Motherboard:
Intel Pendleton 2 D845EPT2

Memory:
1GB RAM

Video Card:
RADEON 9800 PRO (128 MB)

Sound Card:
Creative SB Live! Value (CT4780) Sound Card

Speakers:
harmon/kardon

Keyboard/Mouse:
Dell stock keyboard/Kensington Optical Wireless mouse

2 Network Cards


My computer runs decent, very slow startup however (about 30 secs to completely load after I type in my password and log in to Windows XP), even though I only have Norton's AV and ZoneAlarm in the system tray after I launch my computer. I've looked in the registry Run and in msconfig and I have disabled everything unneeded. I have about 28 processes when it's done starting up, but the majority are multiple instances of required Windows stuff.

How could I improve performance immediately? I know it's possible to have a faster startup. I'm pretty sure it's because of how much space is taken on my hard drive (30GB free on a 120GB drive).

What possible ugrades would be good? I use my computer for a lot of things. Videos (capturing, editing, compressing, watching, everything), I edit music a little, I've started making beats, I play games, I do graphics and editing and all that. So I'm looking for an upgrade that would boost my overall performance.

I'm satisfied with the games I have, so I was thinking:
- MX510 mouse
- headphones
- DVD burner (still don't have one)
for fun stuff, but I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good, overall upgrade, that's preferrably cheap.

I'm willing to spend about $150-200 at the most, especially if I can get a job.

Thanks

Sorry it's such a long post
 
id say a hard drive. i cant help you out with exactly what to get, and how to raid if thats what you wanna do, but im sure plenty of people here can help you out
 
Good luck, I can only suggest you wait until you have about 700 bucks and build a new system.

Someone else will come along and help you out
 
Slow Windows loading after entering your password is usually due to adware and/or spyware, but 30 seconds isn't too bad, especially considering you use a resource pig like Norton. Good idea to scan for spyware anyway.

You'll never overclock that CPU or RAM. You might be able to overclock the videocard, but not enough to really give you a significant speed boost.

You might have one of the cheaper Dells that has a proprietary mobo, PSU and case. If that's the situation, a entire new system will be more cost effective...might even be the same cost (Dell wants your first-born for upgrade components that work with their boxes). So $200 isn't going to help much. Spend the money on a burner and a gaming mouse, or invest it in a CD and start saving for a new machine.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I scan fairly often with Bazooka, Adaware, and Search & Destroy, so it's not spyware or anything.

You're right, 30 seconds isn't bad, but my dad, who has an inferior computer (old Gateway with Windows ME heh. Windows XP hadn't come out and they wouldn't sell it to him with Windows 2000) has a computer that boots up faster than mine. And he has more launch programs than I do (including Norton's). I have Norton's 2003 btw. My neighbor who has almost identical computer specs, except he has a lot more HD space and his computer isn't a Dell.

What's this about selling my computer back to Dell? Will they take a 3 year old computer? Yeah my PSU is crappy. It's 250 watts and when I checked I'm pretty sure the power regulation/stability/whatever you call it wasn't very good.

Thanks for the suggestions everoyne.
 
Dad probably has a faster hard drive, since ME isn't a true 32-bit OS. Check your drive settings, make sure DMA is set if you can, and also check the BIOS setting for the drive and IDE channels. However, if it's a 5400 RPM drive, there really isn't anything you can do to get Windows to load faster, other than to upgrade to a faster drive.

I don't know anything about selling back to Dell. Maybe they have some sort of trade-in policy...

Chances are your PSU is made by a company with an unfamiliar name, based in China. But swapping out just the PSU probably can't be done unless you order one from Dell.
 
What did you mean by this:

"(Dell wants your first-born for upgrade components that work with their boxes)."

You mean they only want you to upgrade by buying from them? That's obvious, but is that what you were trying to say? I thought you said they would want the parts for refurbished computers or something.

How do you check DMA? Is it in the BIOS settings? You hit delete at startup for that right? Why do I need to check the drive and IDE channels?

Let's say I do build a new computer, how do you suggest transfering the data (a problem I've always thought about)? I'm a lazy person and in all these 3 years, I have hardly backed up anything. What kind of external drive should I buy to store everything on and transfer it? And since I'd buy another hard drive, how would you suggest keeping the cost low (of buying external HD and new HD)?

Thanks again
 
Nevermind about DMA.

In Primary and Secondary IDE Channels, it's set to DMA if available. In Primary it says Device 0 is using Ultra DMA 5 (HD right?). In Secondary it says Device 0 and 1 are using Ultra DMA 2 (CD and DVD drives right?).
 
As you do some video and audio editing and have up to $200 at your disposal I would look into new soundcard. Live Value was old when you bought it, there have been 4 new generations of soundcards since this one came, I believe about 7 yrs ago... Last drivers for your soundcard are from 2001. I guess they can be inefficient
Check another today's thread on AT for more info on that.
Half of your budget will get you X-Fi, for sound editing reasons I'd rather jump to the best card out there, i.e. X-Fi. Another half can be alocated towards, maybe, nice headphones?As for performance do the maintainance jobs:
1)install SP2
2)reg cleaner
3)defrag disc
4)look at what's getting loaded at OS startup in msconfig. Minimize lenght of the list of programmes loaded at start
5)update/patch your apps and hardware

Hope that helps 😉
 
Hmm...$200? I would say a new processor, maybe a 3.2GHz P4 or something, then you could upgrade your vid card and get a 6600GT or something like that. Otherwise, try a new sound card.
 
From your suggestion I think a DVD burner is a good option so you can free up some space on your hard drive. $100 bucks wil get you a 16x NEC or similar drive and plenty of writable DVDs to last a while.

Maybe get a larger monitor as 15 CRT is quite small these days, unless it is more then enough.

I would hold of upgrading the CPU until you can go for mombo, CPU (dual) and ram. Same with the video card.

Do a cleanup and optimization of your system if you can a reinstall will help for a short time if you can go that route.

Your system seems fine unless you have specific problems or slowdowns other then startup that you need addressed.
 
I've done reg cleaner, a lot of tweaks system wide, spyware check, startup check, virus checks, defrag, and I do it fairly often. I update drivers for everything (yeah that is funny the latest sound drivers for my card are from 2001, I noticed that too).

elkin, you're right. My startup is the only thing that's sort of slow. Could it be due to 120GB drive and only 30GB free? That's what I was thinking.

Ghouler, I've done all that except install SP2. How much would that improve my system's performance? I've had bad experiences with Service Packs (3 different ones I think) so I've held off. I only installed SP1 at the beginning of 2005 so my capture card would work. I forgot what I did, but I eventually fixed the changes/inconveniences.

How much would the sound card help my performance? I do some video and audio editing, but usually it isn't very intense performance-wise.

Should I buy an external drive to back up a lot of my files or just to clear up space? How much would it cost for a decent one that's decent size (40gb one maybe)?
 
30GB free shouldn't be any problem. Defrag your hard drive if you haven't. You might want to backup any important files on dvds or another hard drive and reformat and reinstall windows on that 120GB, might do something.

I would just save up and wait until you can build a new system.
 
bump

I found a good DVD burner, everything I want in it. I'll probably want that. It's only about $48 shipped and with 25 DVD-Rs.

I was thinking about an external hard drive. How much are they about, what's a decent one, anything to consider? (I don't think I'd want one any bigger than my current 120gb internal hd.)

Also, where can I get instructions for installing the DVD burner? It seems easy, but I'm not sure about putting those ribbons in. Since I only have 2 drive slots in my PC, should I take out the DVD/CD reader or the CD burner? I was thinking take out the CD burner since the DVD burner can burn CDs too. Or is it possible to burn 2 cds at once while still being fast? I was thinking no, since it uses the CPU and RAM to burn the CD so burning 2 at a time wouldn't be fast.
 
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