I've had my Dell Dimension 4600 for over three years. It's been through a number of traumtic experiences. For general history I've reformatted a few times, got a new hard drive 1 year ago with just one reformat on it, added more RAM to get me up to 2 GB, replaced the video card, and replaced the sound card.
Now my PC is getting dangerously slow. It takes too long to do even the most basic tasks like opening Firefox. zB, when I load Starcraft into the DVD-ROM drive, it takes it about a minute to open the auto play screen, and will play the little audio clip 30 seconds before that, with no auto play menu. That could be a matter of the DVD-ROM drive being past it's time. However, it's not the main culprit, and I'm wondering if I should replace the processor. I haven't replaced anything else like the cooling fan or the power supply.
I'm certainly interested getting my hands dirty working on the machine, though I'm not really interested in spending more than it would cost to buy a mini-mac. I'm not buying another PC.
Thanks for your comments!
Now my PC is getting dangerously slow. It takes too long to do even the most basic tasks like opening Firefox. zB, when I load Starcraft into the DVD-ROM drive, it takes it about a minute to open the auto play screen, and will play the little audio clip 30 seconds before that, with no auto play menu. That could be a matter of the DVD-ROM drive being past it's time. However, it's not the main culprit, and I'm wondering if I should replace the processor. I haven't replaced anything else like the cooling fan or the power supply.
I'm certainly interested getting my hands dirty working on the machine, though I'm not really interested in spending more than it would cost to buy a mini-mac. I'm not buying another PC.
Thanks for your comments!