Need to speed up wife's computer

Replacement

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I have tried to get her to change her computer habits and it is not going to happen so I want to upgrade her computer so it can handle how she uses it. The issue is that it is not uncommon for her to have 100+ tabs in chrome open along with 25 outlook emails. This has been slowing down her computer to the point where she has to wait for the computer to catch up and causes a lot of wasted time. I have told her to not have as many open, but she is not going to change.

She is always multi-tasking and I hope I can salvage what she has and make some upgrades to be able to keep up with her.

Her brother built this computer about 3 years ago. It has W7 32-bit with 4gb of RAM. The Motherboard is a Biostar A760G M2+, The processor is a AMD AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor, 2800 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s).

I was thinking that I could install W7 64-bit on a 128gb SSD and install 8gb of RAM.
I have the W7 32-bit disk and someone told me that I might be able to use the same key and disk and get W7 64-bit out of it. Is that true or do I have to get a new copy of W7 64-bit? The disk says "Licensed for distribution only with a new PC".
I would have to get a SSD to put the OS on.
I would also have to buy 8gb of RAM as well.

Does this seem like it will speed up her computer to be able to keep up with her?

Any suggestions on what else I can do without spending $500 + on this upgrade? Please keep in mind that usage habits are very unlikely to change. I would like to stay under $350 if possible.
Any suggestions on specific hardware?
 
Check task manager when she's using like this. My guess is that the bottleneck is going to be the processor.

To answer your questions:
1. 64-bit is only going to allow you to add more RAM but I doubt it will help all that much.
2. You can not use the key or CD and turn 32 bit into 64 bit. You have to buy a new copy.
3. An SSD would help, but it's still going back to the processor in my mind.
4. Again, the RAM would help overall, but the processor is probably the bottle neck.


Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong about the processor likely being the culprit and what is causing the slow down. Also, using that many tabs and emails....it's going to be hard to get a processor that will keep up. That's my thoughts....maybe (and hopefully) I'm wrong and the upgrades will solve the problem...but I don't think so.
 
You can do what ever you want to her computer and you're going to have the same problem. There is a limit as to how much can be going on at once in any windows based system.
The culprit is the system is running out of free memory and having to do a swap to and from the hard drive. It's not only the amount of open items she has but also the matrix (tables) the system creates to keep up with it all. If she really needs info from each tab she can add the url to her favorites and with a simple click go back to it. As for the emails, once read don't delete. She can always go back to it later.
Before you plunk down hard earned money, try getting her usage habits changed. Otherwise even if you blow out the memory, upgrade the cpu, turn it in to a turbocharged fire breathing dragon, you're still gonna have the same problem, too much going on at one time.
And try these goodies to keep her computer clean and happy > http://www.computerforums.org/forums/cyber-safety-computer-security/pc-cleanup-toolbox-219988.html
 
setishock raises good point. In regard to her user habit. There must be a reason why she feels comfortable having all these things opened.

This reason might be trivial. For example, she does most of the tasks with the keyboard, so she finds it cumbersome to move her hand to the mouse and click on the "X"; in which case the solution is not upgrading computer parts, but to teach her the Ctrl + w short cut.

Perhaps you could find out why she is doing this?
 
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