My friend wants to speed up his computer and I said I'd do it for him. I'm going to upgrade the hardware but should I upgrade the CPU or RAM?

The current RAM is 256MB.
I can't remember what the CPU is but it's outdated as well. Probably around 2 - 2.4GHz or so.

Which would speed it up more? I'm guessing CPU, but those can be rather expensive..

What do you think?

Hi rory,

RAM.....best speed increase (bang for buck). Find out what the board will take and try to get as much RAM in there as your/his budget will allow.

upgrade the RAM u will get around 40% to 60% improvement depending on how high it is plus its cheaper

Theres no other single single improvement you can make that will speed up and improve performance like adding ram. A 2.4g processor is no slouch, and if you upgraded to the max processor the board will allow, you`d probably be disappointed in what little improvement you got for your money. But if you spent that same money on ram, or only doubled it to 512, you`ll(they`ll) be grinning from ear to ear. Like Hengis said, bang for your buck, you`ll be happier.

Thanks for everyone's help.

If you use this... (with your friend's PC of course)

Memory upgrades from Crucial.com - Determine My Memory Needs

it will guarantee the correct RAM type quickly and easily.