Computer upgrade

My wife had had her computer for about 4 years now, it was good at the time purchased HP Pavillion A520n has amd xp3200+

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/prodinfoCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=404643&lang=en

She mostly uses it for editing and downloading video and pictures and playing old school games. She is saying she would like it to be a little faster. I was going to try to upgrade it a little for her without actually buying a new computer. It only had 512RAM currently 2*256, and has the ability to upgrade to 1G 2*512, I was thinking about doing that. I see in the micro-center ad that they sell processor upgrade packages, for example:
This combo contains the Biostar GF7050V-M7 Micro ATX Socket 775 motherboard, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6750, 1GB DDR2 667 PC5300 Memory, CPU Cooler Fan for $199.00.
My question would be, if I wanted to upgrade the computer to give it better performance, what route should I take and is there another modification to what I have that would help with downloading video and pictures. Would there be a big difference if I got a new bundle like the one listed?
I guess I would be considered a novice regarding computer hardware, but I know enough to ask on here as oppossed to the store, because I want to learn what would really work. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

For what your wife's doing there probably won't be a big difference, upgrading to 1Gb could help though.

Only other suggestion is, if possble upgrade your internet service as that's probably the bottleneck.

 

First and foremost, I would max out the memory on that system...even putting in more than 1GB if it would take it (but you say it doesn't).

Probably the next most important upgrade, even more important than a cpu upgrade, would be a new HDD. I was going to recommend two HDDs that would absolutely smoke your OEM drive (assuming that's what you have) but I realized that you probably don't have SATA, correct? One of them is only $75. It's what I use. I'm not readily familiar with any "smokin'" IDE HDDs out there at the moment but they are out there I'm sure.

Unfortunately, since your socket is most likely 939, you probably wouldn't be able to find a cpu upgrade. I wasn't able to find one.

The new rig would be a bit snappier and help her some with her video editing for sure. $199 seems like an awesome price for all those components. At that price, upgrading your old rig might be throwing good money after bad. Four years is probably past the "I should upgrade it" threshold. And yeah, upgrading it might cause trouble for your OEM OS.

 

I'm somewhat baffled here because the link you supplied lists this as a socket A machine which is a 462 pin CPU and then goes on to describe the processor as a 3400+. Maybe I missed something along the way but to my knowledge, AMD never produced a 3400+ socket A (462) processor. The fastest socket A processor they made was a 3200+ which runs at 2200 MHz. Now, one can overclock a socket A beyond 2200 Mhz but AMD never made a 3400+ socket A processor.

Regardless, my recommendation would be to upgrade your memory and leave all else alone. Find a matched pair of CAS 2 400MHz DDR modules (2x512) and save the rest of your money for a future machine. This is going to give you the most bang for your buck without throwing good money away. Go to NewEgg and see if you can find some Corsair XMS, OCZ or Patriot. Look for 2-3-2-6 or better timings.



edit: I just rechecked and something is seriously wrong here. Following your HP link to this page on specs, max memory is listed as 2 Gigs of PC 2100 or 2700. That would mean your processor is not running at 400MHz, but instead at 333MHz. This throws even more doubt on the validity of the 3400+ CPU nomenclature. Before you do anything, download an old version of Everest (V 2.20) from (www.oldversion.com) and let us know what your current CPU is and what the current memory and memory speed is. Something is not right with this page on specifications. It does appear that you have an ASUS board there and a very good one which will run at 400MHz (2x200) and will overclock a high end socket A processor to the equivalent of a 3400+ speed, but again, AMD never produced a socket A CPU officially tagged as a 3400+. My suspicion is that this could be running at 200x12 (bus speed) but that would also require PC3200 memory and the spec lists PC 2700. Please report back with your Everest readings and I'll try to ascertain what is really going on here. It looks to me as if HP did a little cut and paste when they put these specs together. They are not correct as printed.

 

Thanks for the info. I actually did just run up to the local Micro-center and get 2 512's for 21.00 each and threw them in. That will be good enough and I'll just get a new machine next year.
Thanks for the advice.