Cheapest way to improve speed??

daveccc · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:05

Hello at the mo i have a 939 setup which is

NF4 board with a single core 64 running at 2.8 gig
1gig of ram, tweaked etc

7900gs @615/780

it runs most things ok.

Am getting a 22inc display and wont to run the resolutions so i guess i requite more power

what would be the best way to go??

video card seems good at the mo i rekon fast enough

i need 2gig of ram but aint buying old ddr waste of money.

other than gettin new mb/cpu/ram would puttin in a 939x2 and clock that makes any difference??

any ideas would be good. cheers

Wingz · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:29

you definitely need a new graphics card if you want to play at a high resolutionon on a 22" monitor, the rest of your system will be fine, although another 1gb ram would help things.

mame · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:29

the obvious choice would be another gig of ram. If you did get that you will have it to sell later on if you upgrade further. I have the a64 4000+ at 3.0ghz and after checking tomshardware cpu charts comparing a 4000+ sd against a 4200/4400 x2 theres little or no difference in games, infact the 4000+ scores higher for some games. I remember when i was running XP and playing F.E.A.R with 2gig i would have around 300mb free. I suppose a cheap-ish upgrade would be another gig of ram plus an x1950xt, either that or sit tight and build a new rig later on.

daveccc · 16 Jul 2007 at 22:42

hmmm i might jus sell me pair of 512 ocz 2-2-2-5 things gold, platinum or summin

and try and get hold of a 2 gig set then something with slacker timing so be cheaper

fester · 16 Jul 2007 at 23:07

If i were u i sell the 2,2,2,5 ram u should get at lest £60 for it on "the bay" and buy the cheapest 2 gig kit and maybe have change lol. Then buy a 3800x2 £33.99+vat and clock the life out of it. That looks like a sweet 7900gs you got there keep it.

MattJones2k6 · 16 Jul 2007 at 23:18

mame said:
the obvious choice would be another gig of ram. If you did get that you will have it to sell later on if you upgrade further. I have the a64 4000+ at 3.0ghz and after checking tomshardware cpu charts comparing a 4000+ sd against a 4200/4400 x2 theres little or no difference in games, infact the 4000+ scores higher for some games. I remember when i was running XP and playing F.E.A.R with 2gig i would have around 300mb free. I suppose a cheap-ish upgrade would be another gig of ram plus an x1950xt, either that or sit tight and build a new rig later on.

I also had single core 4000+ but then upgraded to 4800+ x2 but i seen a difference, those CPUs are going quite cheap now but its matter of opinion.

mame · 17 Jul 2007 at 00:43

MattJones2k6 said:
I also had single core 4000+ but then upgraded to 4800+ x2 but i seen a difference, those CPUs are going quite cheap now but its matter of opinion.

a 4800+ is a good upgrade but they currently sell for around £150 on an auction site. If a cheap upgrade is what you are after then i think the CPU is best left untouched for now.

Th3D0n · 17 Jul 2007 at 03:36

id say get your shelf a x1950 512meg pro/xt

johnno93 · 17 Jul 2007 at 05:14

You'd probably see an improvement with an extra 1 gig of ram. an x2 would make an improvement in some newer games that are multithreaded such as supcom but unsure if you'll beable to get it to same speed as you currently have your single core cpu. Also it'll benifit less games than the extra 1 gig of RAM will due to only the newest games been multithreaded.

Also a few people have said get an x1950 but I'm not sure this will make a huge difference since you are currently running a GF 7900. If you were to get a new gfx card the best to get would be a low end 8800gts if your on a tight budget.

Frank_Rizzo · 17 Jul 2007 at 11:31

The cheapest way to improve is to ensure your O/S is tuned to the max.

Turn off uneccessary services
Optimize memory use
Defrag
Get rid of desktop background
Turn off fluffy bunny menus
Prevent instant messengers from loading at startup
Uninstall driver packages and use basic drivers instead (e.g. printer driver monitoring apps - use plain driver)

If you really need certain stuff then create two user accounts. One for general use, one for games. It's so easy to switch between users.

Total cost £0