Is a C2D still powerful enough

[Denis54]

My daughter uses her PC for Word, Internet, Facebook, Youtube and emails. NO gaming. She feels it is getting slower and wants me to upgrade it.

Her PC has the following specs: C2D E4300 (overclocked to 3 Ghz) - 4 GB Memory - 256 GB HD - Windows 7. I do not remember which video card she has but it is powerfull enough for her needs.

I want to do a complete reformat and replace her very old HD with a SSD drive as I feel this would provide a significant speed improvement

I think her C2D is still powerfull enough for her needs. Am I right or should I look to upgrade her CPU, MB and memory also?

 

[ctk1981]

SSD would help. My dad uses a c2d on vista at 2.1ghz...its a little aggravating at times compared to my 4.25ghz fx-8320 but he doesn't complain much.

 

[SPBHM]

SSD would help. My dad uses a c2d on vista at 2.1ghz...its a little aggravating at times compared to my 4.25ghz fx-8320 but he doesn't complain much.

2.1 to 3GHz is a big difference, 3GHz C2D should be OK for what he described...

SSD + new windows install is probably going to have a huge impact

 

[ninaholic37]

Reformat is a good idea. Some junk probably accumulated over the years.

 

[ElFenix]

SSD will make it seriously snappy.

 

[Headfoot]

reformat + ssd is all you'll need

 

[scannall]

Like the others have suggested, just pop an SSD in there.

 

[postmortemIA]

just find value SSD, 64-128GB would be sufficient for OS and leave the old HD.

 

[crashtech]

The C2D is still OK for basic computing, it's the people trying to still use the Pentium 4 that make me cringe. An SSD will wake it right up, but while you are at it you might have her open all the programs and tabs she likes to use and see if all the memory is getting eaten up. It might be able to use more.

 

[MountainKing]

I still use my c2d e6600 but man that rig feels slow. Even for surfing. I'd pop in a ssd too. That might be all she needs. 4gb ram should do. I often have 50+tabs in chrome and it still works fine on 4gb

 

[Madpacket]

+1 to SSD.

 

[escrow4]

SSD will only slightly help. The Internet has gotten fat and a Core 2 just can't keep up with all the Java and Flash and assorted junk. I'd gift her an i3 4350 as an absolute minimum with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Bye bye to speed problems.

 

[Red Squirrel]

We have core2duos at work with XP and recently got SSDs, world of a difference. We have about 30+ items in the task bar at any given time. The biggest limitation is ram because you can't go higher than 4 with XP. That and GDI resources. After a while windows won't draw properly, but no amount of ram is going to fix that, it's a windows limitation. I would imagine the newer versions of windows like 7 and 8 are better for that.

Don't put office 2010 on it though, that is just bloaty as hell and is going to be slow and clunky no matter what. Though, the SSD did help a lot. Outlook opens almost instantly while before it took about 5-10 minutes.

 

[VirtualLarry]

SSD will only slightly help. The Internet has gotten fat and a Core 2 just can't keep up with all the Java and Flash and assorted junk. I'd gift her an i3 4350 as an absolute minimum with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Bye bye to speed problems.

escrow4 : CPUs :: exdeath : HDDs ?

Seriously, a 3Ghz Core2-era CPU is just fine for the Internet. Especially if you add an SSD.

My Q9300 @ 3.0, 8GB DDR2-800, 240GB SATA2 SSD, HD4850, browses the Internet just fine. Quite snappy, really. But then again, my rig has 8GB RAM. Also, I don't run any antivirus software. If you do bloat up your system with lots of background programs, then perhaps escrow4's suggestion of an i3 and 8GB of RAM makes sense.

Personally, my suggestion is to get a Crucial MX100 256GB SSD for $111 at Newegg, and do a clean format of Windows 7 with a SP1-integrated disc.

If the motherboard will handle it, spend $30-40 on eBay, and pick up an E8xxx-series Core2Duo CPU, and if your motherboard supports overclocking, try clocking it at 3.6 or 4.0.

 

[meloz]

The Internet has gotten fat and a Core 2 just can't keep up with all the Java and Flash and assorted junk.

A better solution to combat this fattening is to install Firefox with three addons: Adblock Edge (not Adblock Plus), Disconnect and Flashblock. Then whitelist sites like youtube in flashblock. Also, do not install java plugin unless there is an essential website (banking) that needs it. Done.

C2D with SSD will be plenty adequate in this scenario.

 

[infoiltrator]

An SSD makes the most sense, though a 240GB would be best.
120 GB $70, 240 GB $110 (sometimes less) and with SSDs, bigger work better.
E4300 has me doubtful.
I've built Pentium rigs (G850 mostly), if you have the budget I would.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/65?vs=404
and things have improved since the G850 Pentium.

Perhaps a Devil's Canyon 3258? I think these are about $70 and overclockable.
MB, CPU, 8 GB RAM should be doable about $200.

FWIW there is a mod that runs 771 server CPUs on most 775 motherboards. This would be an upgrade to Q6600/Q9300 FOR ABOUT $50-60. (used)

 

[SlickR12345]

That C2D e4300 is super slow, let me tell you, when going from that to my I5 3330 its like night and day.

But I'd say reformatting and putting an SSD there would improve the performance quite a bit.

 

[BSim500]

SSD will only slightly help. The Internet has gotten fat and a Core 2 just can't keep up with all the Java and Flash and assorted junk.

You really don't need 8GB RAM just to browse the web, run Word or type e-mails. As for CPU power - budget laptops come with 2.0-2.5GHz Pentium's and they run just fine with an SSD thrown in for typical web browsing. Tablet CPU's are even slower and they manage too. The best solution for "web bloat" is to de-bloat it with Flashblock / click-to-play settings + other addons which Meloz mentioned, which will speed up browsing far more than a CPU upgrade. An SSD will help immensely with or without a CPU upgrade, since reading/writing a web browser's cache (thousands of tiny files simultaneously) is up to 100x faster than a mechanical HDD. The difference will be like night & day even on an old CPU.

Best thing OP can do is buy an SSD, install Flashblock, etc, then test it with current C2D. If it's still slow then upgrade, but I've seen a Pentium + Adblock + Flashblock browse more smoothly than an i7 with "stock" browser, simply because it has far less "stuff" to download & not render in the first place.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you do decide to upgrade the platform:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138406
OR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138407

AND

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116974
OR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116950

 

[postmortemIA]

A better solution to combat this fattening is to install Firefox with three addons: Adblock Edge (not Adblock Plus), Disconnect and Flashblock. Then whitelist sites like youtube in flashblock. Also, do not install java plugin unless there is an essential website (banking) that needs it. Done.

C2D with SSD will be plenty adequate in this scenario.

I do this - Firefox with no flash plugin at all and one extension - open current tab in chrome. Let me tell you, sites figure you don't have flash and usually i get static images as adds.

 

[seitur]

SSD will help althrough

Another means of additional speeding it up , if you can afford it is go get cheap new Haswell processors like Celeron G1820 or Pentium G3240.

They're like 45-60$, you can propably grab a cheap H81 mobo for similar price.

Those processors have GPU(video card) in-build in them as well that will support hardware acceleration of video files and video streaming services like Youtube and other things.
(you're not saying what GPU you have atm and some of cheaper GPUs from C2D era did not hardware accelerated things like this and it can be a royal pain in the ass navigating through Internet nowadays without hardware acceleration, especially a young person which surely watch alot of videos, and visit sites with which are heavy with media files, animations, etc

 

[meloz]

Let me tell you, sites figure you don't have flash and usually i get static images as adds.

These static adds can also be blocked effotlessly with Adblock Edge. This saves bandwidth and also make browsing very snappy even with older hardware.

Trying to combat software bloat with hardware is a very expensive way to gain performance.

 

[BrightCandle]

Todays websites are one of the heaviest CPU activities users currently do. They are getting more and more complicated, running lots of dynamic code and being really large in comparison to 5 years ago. Its one of the biggest contributors to older machines feeling slow. The HDD doesn't really impact web browsing speed very much, but the CPU sure does.

I personally found a business giving me a Core 2 Duo 3 years ago painful. It was significantly slower than my desktop at home and it showed in just about everything. Can it run the software? Sure it can, a C2D is compatible with pretty much anything out there. But a lot more than double the performance is available at the same price. Its a processor from 2008, and even with todays relatively meagre increases in performance every year it still adds up to quite a lot of difference. I wouldn't accept a C2D from a company today for work purposes at all. You might saddle your daughter with it but its well below entry level by todays standards.

 

[nusyo]

A C2D is slow for today's standards, but when you overclock it to 3Ghz+ and you add a SSD, then it is a totally different story.

IE, Firefox, Chrome open in less than a second, it plays HD video (flash too) without any slow downs, and you can have open bunch of tabs.

I'll say to listen to those who actually use a C2D (like myself) :>

 

[crashtech]

Actually there are some new AIOs for sale now that have performance comparable to C2D.