I have a Compaq SR5413WM Desktop PC which I am trying to speed up. You can see the specs of it at Compaq Presario SR5413WM Desktop PC Product Specifications Compaq Presario SR5413WM Desktop PC - HP Customer Care (Singapore - English). The only enhancement I have done so far is to add 2gb of RAM, so it is now running with 4gb verusus the 2gb it came with. Below are what I thought I might be able to do to speed it up. Let me know what you think of the ideas and any other recommendations you may have. 1. Get a video card. It is running with graphics built into the motherboard (NVidea GEFORCE 6160SE. I thought maybe a PCI Express type card with 512mb or memory (like the GEFORCE 9500. Would this show a performace improvement? A video card I was considering is the Galaxy GeForce 9500 GT Video Card at http://www.frys.com/product/6287800. 2. Upgrade to Windows 7. This is on Windows Vista Home Pro right now. Not sure if there is a real performance gain with the new operating system, but I could try it. 3. Upgrade the processor. It has a ASUS M2N68-LA motherboard. The processor is a Athlon LE 1640 (L) 2.7 GHz. Not sure which processor to get to see a performance increase. A processor I was considering was the Processor - 1 x AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ / 3 GHz - Socket AM2 - L2 2 MB ( 2 x 1 MB ) - OEM (on amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Processor-AMD-Athlon-6000-Socket/dp/B001NZNJLI). Let me know your thoughts. One thing I do like about the system is the fact that it has the original operating system and files on a small partition of the hard drive. If I upgrad to Windows 7 is there any way for me to keep this type of arrangement?
1. anything that runs on PCI-e will show an improvement over a integrated gfx chip. Won't be a gaming machine, but a lot better than what you have now 2. Upgrade. Windows 7 is faster and better. 3. there won't be any real gain, I think. In pure GHz terms it's not really faster - maybe the cache will do some good, but not anything substantial. a dual core cpu would give you some good improvements on multitasking , but otherwise... meh. The small partition is some restore thing, I guess. If you install Windows 7, then you can upgrade or wipe and do a clean install on the first partition without ever touching the small partition. If you want to have Windows 7 restore files on that small partition, then probably that's not quite possible (that's presuming I do understand you correctly about the partition thing... otherwise, never mind).
