Re-used server for PC

[OttifantSir]

I have recently gotten an old server from my mom's boyfriend. It actually has some good specs, but it is slow.

Specs:
PIII 1.266 GHz
1536 MB RAM
HP NC3163 Fast Ethernet NIC
4 RAID-drives (200+ GB)
Windows XP Pro SP2
ATI Rage IIC PCI (graphics)
Soundblaster CT4860 (recently installed as it didn't come with sound)

Before I got this, my mom's boyfriend said he was changing to new servers since the 15 people working on it started to feel it was getting a bit slow. GREAT! I thought. One person should have no problem running at high speeds then. But.... It's really slow. Even moving the mouse across the screen fast makes it use almost all the CPU.
I recently (yesterday) noticed it being faster when I re-adjusted the screen settings to be a lower resolution, and hoping it will improve even more when getting the new graphics card. But I am still looking for new ways to improve the speed without adding another processor to the system. Any good hints?

[Ozme52]

File server. I bought a new rig for $700 and reused all my old peripherals. My old rigs will become back-up and file servers.

Can't hardly get any cheaper than that.

You can "speed up" that computer loads by chaning to an older operating system. Windows 2000 for example.

[OttifantSir]

I am sorry, but I don't understand what you mean here. It's not as if this is a new problem either. When I got it, Windows 2000 Server was installed on it, and it was slow then too. If that's somewhat the gist of your post.

Back then I thought it was all the (for me) unnecessary software on the computer and the fact it tried to connect to its old "mate", a mail-server, on a network that didn't exist at my place.

At the moment I am just trying to get it to run a bit smoother. With Christmas mere months away, and my birthday mere two months later, I plan to wish for another computer to connect to this one and use this as the server it is intended to be.

[Ozme52]

Windows 2000 takes fewer resources to run. If you had just cleaned the unneeded software off, and kept the older operating system, you might have noticed a faster response time.

Win2000 is more than adequate to run a file server.

You can find out if you can 'overclock' the chip. The faster the clockspeed, the faster the computer.

You can find out if the motherboard will take a faster chip.

But I wouldn't screw with the hardware too much. Hell... if you could get away with it... try going back to Win98. (I just don't know if '98 supports this kind of server.)