Should I get a new computer or a faster processor?

[Friendlyspark858]

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 desktop ten years old. It's been slower the last few months. Should I get a new computer or can I just get a faster processor. It has an Intel Celeron.

[Ryan]

New computer, the motherboard won't be able to support the new processors out there.

[Raju]

the ram and grphics proccessor and cpu are not upto todays standard. an upgrade will take the pc nowhere and will be costlier will less benefits.Its time for you to get a new pc ,you will not regret it.

[RJ]

How much RAM is in the computer? If you have not upgraded to the most RAM that is supported, I would try that because RAM is what typically causes programs to run slow. You can get memory from here or Newegg.com http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Dell-memo...rades.html (but this link shows you exactly what you need)

Also, if it has been happening over the past few months, are you running an up-to-date antivirus program or have you scanned it for Malware? That can slow down a computer greatly because it runs in the background. I would run something like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - http://www.malwarebytes.org/free/

Now, lastly, when was the last time you backed up all of your data (music, pictures, documents, etc) and wiped it clean and restored to factory defaults? Over time your computer gets cluttered and programs uninstalled leave leftover files and things that can slow down your computer or at least make it not run optimally. Most computers either come with a recovery disc or when it is booting, it has a message like "F10 for System Recovery" to do so. But this will erase everything so make sure you have backed up all of your important data files first.

Those things are cheaper options to get your computer back running smoothly again. A 2.40 Ghz processor is plenty fast enough, but the amount of RAM in your computer could be slowing you down. Also, if it only has a 40GB hard drive, you may wish to upgrade that too ... still cheaper than buying a new computer.

However, if you want to buy a new computer, the newer ones out now have 5 - 20 times the memory/RAM and the hard drives are probably somewhere in that range too as far as in comparison to your current computer. So it really comes down to what your budget is currently.

[Nicolas]

i'm gonna try to save you some cash. here are the tools you'll need: an internet connection, an antivirus that has been updated. CCleaner, time, patience and some willingness to follow instructions.

first things first. run your antivirus on a full scan. many antivirus programs have 2 different scans, a quick one and a full one. run the full one. if there are any issues, remove them. Personally, I like Microsoft Security Essentials because it has the best removal rates an requires very little interaction from the user. (set its schedule to something that will actually work and then let it work on its own forever)
once all virus issues have been removed, its time to move on.

begin by opening the Control Panel and going into the Add Remove Programs list. look at each entry in the list individually and delete as much as possible without getting rid of stuff you use and system tools like anything from Adobe, Sun, Oracle, Nvidia or Microsoft. I find that many people hoard programs that they don't realize they don't use. so i have a rule that if you didn't use it in the last month, it goes away. if you don't know what something is, look it up online. googling what is <name of program> is a very easy way of getting more info about programs and what they do. in many cases people forget that they have programs or forget what they do so they may be afraid of deleting them. one that is done, do the same thing but in the C:/Program Files folder.
once all the software is removed. Clean your disk. to do this, open My Computer and right click on your hard drive to go into properties and select Disk Cleanup. after some time with a loading bar (this might take a while) you'll see a list of deletable stuff. select every check box and run the cleanup.
when the cleanup is done, restart the computer.
after that, open up CCleaner. CCleaner is a registry cleanup tool. it scans your registry for any errors and cleans them up. go to the registry cleanup page (not the regular software cleaner) and start the process. be sure to save a backup of your registry in case something goes wrong. Scan for issues and clean them over and over until all issues are gone. clean up your drive again (this time it should take less time).
restart the computer.
now open msconfig. (start > run, type msconfig and hit enter) this is the configuration page for how the system starts. select the Selective Startup radial switch and make sure that the checkboxes benath are turned on. apply those settings (hit apply, not ok). go to the Startup tab. this is the list of all the programs that start up with windows. anything that is not made by microsoft, adobe, Oracle or any other device driver (or your antivirus) should be turned off. these programs use up a lot of performance whether you want to use them or not. if you want to use them you can turn them on yourself. that way you get all available performance for what you want to use. when you apply these settings (and hit ok) you'll be prompted to restart your computer. do so.
after it starts back up comes the last an longest step. go to my computer and enter your hard drive properties page like you did before. now go to the Tools tab. run a defragmentation on the hard drive. depending on the last time this was run the process could take several hours and the computer should be left alone while it completes this. after the defragmentation is done, set up a schedule so that it happens regularly. when this is done, restart your computer one last time and try it out. you should be noticing a performance difference. in many cases with older computers that arent maintained, the performance difference can be huge. I had a case of a kid with a fairly powerful gaming computer that was bogged down so much that he went from 11 to 44 frames per second without needing any extra parts. he was already thinking about buying a new computer despite his current one working just fine. all it needed was some work to get it cleaned up.

if you do this level of cleanup and still want a more performance then it's worth getting a new computer. your motherboard is discontinued and the best possible hardware upgrades won't do much compared to a new system. in many cases people that upgrade older computers are forced into buying parts that work with their current hardware from used part stores which may not work causing them to lose money and time and in many cases doing damage to the original hardware so that they can no longer go back.

another trick that I do with people that aren't tech savvy is to uninstall their browsers to get rid of pesky toolbars. i then install Google Chrome and add the adblock and youtube center extenions. these make browsing much better because you won't see all the ads that websites are loaded with. for someone who doesnt have experience with ad-less browsing the change is a big one and it can make browsing much more pleasant. i also use the youtube center extension (you may need to install tampermonkey and then the youtube center script found on google) to get rid of youtube ads, and disable DASH playback for better video streaming. you can skip back without having to re-buffer the video. you can also let a video load completely before playing it which isnt possible with the current default settings.

in some cases I also open up the case and vacuum out all the dust and dirt which can cause the system to overheat faster. keep in mind that when doing this the computer must be off and unplugged. you must also be very careful not to hit anything. people who use intensive applications like games or media editing see great performance differences because their computer arent slowing down to protect themselves from the heat.