is a 1.2 GHz computer obsolete?

Question

I've had it for 6 years now and I haven't even re-install the operating system. It used to run like a charm, but lately is kind of getting sluggish. I have about 100 programs installed and tons of files (music, videos, very important files, etc). Should I re-install XP and spend hundreds of hours to get it to the same state as it is now. Or should I buy a new machine and transfer everything?

Answer 1

No, 1.2 Ghz is actually a decent sized memory. Your problem is all those prgrams downloaded on your comp and you probably don't need half of them. Get rid of what you don't need; files, programs, etc...

Answer 2

Don't shell out $$$$ for a new machine if you don't have to..

A 1.2 Ghz is only as obsolete as you see fit. Some need the fastest and biggest but it depends on how it is serving you...

Before doing a reload... have you done any harddrive maintenance....

In XP, use the disk clean function and clean up some file XP dosen't need anymore...

Second run defrag..... this will help organize your file and in most cases will help speed it up.

I would also consider getting a system registry cleaner,,, you can get some free ones from download.com, (there are tons of sites) This will clean out some old junk in the registry and "should" help with load speed.

Hope this helps...

A concern I have is how much free space you have left. XP needs a butt load of harddrive for its virual memory, A machine will run sluggish if it don't get it's full virtual memory quota.

If you don't have enough HD space ...reloading will only give you the same problem....

Answer 3

Absolutely not! Unless you're into playing the latest games, you've got a fine PC. There's a dozen easy tips for getting it back in shape without re-installing Windows. Defrag it, remove useless programs, find the files that are taking up space on your drive, clean the registry 6 different ways, check for adware/spyware, run msconfig and kill all the start up garbage, I could go on and on.

E-mail me for details of you like.

Answer 4

1.2ghz is fine for most things, unless you need a machine for very intensive tasks like video production, professional quality photography, or very new games.

>>>Check a few things (listed in relative order of importance)<<<<<
(NOTE DOING THESE WILL BE MUCH QUICKER AND ALSO MORE EFFECTIVE THAN JUST REINSTALLING XP...remember you also have to spend time reinstalling msoffice, antivirus, and any other programs when you reinstall XP...even if you have those programs backed up...plus often re-install your soundcard, dvd-rom and other device drivers):


1) Clean up your start-up to use as few programs as possible: SpyBot has a feature to do this, if you don't have it, just download it (it's free and harmless). Just experiment with it in advanced mode, removing start-up programs and see how many you can take off without disabling important features on your PC (always keep a record of the last configuration that worked well). This will speed your computer's start-up time immensely and has much more power than MSconfig or anything that comes with XP (besides modifying the registry directly, which is both time consuming and very dangerous and can stop programs/drivers/hardware from working (AND, COINCIDENTALLY "REGISTRY FIXER/CLEANER" PROGRAMS ARE EQUALLY DANGEROUS)).
2) Use SpyBot to get rid off any spyware/adware that may be slowing down your PC
3) Run scandisk then defragment your hard drive (these programs are under system tools and included with Windows XP)
4) Get AVG virus scan (free and won't slow down your PC near as much as McAfee or Norton anti-virus) and do the usual virus check
5) Turn off disk-indexing on your Win-XP drives: this is yet another fairly useless feature of Windows (only helps if you do tons of file searches) that runs in the background and slows things down
6) Consider using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as your Internet browser: Firefox is much less likely to bring in toolbars, spyware, viruses, and other things that will slow down your system

7) If your computer is still too slow consider buying
A: a good graphics card, such as ATI Radeon 9600 if the 3D graphics are too slow
B: More memory if your Windows office programs still act sluggish when, for example, copying things from the clip board...secondly (not quite as important as RAM/memory) a faster hard-drive (spins at more RPM, 7200+ is ideal)


Just having many programs on your PC will not slow down your computer, having many programs running at startup, stored on fragmented parts of your disks, or carrying viruses or spyware will.

I am now typing this on a 600mhz computer with only 256MB memory running 2 servers running AVG anti-virus and a firewall...and, thanks much in part to using the above tips, it runs quite quickly, not noticably slower than my 2.0ghz laptop except for slow booting and graphics/sound-intense applications (and not any different for internet browsing). And I'm a Masters of Science in Information Systems...and all this information comes from a lot of practice.

Processor speed shouldn't be an issue, in most cases, if you have you computer configured smartly.

Best luck!

Answer 5

I use an 800Mhz laptop everyday.... trust me your computer is not obsolete. Just back up your data to an external drive and reinstall XP. You'll have a faster system and you can keep all your important data saved on the external drive

Answer 6

a 1.2GHz computer is not necessarily obsolete. Toshiba Librettos still use 1.2GHz cpu's even in the newer modles. a computer you've had for 6 years, tho...yeah that's obsolete. re-installing the OS is like regular maintinance on a windows machine.

Answer 7

Upgrade the RAM, reformat the hard drive, re-install WXP, good to go :)