Need help w/slow Win 7 PC

[Janesdf]

I finally pulled my 7 year old Emachines PC with Win 7 out of storage. They were always great for my uses, but I know they are no longer available. It's running better than I thought it would, but slow and videos are choppy. I downloaded and installed all Windows updates, updated drivers, and removed old programs I no longer use.

I've never done anything more than replace a hard drive or the fan, so updating this will be a new experience. Attached is an image of the system specs. Can any of you tell me what I need to replace to make this pc run faster.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Jane

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Single core processor and 2 gb of memory :/

 

[Janesdf]

Hi, what would you suggest I replace them with? I would like to keep the price on the lower end. Also, is it relatively easy to install those two items?

Thanks. Jane

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
About all I can think of is adding a solid state drive
And load a 32 bit version of win-7 instead of 64 bit the activation key on the case will activate 32 bit also.

Otherwise not sure I'd put any money into it the above might help it as much as possible
Memory is easy to install you can use this tool from crucial
Crucial System Scanner | Crucial.com

You might need to use cpuid/ cpu-z and post a screen shot of the main board/ memory sections amd cpu's are pretty cheap dual or quad core
CPU-Z | Softwares | CPUID

 

[RoasterMen]

SSD will save that system. I wouldn't even try playing 480P videos with it.

 

[Megahertz07]

This is what I would do:
- Buy 2+2 G of DDR2 800 memory and replace those you have. Crucial 4GB 2X 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz 2RX8 240PIN DIMM Desktop Memory RAM CL6 | eBay
- Yes, SSD will take your computer to a much higher level. If your computer is a desktop, you don't need a big SSD. 128 G will be more than you need. Use the SSD to install Win 7 and programs and the HDD for data.
I have one of this PNY CS1311 2.5 SSD7CS1311-120-RB - Newegg.com
So far so good.
- Buy a second hand Athlon 64 X2 5050e. AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e ADH5050IAA5DO 2.6 GHz Socket AM2+ CPU Processor 730143241908 | eBay
Emachines EL-1333-11f CPU RAM Upgrade Tutorial (digital media class) - YouTube
- Do a fresh install of Win 7 32 bits. 64 bits is only recommended it you have more than 4G of memory. Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[mrjimphelps]

I have an eMachines computer, about as old as yours is. Yours is 64-bit, while mine is 32-bit. Therefore, if you go up to 4 GB of RAM, you will see improvement in performance. (My eMachines computer maxes out at 2 GB of RAM.) An SSD will also help; but I think the additional memory will help more. Actually, they help in different ways; so if you go with both the memory and the SSD, you will see the best improvement.

Get a new Ethernet card, if you're going to use an Ethernet cable to connect it to your router. Or get a new USB wifi adapter. Either of these will likely give you a faster internet connection than you are now getting with the Ethernet adapter which came with the computer; but I would go with the Ethernet card and Ethernet cable over the wifi adapter, if you can easily run a cable from the computer to the router.

Get a fast browser, such as Opera with ad blocking turned on. Or, to have even faster browsing, use Firefox with the NoScript security suite browser add-on. Going with NoScript means that it will take you some time to do fine-tuning. In other words, the reason NoScript speeds things up is because it blocks the incessant scripts that so many websites run in the background. But if you block ALL scripts, many sites won't run, or they will run only partially. So you have to block all scripts, and then selectively allow only those scripts which are necessary. If you will patiently go through this process, you will find that your browsing speed has greatly improved from using FireFox with NoScript.

Opera with ad blocking turned on is almost as fast as Firefox with NoScript, and there is no fine-tuning to do.

Finally, if you're open to trying something new, I suggest that you replace Windows with Linux Mint 32-bit xfce edition. I think you will find it to be a satisfactory environment. And there is lots of free software available for Linux Mint.

 

[chefduane]

+1^ what megahertz said.