hey computer guru's. Which upgrade is more worthwhile?

[NMB2]

current system specs are Dell XPS M1330.

currently it has 4GB ram, Intel core2 duo T8100 penryn-3m 2.10ghz processor, 320gb 7200rpm on-board HD and Iomega 1TB external HD. GeForce 8400M GS and vista sp2 64bit. I know the O.S has a bit to do with the sluggishness and I need to upgrade to 7 but I'm waiting right now.

On bootup, after everything is loaded it already consumes 34%-36% of RAM and I think that is a large part of what I consider to be sluggish. Right now I am looking to upgrade it and eventually will do both, but want to know which is the better bang for what I'm looking to get right now. I'm looking at putting another 4GB stick of ram in to bump up to 8gb. That is $144 upgrade. The other thing I was thinking about is upgrading from my hhd to a ssd. They are very expensive and the biggest in my price range is a 64GB.

I am heavily leaning towards 4gb ram upgrade, followed by windows 7, eventually followed by ssd.

Opinions?

 

[multiranger]

current system specs are Dell XPS M1330.

currently it has 4GB ram, Intel core2 duo T8100 penryn-3m 2.10ghz processor, 320gb 7200rpm on-board HD and Iomega 1TB external HD. GeForce 8400M GS and vista sp2 64bit. I know the O.S has a bit to do with the sluggishness and I need to upgrade to 7 but I'm waiting right now.

On bootup, after everything is loaded it already consumes 34%-36% of RAM and I think that is a large part of what I consider to be sluggish. Right now I am looking to upgrade it and eventually will do both, but want to know which is the better bang for what I'm looking to get right now. I'm looking at putting another 4GB stick of ram in to bump up to 8gb. That is $144 upgrade. The other thing I was thinking about is upgrading from my hhd to a ssd. They are very expensive and the biggest in my price range is a 64GB.

I am heavily leaning towards 4gb ram upgrade, followed by windows 7, eventually followed by ssd.

Opinions?

I would go to www.malwarebytes.org and download the free malwarebytes program.. Sounds like you may have some spyware or a virus.. If you don't have current virus protection microsoft security essentials is free and works great... just google it and download it from microsoft.. That is my .02... Hope it helps...

 

[DangerRanger~91]

I say upgrade you cpu maybe as well... maybe an i5. Also more ram always helps.... Also just my opinion but I dislike 64bit.. its to much of a pita.

 

[Mark_88]

MSCONFIG...find out what is loading...strip down to bare bones...and test...if you're still chewing up 30-40% of the RAM I'd suggest adding more of it at first...then consider other options...a different HDD isn't going to change the RAM use...unless you are not using a different drive for your swap file...then you can create a partition and swap out to that drive to see if it works any better...

 

[NMB2]

computer isnt slower than it was when I first got it, and it always used that much ram just on startup as far as I can remember. It hasnt gotten slower, I just want to make it faster.

I'm confident my computer is clear of spyware/virus's as I've had Norton on this computer since I purchased it last july, and I'm pretty caeful what I d/l and visit.

I thought about upgrading the cpu but everything I read says this cpu is still up-to-date, and the I3 and I5 computers I played with didnt seem much faster than mine. the I3 actually seemed slower.

I will try to do the msconfig and see if I can get the usage down, any idea what would be causing that? Adding another 4gb should make a noticable different right?

On a side note with the hard drives. I know it wont change ram usage but the SSD's seem to be the new craze, speeds up the computer because it finds everything faster. Cuts boot up times down by nearly 75%.

I'm not trying to fix my computer, I'm just trying to get the best bang for my buck, upgrades.

 

[DangerRanger~91]

Yeah my friend has a ssd and his computer boots in like 10 seconds... its pretty crazy.

 

[NMB2]

Yeah my friend has a ssd and his computer boots in like 10 seconds... its pretty crazy.

thats what I hear. The only thing that has me detered right now is that a SSD 64gb is $220. I guess that isnt so bad consdering I have a 1TB external but without the external hooked up, that would suck

I have my laptop docked under the desk and run it as a desktop btw. 26" flatscreen, keyboard, mouse. printer, speakers, ect.

 

[HareRazor]

I think if anything just for the cool factor go with the SSD for your oS drive and you can store your data on the 2nd drive you already have. I don't know if another 4 gigs of ram will help much.

 

[Jaymz9350]

Honestly in my opinion upgrading the hard drive to an SSD would be the only worth while upgrade. I would highly doubt Vista is the issue as that laptop has plenty of balls for the OS (the people bitching the most were running it on to low spec machines) and RAM usage is fine, my desktop on Vista 64 usually sits at 50-60% usage, and isn't sluggish since if the system needs that RAM the OS will release unneeded RAM that it uses (which actually helps speed up the system which 7 will also do).

Upping the RAM to 8 Gig would be an absolute waste of money as I highly doubt you'll ever actually use all of the 4 you have now, and the OS will just use more once you put it in, it bases how much it uses on how much is installed.

 

[97RangerXLT]

do the win 7 upgrade first. you will spend about the same as a ram upgrade, and you will get a noticeable difference in speed and handling, plus 7 is a much better OS. I have done this on my wife's vista laptop and and it is a whole different machine.

Vista is a Dog with fleas and Microsoft has acknowledged that fact by releasing 7 only 2 years after vista. XP was 6 years before vista, and Microsoft has extended the downgrade rights to XP for businesses until 2020... that tells you something there...

I made a gaming rig computer running 7 last year with only 4gb of ram, and it does pretty well. boots up in less than a minute to a stable desktop.

as for SSD, you might get a smaller one and just load windows on it and use your terrabyte drive for programs and files. it will save you bucks and you will get your speed.

just some thoughts.

AJ

 

[Spowerback]

go to msconfig in run and go to startup tab and remove things u dont need at start up such as itunes aim msn ect. msconfig probably comes up same way in 7 as vista so give it a try
http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html

 

[NMB2]

already did it... it lowered my startup % by 9%

 

[Spowerback]

I recommend the program everest free edition for more details
http://download.cnet.com/Everest-Ultimate-Edition/3000-2086_4-10499291.html
or c and d drive defrag

To run the defragmentation:

[For Windows XP and other versions, the procedure is basically the same]
Double-click My Computer, right click on the disk to defragment and then click Properties.
Select the Tools tab and click Defragment Now

 

[NMB2]

i just indexed my c drive and that made a HUGE difference.

 

[Spowerback]

you have dvd player it says it does a lot of noise is that true