I want to go faster

I have 2ghz AMD S7 with 1gig RAM 180gig HD. But when I go to Explorer I have to wait while it builds pictures of my thumbnails. Or when loading pictures into PhotoShop. It’s just slow. I work in photography and it is essential to me to get this darnthing running a bit quicker, makes me remember the days of W3.1 the good old days. Anyone got any idea of something I missed. Any Help will be appreciated