Pentium 4 tuneup?

[sirjoe25]

I have a very old Pentium 4 3.2GHz with 1 GB of RAM and 120 GB HDD and 420 Watt power supply. I want to give this to my 7 year old to use for basic stuff. I find it slow. What can I do to speed it up with minimal $$$. What's a cheap CPU, MOBO, memory combo I can throw in there? Any ideas or criticisms accepted.

 

[obsama1]

If you live near a Microcenter, you can get a Phenom II x4+mobo for $100 or Pentium G series CPU+mobo for around $100. Then, I'd get a 2GB stick of RAM for $20(Pentium 4 uses DDR, and those CPU's above use DDR3), and it should work fine. 1GB of RAM isn't much when you have Windows+web browser open with a few tabs.

 

[sirjoe25]

Interesting, I had never heard of Microcenter. I looked it up and there is one 22 miles from here, it looks like Frys has some competition.

thanks,
sergio

 

[obsama1]

No problem. Also, what brand is that PSU?

 

[sirjoe25]

turbolink switching power supply

 

[obsama1]

Might want to get a different one. Amazon has a good Antec Basiq PSU for $30. I checked HardwareSecret's review, and it's very inefficient.

 

[runswindows95]

Cheapest upgrade will be to add another 1GB of RAM. I have an old Sony 3Ghz P4 backup machine with 2GB running XP, and I can browse all day with it, and run Office with no issues. Another option since this is for a seven year old is to run Linux on it. That way, they can go online, and you don't have to worry about viruses and such.

 

[sirjoe25]

Best answer selected by sirjoe25.