Bottleneck? What to upgrade

[matchu]

Hiya, everyone,

I'm using an Inspiron 6400 laptop right now. Although I am getting a new desktop for home use, I would like to continue using the Inspiron for some time into the future. However, it's starting to be really slow (opening programs like Adobe CS3 or Office 2007, startup, even some PDFs take a while to load)

The specs are as such...

OS: Windows XP Home SP3 (32-bit, I believe?)
CPU: T2500 Intel Core Duo (2Ghz)
RAM: 1GB
GPU: Radeon Mobility x1400 (256MB)

Question: would upgrading the ram to the documented maximum of 2GB be worth it / make a noticeable difference in the tasks I mentioned? RAM is cheap, after all....

And I don't plan on using this laptop for heavy gaming. Just for work and a bit of media (watching/streaming shows, some image editting, nothing 3D).

Documentation is at
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/om/specs.htm#wp1054574

Thanks in advance!

 

[LinkedKube]

maxing the ram is the best thing you can do and it will show a difference, not night and day though, but enough to make you content.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Extra RAM will not hurt at all.

Try also scanning for malware using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Spybot S&D, among others. A good AV program like Avast (free) or NOD32 (paid) also works wonders.

 

[matchu]

Thanks for the suggestion, guys! I'll start with the anti-malware and see where to go from there.

I ask about the ram because i know that at *some* point, extra ram becomes kinda pointless. I just don't know what that point is

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

That point would be 2GB for XP, and 4GB for newer OSes, assuming they are used for general-purpose tasks like the ones you mentioned.

 

[matchu]

No malware found. Looks like I'll be buyign some ram this weekend ^^

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

Defragment your hard drive?

 

[matchu]

also done; i do that often enough, i think. on the range of once per month