cheap computer

[Lamilia]

how about RAM or the proccesor the problem is it is running slow hmm i thought video cards just made the picture better

[Hi Ho]

Video cards improve the performance and image quality of games. The main things that slow down a PC are spyware, not enough RAM, or too many background programs. My PC (in signature) is an Athlon 1800+ and it does not run slow. I play games like Half Life 2 and Doom 3 on it with high settings.

Have you checked for spyware on your PC? If not, download and run both SpyBot Search & Destroy and Adaware.

The next thing to do would be to check how much RAM is being used up when you have nothing open. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the task manager and go to the performance tab. How much physical memory is being used? Remember to do this with no programs open.

[Lamilia]

hmm did not know that about video cards i thought they just made game look better. I have norton anti-virus and internet security and it checks for spyware and everything 2 time a day at the least (gets kind of annoying sometimes). I checked tryed to press CTRL+ALT+Delete but it went to this thing that was for logging off or disconnecting from the name (like when you start up and if you have two or more names it asks which one you want to log on to that kind of thing) and in order to close it i had to go to the task bar by where the time is displayed and press close on this green thing that told me my cpu usage. oh yes and anymore free stuff you have for computers other than the antivirus and the spyware stuff?and lastly with that TV tuner from the list I made for the computer can I tape stuff on my hard drive kind of like TiVo and how much can i get with a 80 GB hard drive

[Hi Ho]

I don't recommend Norton. It is a major resource hog. It could actually be slowing down your PC quite a bit. AVG AntiVirus is free and much better.

In the task manager there are tabs at the top. You have to click on the "Performance" tab to see the memory usage. HERE is a screenshot. It actually shows the total and theamount that is free so you have to do a little math.

You can use the tuner like a Tivo. The amount you will fit on your hard drive depends on the quality level you record at. You could probably fit anywhere from 40 to 100+ hours but remember you also have programs taking up space so unless you have a dedicated hard drive for TV recording you will have less room.

[Lamilia]

ok the % commited bytes in use for memory is 20.169 the available megabytes is 114

isn't this the coolest power supply you've ever seen? http://www.coolerguys.com/840556061045.html

[glc]

512mb of ram is adequate for gaming, a gig is even better. It's your onboard video that's dragging you down. A video card will run graphics a LOT faster and release the shared ram back to the system.

[Lamilia]

ok I guess thats what I will do. so after this I will have one ok gaming computer and one nice one cool. and I'll probably need a better power supply

[Kov-Ice]

Check out THIS thread for thoughts on Power Supplies.