Wanting to Upgrade but a Little Unsure
- Thread starter BrattyBrandy
- Start date
- Status
BrattyBrandy
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 17
I've defraged and deleted unwanted things. I even deleted Kazaa and my husband will just have to get over it! 
Is ebay a pretty trustworthy place to but the RAM or where to shop for it? What kind of price should I be looking for?
Is ebay a pretty trustworthy place to but the RAM or where to shop for it? What kind of price should I be looking for?
HAVOC
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 4,217
- Location
- Milford, Connecticut
Ok. The 4500's use PC2100 memory modules. You should start there.
Upgrading the memory is very easy. You said you already have 256MB. Which by todays standards is far from enough. I'm assuming you are running XP Home Edition? Which normal runs well with 256MB installed, but when you have other programs and services running in the background, it will be slow. (OPEN UP THE PC) and look to see if you have (1)256MB PC2100 module or (2)128MB PC2100 modules. Hopefully it's just the one 256MB module. What you want to do here is upgrade to at least 512MB. That Motherboard only supports up to 1GIG - which would be ideal, but not really needed. You basically want to have two identical (size) modules one in each of the two slots. Then your system will be able to take advantage of it's Dual Channel Capabilities. (PM ME for more infomation on this)
One of the best things to do - although a pain in the butt, is format the HDD and start again with a fresh install of windows. Then be very careful with what othre programs you install on your system. Install a firewall, AV program, adware and spyware programs and configure them to update and scan at least twice a week.
Also 20 GIGS of HDD Space isn't that much at all. You might consider buying a new IDE HDD say 120GIG and use it for all your media storage. Just use your 20GIG HDD for your operating system and other programs you want to install. You can do this by setting the HDD's to master & slave by adjusting the jumpers on the back of the drives and attaching them to the appropriate connectors on the IDE cable.
HERE IS A GOOD REFERENCE FOR YOUR SYSTEM
http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/dim4500/
PM ME FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF THIS
Upgrading the memory is very easy. You said you already have 256MB. Which by todays standards is far from enough. I'm assuming you are running XP Home Edition? Which normal runs well with 256MB installed, but when you have other programs and services running in the background, it will be slow. (OPEN UP THE PC) and look to see if you have (1)256MB PC2100 module or (2)128MB PC2100 modules. Hopefully it's just the one 256MB module. What you want to do here is upgrade to at least 512MB. That Motherboard only supports up to 1GIG - which would be ideal, but not really needed. You basically want to have two identical (size) modules one in each of the two slots. Then your system will be able to take advantage of it's Dual Channel Capabilities. (PM ME for more infomation on this)
One of the best things to do - although a pain in the butt, is format the HDD and start again with a fresh install of windows. Then be very careful with what othre programs you install on your system. Install a firewall, AV program, adware and spyware programs and configure them to update and scan at least twice a week.
Also 20 GIGS of HDD Space isn't that much at all. You might consider buying a new IDE HDD say 120GIG and use it for all your media storage. Just use your 20GIG HDD for your operating system and other programs you want to install. You can do this by setting the HDD's to master & slave by adjusting the jumpers on the back of the drives and attaching them to the appropriate connectors on the IDE cable.
HERE IS A GOOD REFERENCE FOR YOUR SYSTEM
http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/dim4500/
PM ME FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF THIS
HAVOC
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 4,217
- Location
- Milford, Connecticut
BrattyBrandy said:I've defraged and deleted unwanted things. I even deleted Kazaa and my husband will just have to get over it!
Is ebay a pretty trustworthy place to but the RAM or where to shop for it? What kind of price should I be looking for?
defragging for the most part won't give you a noticable increase in performance. Deleting unwanted files won't increase performance either. It just gives you back usable space for more data. Even though you uninstalled kazaa, the other 3rd party "malware" is still installed on your PC.
The performance bottlenecks that you are experiencing are more related to the fact that your CPU isn't able to work fast enough because it has to constantly wait for the memory to refresh with the new data that the CPU needs. I bet you see this message a lot, "PROGRAM IS NOT RESPONDING"
Example:
Imagine that you want to fill a 1 gallon bucket with water. The bucket can't be moved from the floor. And the only way you can get the water from the faucet to the bucket is by using 8oz dixie cups. This is going to take a long time isn't it? what if you had 16oz cups?
Or better yet - 32oz cups? That bucket would get filled much faster wouldn't it?
The same thing applies here. Your CPU requests data from the HDD. The data "binary data" is transfered from your HDD to the memory modules. Then when the CPU is ready for is, it is transfered to the CPU. If you only have a small amount memory, your CPU must constantly wait for the new data it's requesting. There is also smething called a "paging file" which is utilized by windows, but is much slower then memory. This is another reason you are experiencing slow performance.
I hope i didn't confuse you more.
BrattyBrandy
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 17
Ok. I'm a little confused but not too much! Maybe I should just ship the dang computer to you and let you fix it all J/K
I think I have one stick of 256 in one slot and then I have an empty slot.
I can wipe the hard drive clean and do a fresh install of Windows XP but I gotta dig around and find my CD first. It has sprouted legs and hidden somewhere. I can't put my finger on it.
So any suggestions on where to buy the memory from? And what kind of cost would I be expecting for the memory and cost for the bigger hard drive???
J/KI think I have one stick of 256 in one slot and then I have an empty slot.
I can wipe the hard drive clean and do a fresh install of Windows XP but I gotta dig around and find my CD first. It has sprouted legs and hidden somewhere. I can't put my finger on it.
So any suggestions on where to buy the memory from? And what kind of cost would I be expecting for the memory and cost for the bigger hard drive???
Just as an aside here, a cleaner P2P program alternative to Kazaa is Limewire (find it on download.com). As far as I know, it doesn't have any spyware, but if it does, it doesn't significantly affect your computer anyways.
And also, P2P networks in general are not illegal, just downloading copyrighted music/movies off them is.. Some musical groups(such as my own), like to have our music on p2p networks because it helps in getting exposure.
And also, P2P networks in general are not illegal, just downloading copyrighted music/movies off them is.
. Some musical groups(such as my own), like to have our music on p2p networks because it helps in getting exposure.BrattyBrandy
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 17
I want to thank all of you for your help and suggestions at this time. For now, I have bought a 256MB card to install to help things out a little. My next two steps will be finding my disc so that I can do a clean install .... and then I will buy a bigger hard drive. Just can't quite afford a nice big hard drive right now, unless any of you can find something really cheap for me ;-)
So thanks for your help!
So thanks for your help!
- Status
