What can I do to speed up my PC?

[wekslap]

I'm wondering what, if anything, I can do to make my PC run as fast and as lean and mean as possible.

I cannot afford to upgrade at the moment, (apart from maybe some more RAM).
so i was wondering is there anything more in the software line of things, or stripping down my installed software to the minimum necessary, or maybe at a pinch reinstalling windows, or any suggestions would be gratefully accepted.

my setup is xP sp3, a 1tb hard disk, 2gb ddr ram

If its any help to you my sytem specs are:
(These were all taken with nothing much running, just me typing this, my browser is Chrome)

Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.37 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.95 GB
Page File Space 4.79 GB
Page File D:\pagefile.sys
Maximum Capacity 1024 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Slots 2
Error Correction None
DRAM Frequency 401.9 MHz
Memory Type DDR2 (PC2-6400)
Speed 400 MHz (DDR2 800)
Supported Frequencies 200.0 MHz, 266.7 MHz, 400.0 MHz
Memory Timings 3-3-3-8-11 at 200.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 4-4-4-10-14 at 266.7 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Memory Timings 5-5-5-15-21 at 400.0 MHz, at 1.8 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Data Width 64 bits
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No



CPU: Processor x86 Family 15 Model 75 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~2410 Mhz

Number of Logical Processors 2
Number of Physical Processors 1
CPU #1 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
CPU Name AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
CPU Code Name Windsor
Vendor AuthenticAMD
Number of Bits 64
Instruction Set MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64, NX, VMX
Platform Name Socket AM2 (940)
Revision BH-F2
Technology 90 nm
Original Clock 2400 MHz
Original System Clock 200 MHz
Original Multiplier 12.0
CPU Clock 2411 MHz
System Clock 200.9 MHz
HT Link 1004.6 MHz
Number of Cores 2
Core #1
Speed 2411.1 MHz
Multiplier 12.0
Core #2
Speed 2411.1 MHz
Multiplier 12.0
Virtual Technology Supported Yes
Hyper Threading Supported No
Cache
L1 Data Cache 2 x 64 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache 2 x 64 KBytes
L2 Cache 2 x 512 KBytes

1 TB Samsung SATA Hard Drive divided up into 6 partitions of varying sizes from 300GB to 100GB.

Hope this is all not a bit too much. I was'nt sure what to include.

It seems to run a bit slow to me, but I dont know much about how fast it "should" be running. Any ideas on getting it to run any faster would be much appreciated if you have any.

Also I have at present got Avast free, Winpatrol free, CleanMem, and ProcessTamer installed and chrome with dropmyrights.

Wekslap

[Concerned User]

Your configuration seems to be okay. I have pretty much the same configuration except for the processor.

You've mentioned that you've noticed system slowness. When does this occur? During bootup or afterwards when you try to run (certain) programs ?

Not sure why you would need programs like Clean mem when you've got around 2 GB of ram. But each to his own

You could start with what programs run at startup with the help of msconfig (press windows +r, type "msconfig", go to the tab "startup", uncheck all unnecessary programs and click ok. This will speed up your startup), you can disable unnecessary programs and keep only the really essential ones (like antivirus, firewall software).

The rest of the programs can be safely disabled. This would be your first step.

[kendall.a]

You could start with what programs run at startup with the help of msconfig (press windows +r, type "msconfig", go to the tab "startup", uncheck all unnecessary programs and click ok. This will speed up your startup)

Actually, with Winpatrol Free, you don't need to go into MSConfig. Winpatrol has statups available and you can delete them or even disable services.

The biggest question for me is how long have you had this system? I'm a believer that most systems need to be re-formatted and Windows re-installed every 3 years or so (at the very least). Some people reformat their drive and re-install Windows every year.

No matter how clean you keep your system and no matter how little you install or uninstall, Windows will 'bog down" after time. I can't explain it technically; I'm just going by experience. Outside of reinstalling Windows, imo the "cheapest" and best thing you can do to "speed up" a Windows system is install more RAM.

[Remah]

You don't say what you use it for and how hard to use it so it is hard to say. So what are you doing when it feel slow?

You don't mention the graphics. If it is integrated (ie shares system memory) then there will be some options there. If it is a dedicated card then do you use it for gaming of some sort?

I've a system a lot like yours - almost the same CPU. The best thing I did was moving from XP 32-bit to 7 64-bit but I've got 4GB RAM.

Check out a tweak guide for XP. There are lots of small changes that produce noticeable improvements in speed. Just note what you've done so you can reverse it out.

Maximum Capacity 1024 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Slots 2

I would normally go for more RAM. But it looks like you're saying you have two slots with 1GB each and that's the maximum.

If it's not maxed already then you'd have to replace one or both slots. If you replace just one then you might lose any benefit you're getting from dual-channel if your motherboard supports it.

Above 3GB there's not that much benefit with XP anyway.

If you are running low on physical memory or have lots of paging to disk then I'd look at creating a small dedicated partition for paging. Put it near the start of your physical drive so it gets fast access. To do this you might have to reorganize much more.

It may also be worth looking at partitioning to separate Windows and programs from your documents and other files. Large documents that you use infrequently are best stored high in their own partition at the slow end of the drive.

No matter how clean you keep your system and no matter how little you install or uninstall, Windows will 'bog down" after time. I can't explain it technically; I'm just going by experience. Outside of reinstalling Windows, imo the "cheapest" and best thing you can do to "speed up" a Windows system is install more RAM.

Not enough RAM is often the problem.

I've not had a Windows system that bogged down over time. Judicious cleaning and good housekeeping (clean up files, defrag, etc) will mitigate most issues. However, I spend a lot of time helping others to sort out their problems but I only use a reinstall as a last resort ie to fix unresolvable problems or to ensure that malware is totally gone.

[wekslap]

Originally Posted by Remah

I would normally go for more RAM. But it looks like you're saying you have two slots with 1GB each and that's the maximum.

Thanks everyone for your replies and suggestions.

Remah, as far as I know my MB, which is a Gigabyte Ga-m61vme-s2, can take 2 x 2gb ddr2 ram chips.

I use it mainly for browsing the internet and playing music. It seems slow when browsing and generally, and when changing from one folder to another.

My graphics "are"integrated on the MB. What did you mean Remah by "there may be some options here"?

I don't do gaming.

Kendall, I think I reformatted and reinstalled windows to the boot drive about a year ago.

Hope this helps.

I will gladly answer any questions that I can.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by wekslap

I use it mainly for browsing the internet and playing music. It seems slow when browsing and generally, and when changing from one folder to another.

Your hardware setup should be good enough for browsing IMO. Other than relating to the hardware, there're other factors which can affect the speed in browsing such as:

1. The browser you use and its add-ons. My preferred browser is Chrome for speed, with minimum extensions.

2. The webpages you visit. Some webpages are designed without taking speed into consideration, such as using high resolutions for displaying small images, no optimization, etc. Some users turn to blocking images when browsing for speed but I seldom do that.

I have not much experience in encountering slowness in playing back music, but I've tried putting hundreds or even thousands of mp3 files all in one single folder and that tends to slow down the machine in some way. Placing these files under several folders and reducing the number of files in one folder did help me.

[Remah]

Originally Posted by wekslap

I use it mainly for browsing the internet and playing music. It seems slow when browsing and generally, and when changing from one folder to another.

My graphics "are"integrated on the MB. What did you mean Remah by "there may be some options here"?

There's no obvious reason why it should be slow. You're not doing anything that should heavily load the system.
- slow browsing is often connection speed
- slow switching between folders is sometimes disk fragmentation

Is your disk working a lot when it's slow? ie drive light is flashing or drive is making noise

Have you done these basics?
- clean disk by removing unneeded files e.g. run Windows Cleanup or Piriform Ccleaner
- defragment drives e.g. run Windows Defragmentation or Piriform Defraggler

Integrated graphics share system memory. If you are running slow because memory is being paged out to disk then you may be able to free up some memory that is being used by the graphics. If graphics is contributing to slow speed then your options include reducing resolution, reducing color depth, settings in your BIOS, and the settings in the software from the graphics vendor.

If you want to compare with other systems there are lots of ways to benchmark. If you run PC Wizard's (see http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...on-utility.htm) global benchmark then I can compare the results with my system which is similar.

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by Remah

- slow browsing is often connection speed

Agreed. One of the key factors.

[kendall.a]

Do you run CCleaner regularly? If not, I'd like to suggest it. CCleaner should clean out your temporary internet files which could help with browsing speed. It also cleans out other junk files that are unnecessary. This probably won't help a whole lot, but try emptying any files older than a couple days in the windows/temp directory. Also type run>%temp%>enter and delete anything older than 3 days. (The above probably won't help too much, but it is good general cleaning anyway.)

It's probably not doable at this point, but a dedicated graphics card could make all the difference in the world. (If it's in your budget.)

[MidnightCowboy]

Running a DNS benchmark test and switching to a faster service for your locality could possibly make a difference regarding browsing. Any gains are likely to be negligible in terms of noticeable speed but maybe every little helps?
Remah is the expert