Upgrading my computer parts

[chia99]

Hey guys, I have a Compaq desktop that is 5 years old that is pretty good condition but in recent years I have noticed it has slowed down and sluggish. I have not changed any hardware on this computer since I bought it. I have never built or changed internal parts on a computer but I want to try to upgrade the parts on this computer that would make it faster and better...What are something I should look into buying so I can do that? (This is secondary computer so I can experiment with little risk).

Thanks all.

 

[IAntDemo]

only a few things really, I'm not going to say rebuild a computer, it's out the question, unless you're a new heavy gamer of course.. lol

But that involes abit of molies.. $$

Anyway, just head on to upgrading the ram and give the harddrive a good clean with some defragment and some registry cleaner program, such as download ccleaner, it will spark your computer up nice and tidy and make things run much quicker.. make sure to clean both the registry and computer,

just stick a 1gb ram into it..

I need to know what motherbored you have tho to get the correct ram

Open the case on the left panel looking at the power button... meaning the panel on the left if you're looking head on with the powerbutton and cd drivers and what not..

Look near your CPU (will have a metal heatsink attached to it), it should say what motherboard it is.. be sure to post and I'll point you or someone else will in the right direction

 

[Triciablo]

What are your future needs for this computer? That would dictate how much ram you need. If you are looking to game, add 8GB, if you are heavy on the video/graphic editing side of the house add 16GB if your motherboard can house it and if it is just for daily use (watching videos, streaming media, surfing the web), as InventD mentioned, just add 1-2GB RAM.

Also, if you are gaming, say with older games that aren't as demanding as some of the newer ones on the market, look at upgrading your GPU (Video Card) to say...a GTX 460/480. They are cheap, being a generation prior to the current market and will boost your performance.

I am going to stop there since I don't know much information about what you are looking for, because I will end up catching myself doing a complete overhaul on your system. Haha.