I'd agree with the general posts in here, check your RAM and CPU use.

From experience with KDE 4.X and athlon XPs, it can run O.K., but besides higher RAM (and CPU) use compared to other lighter DEs/WMs, KDE 4.X also does a lot better with a newer video card. You've probably got an older nVidia (TNT2-GF2MX-GF4MX) or ATI (7XXX or 9XXX) video card, KDE 4.X much prefers a newer card (it ran better with an athlon XP 2200+/1GB/GF6600GT than with a Pentium4 3.0/2GB/GF4MX in my expereince).

I'd agree with onebuck and TobiSGD, its probably using DDR. It is possible its using SDRAM, there are chipsets that will go to 3GB with SDRAM (Ali for sure, and SiS IIRC), and its the bottom of the line atlon XP, so its more likely to be using SDRAM than if it was a faster, newer athon XP.

Just how much it would cost to get a newer, faster athlon XP and RAM will depend on what RAM you are using (SDRAM is a lot more expensive than DDR) and how decent your local 2nd hand places are. Most of the places I know about here are wayyyyyy to expensive to bother with 2nd hand stuff....I've been quoted over $100 in th last 6 months for CPUs almost as old as athlon XPs (early athlon 64).

If you do upgrade, dont go to 2700+ IMO. They are OK, with the 'right' board and power supply, but have always been touchy IMO. Some boards listed 'up to 2700+' as well but never supported them. A athlon 2200+ is almost as fast, runs cooler, runs in more boards, less 'desirable' for upgrades (due to the smaller number) and should be cheaper than a 2700+.

You'd probably get just as much performance increase from changing from KDe 4.X to a lighter DE/WM than you would from upgrading the CPU, RAM and video card. You dont have to run the ultra-light WMs, XFCE runs very well on systems like your 1500+.

I have just retired my similar box (2Ghz Athlon XP w/ 1Gig). The power supply went, and I'm not bothered buying one.

Ram size and bus speed were my chief considerations. I can squeeze another 1 gig of ram in, but the stuff is expensive (trailing edge technology :-/) and the bus speed is only 333Mhz.

If you're anywhere near Ireland maybe we can deal if you want s/h parts.

Hi,

It is a shame for price differential for pulls/recycled hardware for members outside the USA. I am fortunate to have several recyclers here and the pricing is fair. Some things are dirt cheap. At one time I was buying recycled PC equipment by the pallet to rebuild then use for non-profits, seniors and other low income people.

In our state as of 1-Jan-2012 you must recycle any electronic equipment. The garbage collectors will not pickup because if they do then a fine is issued. Most of our trash is now picked at transfer stations for recycle purposes. Last year I recycled over 500# to recyclers. Stuff that had accrued over the years that was not profitable to repair or someone dropped off for repair with the cost beyond the worth of the equipment. Just taking up valuable space in my shop.

'geeks.com' is a good source for refurbished/re-certified components or equipment. Great for people/users that do not have readily access to this type of hardware.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with 'geeks.com' in any way other than a purchaser.

HTH!

Might be just local to Brisbane, but I've dealt with all the recyclers/'computer fix' places that sell 2nd hand parts round here. There was a good local shop that had, if not good then decent prices, but it went under in the floods of last year, and has never reopened.

You can still get pallets of 2nd hand machines cheap, and even buying a whole 2nd hand system here can be priced OK. Its just if you go chasing parts that they really try to screw you as hard as possible. The CPU that I had 2nd hand places were quoting up to $100 for was available in complete form (the whole damn boxxen) 2nd hand for $200 or less.

Hi,

That's sad. Sounds like someone is price gouging. Most local suppliers pulls/re-certified are a fraction of your cost. Really depends on the product. Some processors are getting hard to find. Some people are not aware of the value and will pay the sticker price. Most of the resale guys understand the local market will not bear inflated prices.

We have 6 major recyclers in a 50 mile radius. Major industrial partners that are always flushing equipment; Caterpillar (headquarters & plants) Several Universities, State Farm Insurance headquarters, along with other major providers. Supply chain is there for loads of equipment that get cycled. My usage has slowed down as I have other projects on going.

I don't think it's price gouging, but economics.

Today's cheap electronics relies on
1. Limited spares being available
2. Limited modifications.

The losses of outfits like IBM (who sold me a single chip of ram in 2000 for a 1984 machine for IE£11= $15) cannot be sustained by anyone else. They had that stored around the world for 16 years. . .

Its price gouging, business_kid.

I see your point, and agree with it, but I actually worked in one of the 'recyclers'. Besides inside knowledge, I've also checked it a bit of intelligence work. Like knowing that a friend has sold his old machine to a 'upgrade' shop, how much he sold it for and then ringing up the store and asking how much for the CPU, when I got that price how much for a whole system speced like the sold machine.

I couldm understand charging a premium for 'top line, end of the socket' CPUs (eg athlon X2 Socket 939 'Toledo' or 'Manchester' 3600+ to 4800+ CPUs) but charging a premium for a common as duck muck socket 939 3000+ is just ridiculous.

Its not like they just do that with the newer CPUs, when I was working at that recyclers (a few years ago, athlon X2 64s and core2duo was current) they wanted $50 for pentium 200 MMX CPUs...which they a lot of, far more than they had boards to run them in. They wanted more for a 2nd hand floppy drive than I could get them for new.

I won't argue. I had a service business where people wanted me to hold spares (which I wouldn't), because I costed it. I did keep some repaired pcbs in stock, but the cost to me in those was my own spare time.

Well, if you want to upgrade your CPU, it might just be better to get a new computer altogether. A new CPU costs almost as much as the computer itself!
RAM might be worth the investment if it's worth the price difference.
My personal suggestion is the same as most people's here: use a different window manager.

I have a 2008 macbookpro, and sadly, dispite it having 2 GB of RAM, has major RAM leakage from Mac OSX ever since I upgraded it to snow leopard and Adobe CS5 instead of CS4.
Well, what did I do? I have Wubi ubuntu installed on my windows partition on the same machine, and it was not very impressive with unity (lag, more lag), then I threw down ubuntu and installed xubuntu into wubi from scratch. Despite Xubuntu not being the best implementation of XFCE ( according to critics), it works like a charm. Everything is so comfortable to use now and quite nice. I also installed lxde on the same OS.

So switching your desktop environment/window manager might really be your best bet!