2 upgrade or not 2 upgrade

[LaZy]

1st of all let me introduce u 2 the only thing in the house that makes my wife jealous





Its now just over 3 years old. So it aint exactly the bomb no more. in fact it still suits me fine. Im still very happy with it since it does everything I want it 2 do. Its just that its become kinda slow doing it. So these are my main complaints.

a) It takes me ages 2 open up 10MB++ pictures on Photoshop. Working in PS is actually more or less ok

b) It takes me ages 2 launch this horrible thing called Vista

c) I cant run all games on max graphics no more

d) mulri tasking stuff is also slow and timeconsuming

e) sending info 2 my printer (some all in 1 from HP) takes for ever 2 start 2 print

f) launching a game also takes 4ever but is still acceptable, although Im always the last muppet loading a map on SC2.

What Id like 2 do is more or less the following: have like 5 tabs open on firefox, blasting music through VLC media player, have PS open and opening "heavy" pictures fast whilst connected to ESO or battlenet.

I aint, bcos I cant afford it atm, buying a new PC. I also feel that with some unexpensive but smart upgrades that my concerns would b overcome. MayB get that RAM jacked up. But im running 32bit!?!? Is it vital 2 get Windows 7? Is ma processor still up 2 the task? Shall I get a new GPU or get another GTS and SLI it?

thoughts 4 the nerds

out

[deadhanddan]

u can get 4 gigs of ram running for a 32 bit but u wont use all of it, more then likely 4 gigs will get u too 3.3 gigs actively used for RAM. im still a comp. nub , only recently been looking into this myself. apparently if u run 64 bit u can get as much RAM as u want and be able to use 100% of it

ur nividia is good enuff for most things

[Comadevil]

Just as DHD said: Get more RAM. It solves every issue except max graphics.
SC2 needs alone uses 2 GB ram (at least on my 64-bit system)
Your computer is slow because it runs out of ram and has then to swap RAM to Disk which makes a comp painfully slow.
I have also a 8800GTS. If u don't play FPS it is enough

There is no need to dump ur comp

THe best is to buy 2x2 GB RAM and take the old ram out of the comp

Win 7 64 bit is only vital if u expand ur RAM > 4GB. U have to take in account that 64 bit needs more ram than 32 bit because of the larger addresses

I have 8GB RAM but i bought it when 4GB RAM cost about 30 Euro one year ago

[joe4holly]

I got my self an i5 with 4 gigs of ram on wensday. All I can say is so freaking fast. Dont think I seen a aoe3loading screen for a map yet.

@ coma is it woth getitng 64 bit to get the full 4 gigs of ram ?

[Comadevil]

Not really. 64 bit uses more ram than 32 bit at least about 50-100 MB.
So it is not worth the expense except if u make photo or video editing and u have a 64 bit editing program. The encoding and work on the picture will be much faster
If u have a 64 bit version for free u can go for it. I use Win 7 64-bit since 3/4 year and i had no issues so far

[StrokeyBlofeld]

Pretty much summed up already. More ram. Photoshop is great, but very hungry with big files. As marco said, if your not playing the latest fps games, the only difference you'll get from a newer card is the directx level (I think you have 10 on the 8800?). So not a huge difference, I guess a newer card may lower the load a little for you, but I'm not sure if the cost will warrent it.
The cpu is fine for the time being, there isn't much out there that you are likely to be using that will utilise more than 2 cores, so that's fine. I guess if you wanted you could throw on a decent heatsink and overclock it a little for a slight performance increaes.

But overall.... to summerise.... MORE RAM..... RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM!!!

Check the speed your mobo will take, and find some nice paired sticks. Either a 2gb+2gb matched pair, or if your board has 4 slots, you could get 2 of them for 8gb. (remember they should be matched pairs to run in dual mode). How much you get depends on the current costs.

On another note, clean up your hard drives, and make sure you havn't got tonnes of crap running from start up that doesn't need to be. If you have everything backed up, perhaps consider formatting your drive and re-installing windows. (win 7 64bit would be my choice). I think you would be suprised how this will speed up your pc. People don't seem to understand how much crap gets collected and split up over your drive over time, and how little bits and pieces get added to your initial boot up without really realising it. All this effects your computer's performance, and a good clean out and optimisation can boost things significatly.

[Comadevil]

Ram will be DDR2 800, i am pretty sure Lazy has a q6600. 2.4 GHz, 4 Cores 3 years old: matches perfectly

I have the same opinion as Strokey to reinstall the system but many people begin to moan when i propose this

[StrokeyBlofeld]

[quote=""Comadevil""]Ram will be DDR2 800, i am pretty sure Lazy has a q6600. 2.4 GHz, 4 Cores 3 years old: matches perfectly

I have the same opinion as Strokey to reinstall the system but many people begin to moan when i propose this [/quote]

Ah yes. It looks like a Q6600, same as mine (fantastic cpu IMO). So yes, DDR800 would be right.

[Blackadderthe4th]

Interesting you brought this up as I am thinking along similar lines, not so much an upgrade as a brand new machine. Thinking I will build it myself but those alien ware comps look damn cool also...Whatever I decide to get it will annihilate all games thrown at it like a bunch of stim packed opris sighting a a bunch of SCV's miles away from the nearest TC.

[LaZy]

Yes I know Im DDR 2, I remember this when I bought the PC. I the OCZ Memory PC Gold Edition Dual Channel 2 x 2 GB DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 CL5 that I bought overkill or simply wont work? Pls say overkill cos its already in tha mail :O

out

PS since its ma Bday in a couple of days I went all in and orded the Asus GTX 460, the Samsung 120Hz monitor and yes uve guesed it ma Nvidia 3D glasses also

[Comadevil]

[quote=""LaZy""]Yes I know Im DDR 2, I remember this when I bought the PC. I the OCZ Memory PC Gold Edition Dual Channel 2 x 2 GB DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 CL5 that I bought overkill or simply wont work? Pls say overkill cos its already in tha mail :O
[/quote]

It is overkill and it is usually better if the RAM has the speed the processor.
But they will run 99% sure in ur pc.

I owuld have bought an ATI 5850 instead of a 460 GTX
And it isn't really the time to buy a graphics card since competition starts now and AMD will bring the 6000 series October/November into market thus prices will be decreasing

Yeah i am a bad guy to spoil ur birthday present

[LaZy]

But none that u mentioned can let me play 3D can they?

out

PS ur not a bad guy at all!

[Comadevil]

Then go for the 470

For a bit more expense (i see it in Germany beginning at 249) u can get much more performance

see here (attention for english people: German inside)
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/graf ... _ohne_aaaf

[LaZy]

Yeah ur right Marco, I was actually contemplating the 465 and the 470.....its just that everything started looking obscenely expensive. I guess with the 460 Ill b just as happy as I have been with "our" GTS for the next 2-3years

out

[Blackadderthe4th]

I was looking at the ATI card as the 460 and 465 I heard was a bit understrength but I guess the choice is between 3D and eyefinity. As I already have to wear a pair of glasses that aren't 3D I think dual 5850s and 3 19 inch monitors would be a good way to go. Though I am looking forward to hearing what 3D is like and if its the future for games.

A good thing to do Lazy, might just be to buy another 460 for cheap a few years down the line in the hopes that future games will take advantage of that SLI power. I'm not sure if dual graphics cards are entirely worth it right now as I'm not sure the games are all that demanding. Games seem to be limited to running on on the power of the current consoles as developing a game purely for the PC has no where near the market potential as developing a game for the Xbox and PS3.