Some advice on my computer

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If you want to continue using the old computer for surfing, please ask someone to do some software upgrades. You are running Windows XP with Servicepack 2 which is out of support for several years now, running such a system for Internet makes it susceptible to malicious software attacks. Your graphics driver is 4.5 years old but I assume an update is not possible without XP Servicepack 3 (often required by newer drivers).

GPU (graphics) is OK, at least better than the CPU (that's a single-core); a 9600GT with standard clock should be comparable to today's low-end Geforce GT620 (although with double their power consumption).

The old computer will make an excellent browsing computer when it's installed with linux. After that there'll be no worries about getting infected.

[Noir]

The old computer will make an excellent browsing computer when it's installed with linux. After that there'll be no worries about getting infected.

amen to that, converter a couple of 70 years old people that kept having viruses on their Athlon 4000+ to Ubuntu, and since then they never called me again.

[mthrockmor]

How do I convert to Linux?

If my budget is $600 what should I get? Again, I browse the internet, use almost exclusively Microsoft Word (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc) and play AH. I think a pretty simple life.

Also, with the tower, what kind of questions should I ask to ensure I can reuse the tower?

Thanks for all the help. I am guessing this is why my browser freezes so much?

Boo

[TequilaChaser]

How do I convert to Linux?

If my budget is $600 what should I get? Again, I browse the internet, use almost exclusively Microsoft Word (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc) and play AH. I think a pretty simple life.

Also, with the tower, what kind of questions should I ask to ensure I can reuse the tower?

Thanks for all the help. I am guessing this is why my browser freezes so much?

Boo

Heya Boo, ( that sounds SO wrong when I read it, LOL )

anyways, regarding your WinXP SP 2 OS and your pagefile...... a properly tweaked WinXP PC, should be under 200 MBs used, to where yours is over 500 MBs used............. your processes for a WinXP machine when properly tweaked can be as low as 14 processes, but getting the processes down to around 22 to 18 processes is very good

you have so many things running in the background, it is more than likely causing your browser to freeze up alot, but also, as someone else posted, your video driver is like 4 1/2 years old......

My Mom's PC is running Win7 64 bit, yet she uses an 8800 Nvidia VC  and is using 1 Video Driver version older than the newest one out........ and it works on her pc without issues ( but her using Windows 7, might have something to do with that, perhaps )

I am betting that you could clean up your PC, clean up and tweak your OS & registry, update your drivers for the Video Card, the SoundCard, the network adapter( or card )  and a few other things..........

doing all this, which will cost you NOTHING, money wise, and you will probably see a significant increase in game performance and gain in framerate perhaps...... I am assuming this, just by looking through your directX post....

you might want to update the WinXP SP2 OS to WinXP SP3, and then tweak it..... updating all the important microsoft windows updates you can, including SP3  and updating your internet explorer to the newest version Windows XP will allow.... then follow Skuzzy's tweaks for Internet Explorer that is posted in the Tech Support Forum, at the top of that forum in the sticky posts

hope this helps.............  if you can post a pic of your case, or the model & brand of your case, along with the model/brand of your PSU and other components of your current PC, will allow others to help point you in the right direction of what you should purchase whether you go Intel or if you rather go AMD ......

cheers

TC

[MrRiplEy[H]]

How do I convert to Linux?

If my budget is $600 what should I get? Again, I browse the internet, use almost exclusively Microsoft Word (Word, Excel, Power Point, etc) and play AH. I think a pretty simple life.

Also, with the tower, what kind of questions should I ask to ensure I can reuse the tower?

Thanks for all the help. I am guessing this is why my browser freezes so much?

Boo

You can convert to linux simply by downloading an installation .iso from somewhere such as distrowatch.com which is where you'll find links to all major distributions. I recommend Xubuntu or Linux Mint for a beginner. You then boot the computer with the DVD you made from the .iso and it will let you resize and repartition your hdd to install linux to your computer as the 2nd OS (alternatively you can choose to format the whole hdd and do linux only).

The installation is very easy and takes only a few minutes. Linux comes with a free office suite which has the same kind of interface like old office used to have. Youtube etc. is literally filled with guides and advices on how to do stuff with linux. Best of all it's totally free and legal.

[mthrockmor]

Just an fyi, I'm finally starting to work on this. I may have a couple follow-up questions.

Thanks for the input!

boo