Help me upgrade my gf's computer

[sumik]

Allright I want to upgrade my gf's computer cuz it's slow as ****. Sometimes I play cs or try to play BF2 (horrible gameplay) and it's just slow. Computer restarts on itself once in a while and sometims lags while doing simple operations like opening Firefox.

Anyway here are the spec that I found so far.

Mobo ECS P4S5MG/GL+
CPU Pentium 4 1.7 GHZ
Ram SDRAM 512mb 3.3.3.6.10
Video MSI FX5700 128mb
PSU no clue what it is, nothing written on it, just plain box

I don't wanna go over $400 as I'm in middle of putting another computer for myself. What could I do with it ? Overclocking is out of question as I don't know how to do it, or have any friends that do it. If u require any addtional info hit me up please, also if u wanna see pics of it then lemme know, i'll b more than happy to do some.

 

[nVdia]

Actually for a mobo try and find a Intel D845PESV I have one and it's awesome!

 

[aliasaid]

i can understand why bf2 would be horrible, but firefox?! i suspect something else is wrong since thats a pretty good computer for surfing etc. try formatting or clean up your comp (look for viruses/adware/spyware, defrag, etc..). if your girlfriend also wants to play bf2, then ya i would upgrade, but if all she does is surf, that comp should be more than adequate. i also have a p4 1.5ghz w/ 256mb ram (dad's comp) and it runs quite fine. it can run cs 1.6 and warcraf 3 just fine. obviously it'll choke on the newer games. so your gf's comp is powerful enough, i suspect its something else. formatting should do the trick...

 

[Apokalipse]

how much resources is your system using? use task manager to find out how much RAM and CPU time is being used.
because a system like that should not lag in firefox. something else must be up with it.

 

[sumik]

Well computer doesn't use much when not accesing any programs.
uses around 100mb of ram and CPU is at 1%
but when i lets say load a website at that time it displays anywhere from 50-100% of CPU ussage, don't know if it should b like than. And when page loads it goes back to 1%

As for spyware and viruses there's lavasoft spyware detector, panda antyvirus, Norton peerguardian, so u see that computer is kept clean. Also out of 80gb there's only like 25gb used. So computer is kept clean and check every few days for anything out of ordinary.

I think that the no-name PSu is causing some of the problems, like random restarting cuz once her original one fried and i took it to some computer store to get it replaced and only paid them like $40canadian, so i'm sure it was some cheap one.
Currently I tech her how to play BF2 so she'll need something more powerfull for sure.

 

[Static_11]

Norton peerguardian

clean huh? toss the norton and download AVG then scan again

 

[sumik]

Sorry I forgot the comma beetween Norton and peerguardian, two different products. Panda does a really nice job, norton I delete after i scan computer, hate that program, I have t but I hate it.
Computer is clean, trust me.

Anyway this is turning into different topic. I need help with upgrading it cuz I have no clue lets say what mobo to get for that processor, psu and ram to stay within $400 budget.

 

[aliasaid]

so this is $400 american? since you mentioned canadian earlier i'm not too sure...

 

[sumik]

american, since probably most of the things i'll just get from newegg.com

 

[aliasaid]

ah ok great, just keep in mind if you're in canada you can't shop from newegg.com (that would be sweet tho)