I have a 5 yr old HP media center PC with a PTGD1-LA motherboard and 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 (not HT).
I've done almost everything bar reformatting the drive to make it faster but its still too slow starting services (after logging in, despite disabling non-essential ones and cutting down all the junk that starts automatically) and browsing using IE8. Using word and excel is as fast as it ever was.
It could be the virus checker slowing it down, that's the next thing for me to try by disabling some of the checks, also I have been told Google Chrome is lighting fast.
Its only a PC for the kids now anyway, but they do not like waiting ages for it to be ready to usable, they use it for web browsing, some MS office stuff and the young kids games (Disney stuff mostly). Also I use the video capture card for transferring old VHS onto the PC (I've got a huge backlog of camera recordings to transfer).
Its running XP Media Center with 1 GB of memory.
So I tried browsing the web to see what would make a worthwhile but inexpensive upgrade - seems a waste of good peripherals to be buying a new one.
The last BIOS update HP issued was in 2006 and only covered Intel Pentiums upto that time, so putting in a dual core Pentium I think will not work (the recent E5400 seemed like a worthwhile socket 775 upgrade). The older CPU upgrades I do not think will make much difference at all - it seems like these days you need dual core - one core for all the background rubbish like firewall, virus checker etc and the other for the 'real' work you want to do!
Problem is that I have no idea how to choose a new motherboard, all I know is I would need a Micro-ATX, but then what socket type should I choose? I don't want to spend more than £150 or so on a motherboard, CPU and 1G memory if possible (I'm assuming the original memory will not be compatible with the new board).
I can't seem to find a site that can explain this simply or clearly only loads of different motherboards listed.
The alternative is that I just turn the machine into a file server stored in the attic, managed remotely and rip out the DVD writer, TV capture card, multi-card reader etc to put into a new PC but a new PC for the kids to last the next 5 years is not going to cost less than £400 or so which I can't afford right now.
Any pointers to a good web site welcome!
I've done almost everything bar reformatting the drive to make it faster but its still too slow starting services (after logging in, despite disabling non-essential ones and cutting down all the junk that starts automatically) and browsing using IE8. Using word and excel is as fast as it ever was.
It could be the virus checker slowing it down, that's the next thing for me to try by disabling some of the checks, also I have been told Google Chrome is lighting fast.
Its only a PC for the kids now anyway, but they do not like waiting ages for it to be ready to usable, they use it for web browsing, some MS office stuff and the young kids games (Disney stuff mostly). Also I use the video capture card for transferring old VHS onto the PC (I've got a huge backlog of camera recordings to transfer).
Its running XP Media Center with 1 GB of memory.
So I tried browsing the web to see what would make a worthwhile but inexpensive upgrade - seems a waste of good peripherals to be buying a new one.
The last BIOS update HP issued was in 2006 and only covered Intel Pentiums upto that time, so putting in a dual core Pentium I think will not work (the recent E5400 seemed like a worthwhile socket 775 upgrade). The older CPU upgrades I do not think will make much difference at all - it seems like these days you need dual core - one core for all the background rubbish like firewall, virus checker etc and the other for the 'real' work you want to do!
Problem is that I have no idea how to choose a new motherboard, all I know is I would need a Micro-ATX, but then what socket type should I choose? I don't want to spend more than £150 or so on a motherboard, CPU and 1G memory if possible (I'm assuming the original memory will not be compatible with the new board).
I can't seem to find a site that can explain this simply or clearly only loads of different motherboards listed.
The alternative is that I just turn the machine into a file server stored in the attic, managed remotely and rip out the DVD writer, TV capture card, multi-card reader etc to put into a new PC but a new PC for the kids to last the next 5 years is not going to cost less than £400 or so which I can't afford right now.
Any pointers to a good web site welcome!
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