I built my computer about eight years ago for gaming. The components were not state of the art but not antiquated either.

2.8 MHz AMD proc- 32/64 bit but with Windows XP.
1 Gig DDR ram. A decent, but not $400 graphics card.

It ran the Half-Life series without a hiccup.

Like other computers Iv’e had, it’s gradually slowed to the point now where I find myself swearing at it. Things take too long to open. I’ve done the usual cleaning of files, defragging, registry fixing etc. Still slow. I tried checking the start menu and deleted some programs but it’s tedious looking up what should be deleted and what shouldn’t.

Would bringing the ram up to 4GB make that much of a difference. How about a SSD?

I know if I did a clean install of XP things would be better but it wont last forever. In addition to that, it’s a hassle. But at least SP3 is still available if I go that route.

Maybe windows 7 would be the way to go but it looks like it requires a chip with “virtualization” whatever that means…

Suggestions? Other than buy a new one.