Updating old Machine

[greatwhitewhale]

Hey guys,
I have an old dell dimension 8400 with an intel pentium 4 processor at 3.00 GHz, 3.00 GB of RAM, a Radeon 3450 graphics card, running windows vista 32 bit ultimate edition.
I was playing a simple flash game when this machine just started to slow down. I didn't think that the game could do it, but it is an old machine that I have been doing work on anyway. Wanted to know, would I gain any real improvements if I enabled hyperthreading on the machine? Also, I have 1 GB DDR and 2 GB DDR2. Would I gain more of a performance boost by keeping the combined 3GB of DDR speed RAM, or removing the DDR and having 2GB of DDR2.
My dream would be to try and get the machine to play starcraft II, but I don't see that happening. Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[dndhatcher]

Wouldnt hurt to remove the 1GB RAM and see if it runs faster with only 2.

Vista is such a memory hog, you might get better performance with a Win7 upgrade.

Eventually you will have to get a multi-core cpu and better graphics card for heavier games like starcraft 2.

 

[greatwhitewhale]

Wouldnt hurt to remove the 1GB RAM and see if it runs faster with only 2.

Vista is such a memory hog, you might get better performance with a Win7 upgrade.

Eventually you will have to get a multi-core cpu and better graphics card for heavier games like starcraft 2.

Ok, but for the time being, am I going to be able to benefit from the fake multi-core, or would it just be a waste of my time?

 

[jabbrun]

Definitely you have to upgrade to Win 7...

 

[elbert]

Hey guys,
I have an old dell dimension 8400 with an intel pentium 4 processor at 3.00 GHz, 3.00 GB of RAM, a Radeon 3450 graphics card, running windows vista 32 bit ultimate edition.
I was playing a simple flash game when this machine just started to slow down. I didn't think that the game could do it, but it is an old machine that I have been doing work on anyway. Wanted to know, would I gain any real improvements if I enabled hyperthreading on the machine? Also, I have 1 GB DDR and 2 GB DDR2. Would I gain more of a performance boost by keeping the combined 3GB of DDR speed RAM, or removing the DDR and having 2GB of DDR2.
My dream would be to try and get the machine to play starcraft II, but I don't see that happening. Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks for any help you can give.

Sounds to me like a virus. You may want to upgrade your anti-virus and have it do a boot time scan. Possible run a spyware detection software such as spybot search and destroy to ensure the flash game wasn't used to gain access.

On the hardware side if your having problems maybe upgrade use the 2GB's of DDR2 with a new motherboard and CPU. This combo would get your system running pretty good at a cheap price. Its a 3 core that with this motherboard could unlock the 4th core.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.499639

 

[greatwhitewhale]

I actually have that in as a budget build on another thread that I put in. But right now I want to try and keep this machine going with no use of money, just by moving things around and trying to get the brute to play nicer with everything else that is currently out there. I also like the idea of an upgrade, but if I would go for a better mobo and CPU, I would want a better GPU, for that I want a better PSU, for that I may as well get DDR3 RAM, which means I need better ventilation for all of it, which means....I just built a new computer...

 

[elbert]

I actually have that in as a budget build on another thread that I put in. But right now I want to try and keep this machine going with no use of money, just by moving things around and trying to get the brute to play nicer with everything else that is currently out there. I also like the idea of an upgrade, but if I would go for a better mobo and CPU, I would want a better GPU, for that I want a better PSU, for that I may as well get DDR3 RAM, which means I need better ventilation for all of it, which means....I just built a new computer...

The slowdown starting when you was playing a flash game is all I really have to go on. Its possible the games java script may have changed some settings. Try running advanced system care. It may find some changes that could help for free. This software fixes everything from adware, virus, registry optimizing, security holes, and even defrags your system if needed. The free version doesn't optimize your system completely but this will tell you if there is possible gains there.
http://www.iobit.com/advancedwindowscareper.html

 

[greatwhitewhale]

Thanks a lot man. And just to say, the game is robot unicorn attacks.

 

[greatwhitewhale]

Best answer selected by greatwhitewhale.