is my computer slow & old?

Originally posted by woadman
Thanks for the good information..guess I'll not upgrade just yet....maybe only get a top notched video card and solid state HD.

If you don't already have a graphics card that's the thing to get. Don't bother with the SSD unless you have the money for both or you have to get a less good graphics card because of the SSD. The price of these things will come down and even if it doesn't their reliability will improve. The hard drive is only a bottleneck when you are loading programs and accessing data on it. The potential bottleneck is due to something called the swap file or swap partition if you have it arranged that way. This is used when your computer runs out of physical memory and uses the hard drive as a way of simulating having lots of physical memory. With 24 Gbytes of physical memory that's not a huge risk.

Originally posted by DeepThought
If you don't already have a graphics card that's the thing to get.

I agree that is certainly the first priority.

Don't bother with the SSD unless you have the money for both or you have to get a less good graphics card because of the SSD.
Given the specs of his system, he's got the money.

The hard drive is only a bottleneck when you are loading programs and accessing data on it.
Which is a lot of the time.

The potential bottleneck is due to something called the swap file or swap partition if you have it arranged that way. This is used when your computer runs out of physical memory and uses the hard drive as a way of simulating having lots of physical memory. With 24 Gbytes of physical memory that's not a huge risk.
One one machine I had 8Gb RAM for a while, and never really had an issue with it filing up. Nevertheless, getting an SSD made a significant difference. Its actually a hybrid drive with only 8Gb SSD, but it makes Windows boot much faster and most programs load faster.
One an older machine with only 4Gb RAM, getting a 256Gb SSD made a massive difference.

Originally posted by DeepThought
If you don't already have a graphics card that's the thing to get. Don't bother with the SSD unless you have the money for both or you have to get a less good graphics card because of the SSD. The price of these things will come down and even if it doesn't their reliability will improve. The hard drive is only a bottleneck when you are loading program ...[text shortened]... ating having lots of physical memory. With 24 Gbytes of physical memory that's not a huge risk.

OK..thanks again for the info..I've decided to shop for a graphics card with lots of GPUs. It might need a more powerful power supply, too. Might go back to Dell for the power supply...