Best cheap upgrade for old hp pavilion 533w

Hey guys.

I was at my girlfriend's last night, and her computer is absolutely terrible...screen is barely viewable because it is so fuzzy (i believe that is a problem with the monitor), virus/spyware protect takes forever to get working because of the slowness of their memory, and it takes a good couple minutes even to start up a browser or to open up the system properties. It was making me want to tear my eyes out having to deal with this thing.

So she said that she could put some money into it if i ordered the stuff.

It's an hp pavilion 533w, running XP home with 256mb of ram. i know that is the first red flag right there. should she upgrade to 512 for 23 bucks or to 758 or w.e for 43 bucks?

Otherwise, what upgrades would be worth it to make the computer run faster? I know that i can grab an mx-440 for dirt-cheap these days, but with a ***tty *ss monitor like hers i don't think it would carry really any benefit. Unless of course the issue was with the onboard video and not the monitor, which i severely doubt.

Any suggestion is appreciated, ive been doing this for a few years but i know that a lot of you guys have been doing it a lot longer so im just heading here to hear what you've got to say.

Thanks a lot, guys.

hmm an HP machine ..... oh does that bring back memories

anyways

upgrade to 1GB of ram in a single stick, it should hold it because my old HP was able to..

http://www.memoryx.net/p5300h.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2407861+1052607869&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=147

this one should work

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146318

grab yourself a cheap 128mb or 256mb pci video card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143058

this one for $25 should do the trick almost perfectly.

that should be ok for a while, where it should give time to think about a new pc all together. altho its not cheap it cheaper than just buying a new system at the moment. Unless you want to go with a new dell or something else which can be had for around $300-$400

btw i would recommend finding this stuff used, off forums and such because you would be alot cheaper than buying new

I know that the computer itself *should* be replaced, but there is only so much she can do in the matter. Thanks for the response, and I'll see about finding some used ram/vid card.

I'm working on that exact same model this weekend, I'm getting my pal 2x 512MB of Corsair to max that badbwoy out. Other than that, it's gonna be as good as it gets.

*Freak I don't think that this one can run single 1gig sticks.

Would it be better for her to save her change and just get a cheapish replacement for it in a couple months? I mean with the way prices are going with the budget desktops you can get a decent home desktop for 300-400 bucks.

i recommend saving for a few months... i mean with the money you have now to spend + $200 - $300 in a few months she should be able to afford a decent long term machine.