better pc performance

[skater0guy]

Hi i am currently running a pc that was built 8 years ago here are my spec ops of my system.
Board: ASUSTeK Computer INC. A7N8X2.0 REV 1.xx
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
Operating System:
Windows 2.5.1.2600 (Service Pack 3)
CPU Type:
AMD Athlon(tm)
CPU Speed (GHz):
1.26
System Memory (GB):
2.5
Video Card Model:
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
260.06 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
88.94 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

How can i ensure that my pc is running at its peek? what tweaks should i be looking for?

[Blakhart]

Hi
I would advise one to ensure that the system is clean of all malware and has all updates to the os, first off. Then make sure there are no issues with software such as errors/crashes in the apps you want to run - fix these before you try to use your system to its fullest. I am partial to running video card drivers made specifically for the card class.

For example, I run nvidia 171.17 driver for my 8800gts, as newer drivers have code optimised to enhance newer video cards performance, not for my card specifically. Although the succeeding vid cards do not differ much in their programmability via the driver or their core architecture as they are all "scalar" rendering cards, their cores are still quite different, especially the most recent cards in the nvidia line.

The core in your video card, for instance, is a vector core, meaning there is only a certain number of instructions/programmability inherent to it, unlike newer cards such as g80 and newer wich are much more programmable (shader operations wise), wich are all scalar cards and are typically much more efficient, even with slower clock speeds than a comparable vector rendering vide card. My 8800gts (again, a scalar card) spanks my 7900gtx (a vector card) even though the gtx has a much faster core speed, because the 8800 is much more efficient in keeping parts of the core busy as they can be programmed on the fly as opposed to my 7900gtx with its limited programability.

It makes no sense and just adds bloat to the system to use a driver that is not optimised for the device, no matter what device that is. The code in the driver written for different cores than the one you run is not used, but still may take up space in memory and the driver may not be the best for your card. Often i have advised people to use a driver written when their card was state of the art rather than the lastest driver offered and these folks usualy report back to me that the card has never run better.

So what I am getting at here is unless your app (game or otherwise) forces you to run a newer cid card driver, running a vid card driver written specifically for your vid card core/class usualy gets you best performance and stability.

If you are staying with the hardware, making sure that the minimum (apps like file sharing, media players, etc) is running when doing cpu intensive operations such as gaming or video encoding will allow for best use of cpu time.

Just some thoughts for you.

[ionus]

1) more ram.. memory is currently at a reasonable price and i see NO reason not to have 4gb (unless you have a 32-bit OS)

2) a newer video card could potentially offload some of the stress off your CPU as what you currently have is equivalent to on board intel chipsets, something cheap nothing fancy for example im a personal fan of an ati hd 2400pro mainly because they come in agpx8, pci and pci-ex16 while consuming almost no power at all and still receives updates.

3)check for any new updates for any of your hardware (motherboard included), be sure you defrag regularly,and constantly check for OS updates.

4)finally dust out your case and parts.. dust causes heat to build up and when parts get hotter they don't work as well. besides a dusty and dirty case or parts can be a pain to work with.

[TurcoLoco]

This is an 8 year old PC, right? How old is the image that is on there, meaning how long ago was Windows XP originally installed on it (not talking about updating to sp3)?
Is it the original Hard Drive? That could be the only thing that might need replacing, other than that hardware wise I'd not recommend putting any more money into an 8 year old machine. You have 2.5GB RAM, XP will not even see anything above 3GB and 512MB more RAM would not make a noticeable difference unless this is a dual-channel RAM mobo and you have 2x 1GB and 1x 512 RAM or 1x 2GB and 1x 512MB sticks in there, then by going with a 2x1GB and 2x256MB configuration you would utilize the dual-channel feature which would squeeze more juice out of it but still would it be worth it depends on what you use this PC for. If you really need more performance that bad, then I (and the voices in my head) say save your money and go buy/build a new rig.

Doing a fresh install of the operating system if it was not already running smoothly and/or checking for updates for the device drivers, running Scandisk, Defrag and also keeping your PC clean and cool as ionus mentioned would be the best you can do.