Wanting to Upgrade but a Little Unsure

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BrattyBrandy

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Even though I have cable modem which makes my internet connection better, my computer seems as though it is quite often taking a nap. I want to speed it up a bit and give it a mini-makeover. I'm kinda familiar with computer and I like to think I'm rather smart. What exactly do I need to upgrade and it is it something fairly simple that I can install myself. I studied computer science for two years in college and have sorta tinkered around on computers, but nothing major. My computer is Dell Desktop. It has 19.0 GB storage and I believe 256 MB of DDR-SDRAM. It is an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40 GHz. What would I need? And is it fairly cheap right now? And do you think this is something I can install myself with a little instruction?? Please help!
 
First step would be to add at least another 256MB of RAM...what kinda apps do u run?
 
Um another stick of 256mb DDR would help. Also your HDD might be quite full. You might want to defrag it and do a clean-up and delete what you don't want nor need.
 
Well, my husband and I run things such as mIRC and Kazaa. He downloads a lot of music and videos. I try to burn them pretty fast to get them off the hard drive, but even when I defrag and delete everything I don't need the computer still seems relatively slow. Then of course we run our web browser, anti-virus software, spyware stuff. I guess that is really it. I try to keep unneeded files erased. I try to burn stuff to CD's when I really don't need it on the computer. But it just seems slow all the time. I know it is a 19 GB hard drive and right now it says I have 12.9 GB free space, but when I clean everything off that I don't need .... it's only like 15 GB free space and it really seems slow to me. Would the 256 of RAM be something that I could probably install? I've thought about erasing the whole dang computer and doing a clean install of Windows and everything, but I can't find my disk! :) I don't know .... I'm just frustrated right now.
 
Haha, well you might have a virus or some spyware since you illegally download music through Kazaa. Very easy to get a virus that way. I would try to run some spybot or spyware doctor...and a a virus check, but should be upgraded with another 256mb DDR stick.
 
I actually run my anti-virus and spyware stuff all the time to keep a check on Kazaa and we honestly have not had any problems so far (knocking on wood). Is there another P2P network that is better and less likely to get infected by? Would any DDR 256MB stick be compatible with my computer?? I really wouldn't know what brand or anything to shop for, but I'm farely confident that I can figure out how to install it.....
 
If there is another, we cannot tell you, because it is illegal, and we dont support illegal activity here. Assuming that ur mobo support DDR SDRAM, then yes, any stick should be compatible.

Brands to look for? twinMOS is great and doesnt cost much...corsair value select aint bad either
 
OK. Sorry I asked about the P2P thing ... I had a brain lapse for a moment :)

What do you mean if my "mobo" will support DDR SDRAM?? I'm a little computer lingo illiterate!
 
Question: Is this a Dell Dimension 2350? Or what type is it. If you can tell me what model number it is I can help you. I work on Dell's all the time. And there are specific upgrades that you can do to increase it's preformance. Believe me... I'm tired of working on these things.

EDIT: Kazaa is notorious for giving birth to plenty of adware & spyware once you install it on your PC. There are currently no versions of it that don't install some kinda 3rd party software. There used to be a "lite" version of it, but it was bought by a 3rd party company and now it's infected too.

P2P programs although are very tempting, they are very unsecure. That 3.5 MB MP3 that you just downloaded, may sound great and you might think it's clean, but in the first 3 seconds, there is a small line of code that is executed and installs some new virus that ANTIVIRUS software isn't even updated for yet.

Downloading files from sources you don't know is like eating from a strangers spoon. You might catch something, and you might not...
Do you wanna take that chance?
 
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