Help with performance boost on my PC

[foxfox1]

Are there any good books/sites/2+2 users that can help me with tweaking my system. I have a few recurring problems that I think can be fixed if I go through my computer and remove unneeded BS, maybe some registry editing, other stuff that I don't know about. I don't really know what I'm talking about, I'm just sure there's some genius out there with half the machine that I have, but twice the performance of mine. I've got a Dell with 3.0 Ghz and 1 gig of ram. Please guide me to something.

[T3485]

It may very well be more time/cost effective to just wipe and reload the OS.

[ColdCaller]

Backup important stuff, reformat and reload the OS, and add a gig of RAM.