adding the RAM to a such old systems is pointless. not to mention that brand new RAM for it likely cost 2-3 times more than same amount Gb's of current RAM. you may find something really cheap on ebay,but again-it's kind of double sword,cause you never know,what you going to get. if you decide to upgrade the RAM anyway-make sure you run memtest. at least 2-3 passes after you install it. http://www.memtest86.com/ burn the cd before upgrade. what ram do you have on old PC? i might have some free old sticks for ya. like GTC said-if you can do it yourself-decent PC would cost you couple hundred bucks, maybe less(assuming you are going to use old PSU,case,dvd,maybe hard drive etc.). good old XP should run just fine on it.
I say keep driving the old horse until it fall dead in the street Then you can have fun kicking it's guts around!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103903 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138293 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220567 http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-NVIDIA-Q...307?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item56480c6123 just an example
Well, that's my thinking. It's been a good old horse that's just started to stumble a little. I hate to shoot it too soon.
What type & brand is your video card? You may want to put 4GB of RAM in the machine - it's a bit of a waste but you'll be able to get it on eBay or even NewEgg pretty cheap - I'd bet you have DDR or DDR2 4200 speed and 4 memory DIMMS in your machine so buying three more may not be that expensive. The other thing you can do is (this will require a restart) right click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Advanced tab and then under Performance click the settings button. From here you can do two things - the first is easy, under visual effects select "Adjust for best performance" - it'll look like an old Windows 95 machine but it'll use less system resources and you will notice a difference in performance. (no restart required for this) Second is click on the Advanced tab of the Performance options window (the middle one) and under virtual memory zero out the custom size fields and then change it to "System Managed Size". Press "SET" then hit OK to close the window. Hit apply and OK on the Performance Options window and then Apply & OK on the System Properties window. (you will need a restart) This will help with some of the website slowness you experience and other apps.
Because I know nothing about computers I can probably give you better advice than the pros in this thread. BTW ... I am not implying that they are not expert. You have a couple of guys in here that can build from scratch with a blindfold on and a hand tied behind their back. But that is the problem. If you have to ask the question you probably, like me, know very little. But from scratch and get a system that out of the box has no issues. Your time and effort are best spent trading not reconciling even one minor piece of nonsense.
You must get an SSD. Use a hard drive for large files. You need system and program files (C drive) on the SSD for your computer to be much faster. Only a couple hundred bucks. Best money for performance. Good luck on your new computer!
It doesn't make much sense to renovate (or "upgrade"). You need to change the CPU, motherboard, memory, and maybe even power supply (likely). All you can keep is the chassis. Maybe even a hard drive or CDROM. Of course you can re-use the keyboard, mouse and the trivial peripherals. You may or may not be able to re-use the video cards. I experienced some older video card models just are flat not supported (and won't work) in Windows 7. 6 year old, I suspect the cards are PCI bus base (obsolete - almost), or even AGP (completely obsolete). Good luck finding a motherboard that supports not only one but 2 PCI slots. It may not make sense to keep the old video cards. Slower probably. And issue with not fitting on new bus (PCIe X1 or x8 or x16 etc.). A cheap EVGA 8400 GS card, supporting dual monitors on each card, is only $20. You can have 2 to drive 3-4 monitors, provided your box have 2 PCIe X16 slots available. Well you can keep using the box until something breaks. Why not? Some people keep using their DOS machines to this day. Whatever works. Just think about what is it worth for you... if one day it breaks and you need to wait a few days to get a replacement. Any opportunity cost? Not that a new machine will not break either. It is your business risk decision.
yep. you can use old box for browsing and new Pc for trading only. much safer. specially when they connected via cascaded routers. no need to jump to latest,fastest,newest Pc\CPU or OS either. i would pick something in between