Upgrade advice...sluggish performance

[njs5017]

Hello

Need some help with an upgrade, it's been a while since I did anything like this, so just need to know where best to spend my money. The budget is £150-200, I'm willing to go a little higher if there will be a large difference in performance.

I bought the PC without doing much research, foolish I know, about nine months ago and use it for photo editing mainly and general pc use. The outright processing power isn't fantastic it is enough, gets through 500 RAW images easily so I'm after better responsiveness. Just find the pc changing between programs sluggish, just generally slow, till it settles on a task.

Basically where is it best to spend my money, to improve the system responsiveness, is it graphics card, more ram, new motherboard, "overclock"?

If there is any additional info you needed for the best advice let me know. I paste the some of the specs below. Should mention I've gone through the startup setup etc to make sure there aren't any "extra" programs in the background so think it's about as fast as its' going to get.

Thanks

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Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Gaming graphics 1534 MB Total available graphics memory
Primary hard disk 44GB Free (456GB Total)
Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

System
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Manufacturer Dell Inc.
Model Inspiron 530
Total amount of system memory 3.00 GB RAM
System type 32-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 4
64-bit capable Yes

Storage
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Total size of hard disk(s) 1397 GB
Disk partition (C 44 GB Free (456 GB Total)
Disk partition (D 5 GB Free (10 GB Total)
Media drive (E CD/DVD
Media drive (L CD/DVDCD/DVD
Disk partition (M 661 GB Free (932 GB Total)

Graphics
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Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Total available graphics memory 1534 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 256 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1278 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.402.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1920x1200
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
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Network Adapter Intel(R) 82562V-2 10/100 Network Connection
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter
Network Adapter Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Network Adapter NETGEAR 108 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter WG311T

 

[njs5017]

58-61C

 

[njs5017]

Thanks for the replies... here are the screenshots

 

[njs5017]

 

[njs5017]

Ok, think I'll do this in stages, first new mobo and with RAM and cpu cooler as suggested and take it from there.

Once I have all the bits above, do I simply just open it up, rip out the old, replace with new and power back up or is it more complicated than that.

 

[njs5017]

Ok thanks all for the advice.

Last question, once it's all installed I'll be back here no doubt, but to OC I assume there is a process for this?

 

[njs5017]

Okay so the common theme is RAM, at least as a place to start.

Any recommendations which, I notice the "standard" stuff is very inexpensive. Any point in going for Balistix or Corsair for the build I have at the moment? It's not that much more expansive £40 vs £60 odd.

Thanks

 

[njs5017]

Looking at the CPU-Z screenprints above it looks like it's running dual channel already at 3GB, and with Win7 out late Oct, should I just not wait.

Someone else suggested to me that I spend £250 on a 32GB SSD Intel X25-E Extreme 32GB 2.5" SATA-II, for the operating systems and software I use most, leaving the rest to the standard drive.

Thoughts?

 

[njs5017]

Surely if I have 2x 1GB and 2x 512mb that would qualify as dual?

 

[njs5017]

Yes as above 2x 1GB and 2x 512mb

 

[njs5017]

I'm stumped...

Consensus is that the CPU (even stock) is powerfull enough, the chipset is fine, I'm running just about as much RAM (dual) as Vista can handle, the PC is "clean" so not sure what to do next besides waiting for Win7 and then buying 4x 1GB in the hope that improves things?

Any last thoughts?

 

[njs5017]

you could do that. I don't like mixing numbers up but if you're keeping a 32bit os then yeah, it's workable.

have you got any way to free up some of your HD for a bit to partition and try the 64bit win 7?

That way you shouldn't have to play around with odd numbers of ram

Yes did notice that recently, more than enough space on the secondary drive so will move later. I'll let you know what I find performance wise