How to speed up PC that hasn't been turned on in 5+ years

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ScannaMan9

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Hello

I was recently at my storage unit and found an old Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP home edition. I have it hooked up to a TV in my bedroom and want to use it as a netflix/ YouTube streaming device as well as occasional web browsing

Anyone have any advice on speeding it up? Any recommendations on other things?

Thanks,
Scannaman9
 

frazpo

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specs

The specs of the computer is the important part. Processor speed, memory?
 

n5ims

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One other critical point (since you no longer need anything that's on the pc - it hasn't been touched for 5+ years after all) is to wipe off the current hard disk and install from scratch the OS, then apply all updates (your install CD is probably quite old as well!). That way you won't have any old apps, unused drivers, or other "junk" running but unused taking up space and slowing things down. Next, install anything that you still need to run (updated browsers for example). Don't install those useless browser helper apps and toolbars unless they're really necessary for you since they really slow things down.

One additional tip is you may want to remove the existing hard disk and replace it with a new one (it won't need to be all that large with what you say you want to do). That way you'll have a clean install AND all your old stuff if you find out later that there was something that you really needed off the old disk.
 

QDP2012

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One additional tip is you may want to remove the existing hard disk and replace it with a new one...

ScannaMan9,

N5IMS' idea is a good one, not just for back-up/data-rention purposes.

If you do replace your HDD, you might consider getting one with the highest RPM (spin-speed) rating you can, so that the access-time is as low/quick as possible. Windows uses its swap-file to compensate for limited physical memory. A clean, fast, drive with room for a large swap-file will help keep the machine's overall speed up.

Hope this helps,
 
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lgentle

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Wow! A 4500!! I was given a 4600. I put the max RAM, best video card & upgraded the CPU in it so my son could use it. Turns out it's only used for programming my scanners.
 

CapStar362

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Prescott = Single Core P4 ( or Celeron )

will run XP Great, how much System memory? the most any P4 can handle is 3.32 GB due to the 32bit environment. i would stick 2GB of DDR400 ( PC-3200) into that thing and let it fly.

if you REALLY want to see some serious performance out of a P4, grab a small Video Card ( need to know if you have a AGP or PCI slot available first ) and something with the likes of 64 or 128MB of video memory.

next, get a 7200 RPM ( probably going to be a PATA - IDE ) Hard drive of your choice in size, now if that board does have a SATA port, then get one of those.....just make sure it is a 7200 RPM
 

poltergeisty

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I had a 4600 and upgraded everything on that beast except the motherboard. Went from a 2.4 GHz proc to a 3 GHz proc added 2 GB of Crucial Ballistix RAM, went through three video cards from a 6600GT to a 6800GT. I even used a SATA hard drive. It was my work horse. I should have kept it.
 

ScannaMan9

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Oh yes sorry!
I have just been so busy lately I've had absolutely 0 time. I went 3 days on 1 full iPhone charge to give you and idea lol

pupetejy.jpg



~Scannaman9
Sent from my iPhone 4S using taptalk
 

CapStar362

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ok, so its a single core P4 2.8 Prescott w 512MB..... how many slots on the board for Mem? if 4, your going to want to run a 4x512MB config, for best performance.


for what you want to do with it, that CPU is fine. just the mem needs a buff
 

CapStar362

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if you want HD or High Res, you might consider a Video Card.


need to know which slots you have on the board, can you grab a shot of your board from the inside?

im already assuming that with a single core P4 Skt 478 its going to be AGP, but alot of OEM strip the AGP slot out and just leave you with PCI slots.... not PCI-E but standard PCI.

if you DO have AGP, great, if not, no big worries, you can still get a card that supports higher res than IGP "Onboard" solutions.
 

CapStar362

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depends on the card Polter..... plenty of older cards out there for AGP and PCI will run off of a 200-250 or 300 watt PSU which is what most PC's of that era shipped with
 
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