mcerd1
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 10:18 AM |
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Advice - upgrading my PC ?
I'm starting to think about upgrading my PC a little, its just starting to feel a bit slow 
Its based on an ASUS 'P5ND2 SLI Deluxe' and currently has a P4 630 (3.0Ghz P4), 2Gb (=4*512Mb) of 533MHz DDR2, a pair of nvida 6800
ultra's (256Mb each), a pair of 120Gb SATA HDD's in a RAID array and an SB X-Fi card
annoyingly this is just slightly too old to support any of the core 2 CPU's  it'll will support the 670 / 672 (3.8GHz P4) and the 840
(3.2GHz Pentium D) and the 840 Extreme (but these still seem really expensive)
I don't want to spend too much because I'll probably re-build it properly in a year or so with a new MB, but it could do with being a
little faster in the mean time
I'm just not sure where I could make the biggest gains for the least ££ - any suggestions?
cheers
-Robert
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Benzine
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 10:38 AM |
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What do you use it for? Amazing how much rubbish some computers have running in the background and loads of things running on start-up slowing
everything down. When was the last time you defragged or formatted?
I've got an old dell c60 laptop that has 2 icons on the desktop and I always keep it as bare as possible (running tiny xp beast, no anti-virus
etc). It's much quicker than my both parents computers as they have so much crap on them 
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Hellfire
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 10:54 AM |
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With that spec it's probably the crap you've got on it, rather than needing an upgrade, are you a Gamer? If so, delete the Games you dont
need.
Stop many of the useless applications running in the background with hijackthis, run a registry cleaner, file cleaner and defrag. You'll find
it's much quicker...
Steve
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BenB
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 10:54 AM |
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I'd give it a good clean (software wise) and have a look at overclocking it. Pentium 4s run pretty hot but are equally quite clockable.
I've got an old P4 2.66Ghz P4 running quite stably at 3.10Ghz  Makes a reasonable speed difference. And it's free (until you cook
something!!)....
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britishtrident
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 11:23 AM |
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"Hijackthis" is great for getting crap out the registry.
Of course it goes without saying if you have any Norton software on the PC toss it over the side.
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mcerd1
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 12:05 PM |
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just to clear a few things up...
its running XP pro (SP3)
its never on the internet, so I run it with no-anti virus at all
Its not had a clean install for a while, but its not really got much on it and the registry is still quite clean, so windows / background programs
arn't effecting it to much - its really hardly any slower than its ever been, I just want more !
the drivers are all upto date
it is games that are slowing it down the most (its nearer the min spec for the new ones than I'd like)
I did try overclocking it (the MB macke it really easy) but it was getting a bit too unstable , so I'm thinking about a faster / higher spec
CPU (probably second hand)
my brother has just offered me his old graphics card (8600 GT or GTS ?) if I wait a few weeks - it should do the trick as far the graphics go (I like
my 6800's but they are quire old now)
[Edited on 8/8/08 by mcerd1]
[Edited on 8/8/08 by mcerd1]
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BenB
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 01:53 PM |
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How hot was it getting during the OC?
A problem like speedfan is useful- monitors temperatures and voltages during OCing....
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Hellfire
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 03:17 PM |
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You're just being greedy!!!
 
Steve
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mcerd1
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 03:55 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Hellfire
You're just being greedy!!!
Steve
well yes, but its 3 years old so it needs a boost to keep up with the 'average' new ones (well most of it, some of its more than 10 years
old)
quote:
Originally posted by BenB
How hot was it getting during the OC?
A problem like speedfan is useful- monitors temperatures and voltages during OCing....
it was getting a bit hot, but not overheating, I was thinking about getting some better cooling anyway (which I can keep for the 'new'
machine later) so I might give overclocking another go after that
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pbura
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| posted on 8/8/08 at 04:14 PM |
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A good graphics card and more/better memory ought to breathe some life into it.
Run msconfig to see if some of your programs may have imbedded some crapola into the start-up routine. Running scandisk and defrag might help a
little, too.
Pete
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