Should I purchase a new tower?

[box801]

Hello everyone, my computer is getting somewhat old (approx. 4 years old), but I'm not sure if I should upgrade. Surfing the web, word processing, multitasking is fast, but programs like the Adobe CS5 suite slow down my computer lots. For games, I play Half Life and Minecraft and I get around 40 FPS in HL on all low settings and 60 FPS on fast graphics in Minecraft. I can deal with it, but it would be nice to see better graphics. I'm also planning on buying Elder Scrolls: Skyrim later this year and I'm not sure if my computer will be able to handle it. I have the money to upgrade, but the question is if it can be justified. I'm also interested in doing some video editing with Adobe Premiere but my computer can barely handle it.

**Side note**
For some reason, my computer starts out really fast when I reformat it but after only 3 months, there is a dramatic drop in speed. I do install games and other programs, but the background processes are still at the same number from the fresh reformat.

Here are the specs:

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System Information
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Time of this report: 3/25/2011, 01:26:11
Machine name: MASTER-COMPUTER
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTek Computer INC.
System Model: P5L-MX
BIOS: BIOS Date: 08/25/06 11:12:54 Ver: 08.00.10
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 1273MB used, 2669MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

**EDIT**
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 7900GS

 

[jprahman]

The problems with your PC slowing down over time is likely caused by HDD fragmentation and registry corruption building up overtime.

Based on your specs I'd have to say that an upgrade would be a good idea, although if you could give more detailed specs like what video card and RAM you have that would be helpful. If you do upgrade and get another build I'd highly recommend the i7-2600K for your new CPU and a GTX 560 Ti as the GPU. The i7-2600K is probably the best CPU currently available that doesn't force you to sell a kidney, and it gives great performance in CS5. The GTX 560 Ti is a good choice because CS5 features new hardware acceleration features that only run on Nvidia cards (actually they only run on certain Nvidia cards, but there are simple configuration hacks that will enable HW acceleration for most Nvidia cards) and it also offers great performance for the price.

 

[box801]

The problems with your PC slowing down over time is likely caused by HDD fragmentation and registry corruption building up overtime.

Based on your specs I'd have to say that an upgrade would be a good idea, although if you could give more detailed specs like what video card and RAM you have that would be helpful. If you do upgrade and get another build I'd highly recommend the i7-2600K for your new CPU and a GTX 560 Ti as the GPU. The i7-2600K is probably the best CPU currently available that doesn't force you to sell a kidney, and it gives great performance in CS5. The GTX 560 Ti is a good choice because CS5 features new hardware acceleration features that only run on Nvidia cards (actually they only run on certain Nvidia cards, but there are simple configuration hacks that will enable HW acceleration for most Nvidia cards) and it also offers great performance for the price.

I edited the original post with the RAM and video card.

 

[durand1035]

With what jprahman wrote, I think you can download CCleaner for free to do some cleanup of old temp files and registry corruption. It's small and simple and works pretty well IMO. Also, IMO, Diskeeper is a pretty good program for disk defrag.

 

[jprahman]

Yeah, I'd have to recommend an upgrade or new build considering your current video card and RAM.

You can try to do some registry cleaning and de-fragging as durand said, and certainly that would help with responsiveness in some cases on your current PC, but it won't help with CPU and GPU intensive applications like CS5 and games. It's still worth doing, however.