What needs updating?

9761 · 29 Jan 2006 at 16:14

Hi,

Got around £100 to update my system.
It may not look much but thats all I want to spend on the machine.

I dont play games so I dont want a fancy graphics card etc.

The computer I mainly use is the web surfing, few downloads, office, Music and accountancy stuff!

However my computer is getting on now and needs updating. Its getting quiet slow lately and want to get as much speed out of it as possible. I have reinstalled windows but it still slow than when it was new.

Spec:

3.0c Pentium 4 s478 with stock intel HSF
512mb Ram
XFX FX5200 AGP
Sound Blaster audigy 1
460w enermax PSU
Lian Li case
80GB Samsung EIDE/ATA133 HDD
Abit IC7-Max2 Motherboard

Thats it!

I would Overclock the computer but with that HSF on cpu not worth it.

any ideas? would another 512mb make much difference? Dont want dvd-rw I have no use for it!

thanks!

kbc · 29 Jan 2006 at 16:32

9761 said:
any ideas? would another 512mb make much difference? Dont want dvd-rw I have no use for it!

thanks!

I'd say so, try out anothe stick of 512MB of RAM, that should make things run a tad quicker and smoothly.

babyface uk · 29 Jan 2006 at 16:35

I'd say the extra ram would make the most difference, if you are multitasking, eg downloading with some web surfing along with accountancy stuff at the same time then the extra mem will help, also as you have discounted all the other upgrade options and your budget does not lets us get a new mobo/cpu combo, memory is all thats left.

Babyface UK

9761 · 29 Jan 2006 at 16:42

Would a new HDD like a SATA make difference?

9761 · 29 Jan 2006 at 17:10

Wow just had look at ram prices and how cheap they are now!

If I just get another 512mb ram I can spend the rest my money down the pub!
cheers

9761 · 1 Feb 2006 at 15:27

Ok, Ive added another 512mb ram to my other 512mb ram same speed etc, also bought a zalman 7000 hsf for cpu, Ive overclocked my cpu to 3.4ghz and have fully reinstalled windows but to me it still seems slow!

It's usally much faster but Ive only found a little increase of speed if that.

Any ideas? do I need a sata HDD to make it faster or is it just my cpu and the rest of my stuff showing age or something?

cheers

iraiguana · 1 Feb 2006 at 15:43

well i doubt for your needs that you would find a new sata hdd to be any faster as there is only minimal difference in speed that is noticable for small files (things that you seem to be using). It probably is going to reach as fast as it can unless u get new cpu etc.

nikebee · 1 Feb 2006 at 16:02

a 3.4GHz P4 cpu is by no means slow if your not gaming. so i don't think it would be that.

my old rig, was a P4 3.2GHz, 6600GT and 1GB GeIL ram... running off a raptor with a seagate barracuda as a storage drive.

an update later, and my girlfriend now has my old pc... the same kit is running off now running of an old 20GB Maxtor (5k rpm 2mb cache) though (as i've kept the raptor/barracuda) and seems a heck of a lot slower than it should be.

any idea on the cache and speed on the hard drive your using?
if its 5K rpm or a 2.8K rpm drive with a low ammount of cache, it may be starting to show with newer apps.

rather than simply buying a SATA drive, it could be cheaper to just buy an up to date and large sized IDE drive.

it could be that you simply have too much on one IDE channel? and the resources are being shared over too many drives?

SATA would help there... but the speed between the two isn't really as noticable IMO

spend about £30-£40 on a 80GB drive with 8mb Cache (or upwards), or £40-£50 on a 120GB drive.

9761 · 1 Feb 2006 at 16:18

Hi,

I think the current samsung HDD Ive got is 2mb with 7,200rpm, so should I look for a HDD with 8mb on it?

80GB hDD is plenty enough space for me.

babyface uk · 1 Feb 2006 at 16:25

9761 said:
Hi,

I think the current samsung HDD Ive got is 2mb with 7,200rpm, so should I look for a HDD with 8mb on it?

80GB hDD is plenty enough space for me.

Not much in it really 5% at most, only way to get a noticeable difference is get a Raptor.

Babyface UK

9761 · 1 Feb 2006 at 16:58

Could it just be that my processor is getting old, or something like that?

babyface uk · 1 Feb 2006 at 17:06

When you said you reinstalled windows, was that a complete reformat then install, for what you use your computer for then a 3 gig chip is plenty.

Babyface UK

9761 · 1 Feb 2006 at 17:33

It was a Complete reinstall, wiped everything off HDD and did the long, slow NTFS format of HDD not the quick version.

I know the 3.0ghz is enough but I mean Ive been using the CPU for about 2 or more years now and didn't no that because Ive been using it for this long its slowly getting slower with age.

just an idea.

nikebee · 1 Feb 2006 at 18:05

9761 said:
It was a Complete reinstall, wiped everything off HDD and did the long, slow NTFS format of HDD not the quick version.

I know the 3.0ghz is enough but I mean Ive been using the CPU for about 2 or more years now and didn't no that because Ive been using it for this long its slowly getting slower with age.

just an idea.

if your talking about getting slower, as in slower doing the same tasks - then thats pretty impossible unless its on its way out (and you'd get a much bigger hint that its dying than programs running slowly).

only thing i could suggest, is if you ran benchmarks in the past, run them now and compare the scores.

could you swap the mobo for a different one? might be that?

i would suggest overclocking, but you've already tried that.

as for your current HDD, theres not much difference between 2mb cache and 8mb cache to really warrent paying the cash for a replacement (esspecially when its not going to be any bigger in size, or speed)

9761 · 1 Feb 2006 at 18:19

Its slow at everything LOL

It hasn't just started being slow but its gradually getting slower to the point im starting to see a difference from the speed say when its new to now.

I will see if I can do some benchmarks, what ones would you suggest?

I don't have another motherboard available atm