upgrade advice - development pc

dilated · 10 Nov 2007 at 16:23

can I ask for some advice with my pc, it has been some time since I last built a pc and as such Im a little out of touch regarding hardware.

I currently have a pentium 4 3.0 ghz with 4gb ram running xp withba dual screen setup. I am a coder and run many programs at the same time; jumping between outlook, visual studio, sql studio, expression and several data (and resource hungy) apps.

My problem is that i run out of resources all too often.

Im considering upgrading to a 64bit cpu with new board and 6-8gig ram. will xp (or vista) 64 cause problems?

What other options do I have? What hardware should I look at? I have no idea about budget, but dont mind spending 4 figures on an upgrade that will save me time.

semi-pro waster · 10 Nov 2007 at 16:59

If you want to upgrade then for a bit shy of £450 you can get quad core, 8gb Ram and a good motherboard and cooler so overclocking could also be an option if required. Bear in mind that you may also need a new graphics card and PSU, all other parts should still be compatible. You will need Vista or XP 64 to access anywhere over 3.Xgb of Ram.

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £135.99
(£159.79) £135.99
(£159.79)
Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-5400C5 Dual Channel Vista Upgrade Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2VU6674GK) £59.99
(£70.49) £119.98
(£140.98)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Sub Total : £355.95
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £63.86
Total : £428.76

dilated · 10 Nov 2007 at 17:22

thanks semi-pro that looks a good option and cheaper than i first thought.

I have a nvidia 6600gt (clone) agp - as i use dual screens; 2x 22" widescreens running at 1920x1200. Is agp likley to be a bottle neck and should i look at pci-express?

riddlermarc · 10 Nov 2007 at 17:37

I tell you non a single core CPU will help a lot! I am in a similar boat (code/developer) and going form a single core AMD chip to a dual core one really helped with multi-tasking, especially with thing like VS and SQL Server

semi-pro waster · 10 Nov 2007 at 18:07

You should definitely be looking at PCI-E, not so much because AGP is a bottleneck, for that card it wouldn't matter in the least but simply because the good motherboards will only support PCI-E and PCI. I'd suggest a dual-DVI X1950pro for ~£70 as being your best option.