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Hey guys, I'm not knowledgeable much in the way of hardware on PC's but my girlfriend's computer is very slow. We're not trying to play games on it, just simple internet things (youtube, email, etc.) it works, but very very slowly. So we looked it up and saw that her computer has 384 MB of RAM, and an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3400+, now I know nothing about processor's so that could be the problem too. But this is a Windows XP desktop and what is the minimum recommended RAM for it and/or processor, that could make it run decently fast? Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

P.S. If you need any more information about this computer please post a reply and I'll do all I can.

Arok2092 wrote:We're not trying to play games on it, just simple internet things (youtube, email, etc.) it works, but very very slowly. So we looked it up and saw that her computer has 384 MB of RAM, and an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3400+, now I know nothing about processor's so that could be the problem too. But this is a Windows XP desktop and what is the minimum recommended RAM for it and/or processor, that could make it run decently fast? Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Laptop or PC? Either way, you should increase your RAM as Windows XP (doesn't matter what version) requires roughly 512MB of RAM to run properly. Below that and you'll sometimes experience slow performances. The processor shouldn't be a problem, given that it is an Athlon 64, the equivalent of Pentium 4 HT series, and they are fast enough to run Windows XP.

Alternatively, you could downgrade to an OS that doesn't require much power, such as Windows 2000. If you're looking for something new, you could try your hand in Linux.

Well it's really her family's computer so I can't change the OS on it. That's why I was wondering if adding RAM would help enough. For instance, just to login for her takes a good 10 minutes, and opening up her browser takes another 4. She uses FireFox as it's the fastest of all the one's we've tried. And yes it's fully updated. Once that's up it goes a little bit faster but if we watch a few YouTube videos her computer will basically be done with for a few hours as each video makes it slower and slower. We also have all Flash updates too. So, would adding about a GB of RAM make it significantly faster to justify the price? And to DesR85's question earlier it is a PC. Please let me know if you need to know more!

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The tiny amount of RAM definitely has something to do with the lack of speed for that computer, however, keep in mind that this computer is around six years old (or so I'm guessing) so it may be time for more of an upgrade than that, depending on needs.

Also, keep in mind that using older versions of browsers might help as well. For example, Internet Explorer 8 might run very slowly, but Internet Explorer 6 will run fine.

Again, while the main cause of the problem is an old computer (with a tiny capacity of RAM), running an OS that real forces it is what's causing the slowness. Yes, upgrading the RAM will definably help, but make sure that you're picking the right type for that machine and that it can actually support it (as some machines for example won't read any more than 256MB, even if 1GB is inserted).

Yes I believe it's roughly a 7 year old computer. I know how to install the RAM but I really just wanted to be sure that 1 GB stick of RAM would speed it up enough to justify the cost of it. Seems like it will. Any other tips?

Just to be sure, clean out the computer, check if there's anything else slowing it down, like unnecessary programs or maybe even malware. Also, a full hard-drive can contribute to the issue.

Once again, make sure that the type of RAM you are buying is supported by the computer (that the computer can recognize it) and make sure that the RAM size is supported as well (since it's an old computer, the motherboard may not recognize anything over a certain amount).