Need other opinions on trying to get an ancient system running better

Blaise170

Honorable
Hi guys, my brother uses a computer at work which is still using 512MB of RAM and a Pentium D. The owner is refusing to spend much of anything on upgrading it or buying a new computer, so the budget is only around $20 or so. I have done everything I can to "revive" the machine, but there is only so much I can do on such a limited budget. I installed WinXP since it is not as heavy as Vista was on resources, but even still there isn't a huge improvement. I am looking around for a super cheap SSD but I can't find any that I'd actually trust spending money on. Anyone got suggestions for things I can try or any cheap upgrades? I might just spend my own money on an SSD if I can't figure anything else out.

They use the computer for ordering purposes and such, so they don't need some super expensive machine, but it's still too slow for day to day needs.
 
About the only thing you could do is shop around for some (probably) second hand RAM. You'll have to find out what's compatible with the mobo.

That would actually be my first port of call for an upgrade on that system anyway, 512MB RAM is massively limited. At least if you can get 2GB or so in there it'll reduce paging which will take a massive load off the (no doubt painfully slow) old HDD.
 

Blaise170

Honorable


Already had Linux running for about a month but they couldn't stand it. I know WinXP isn't supported anymore, but it isn't a critical machine.