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Work Horse PC upgrade.

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

opethdisciple

Soldato
Joined
18 May 2010
Posts
24,145
Location
London
I'v got two computers, the machine in my signature, is my gaming computer, which I only use for games really.

I use my other machine (specs below) for every thing else none gaming.

In other words, word processing, internet borawsing etc.....

The machine is a:

P4 3.2GHz
2 Gig ram
4650 Radeon

Now in general it is fine..... but when I browse using firefox to certain flash websites, either Firefox cant handle it or the cpu cant handle it, becuase the cpu usage in firefox goes up to 50% and it really brings the pc to a halt.

However it really is on only one website: www.newsnow.co.uk

When I browse to this site on my gaming machine or my work machine (c2q 2.3 GHz) I dont see this issues.

I was thinking of upgrading the computer to one of the core i3 bundles on overclockers.... what you reckon?
 
hmm well I guess I dont have one.... but equally Im cant justify spending something in the region of £700 etc......

I was thinking getting something cheap like a core i3 bundel to replace my p4 machine, but then noticed for about £340 I can get the overclcocked AMD 6core overclcoked to 3.8 with much faster ram....

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-038-OB&groupid=43&catid=339&subcat=

Which I take is better than my current gaming pc?

So then it got me thinking maybe I should wait to see what Bulldozer brings, and possible relegate my gaming pc to work horse.
 
screenshot20110207at181.png


How about this? It's a bit more than spending £340 on the bundle you suggested, but this is much quicker, the Geil Ram top quality. There is a problem with the SATA port on the motherboard - you could wait until they fix it.
 
I cannot recommend you a new Horse but I can make some computer parts suggestions though!! :p

Have you upgraded to the latest version of Adobe Flash?? The latest version supports GPU assisted flash acceleration on AMD GPUs from the HD3000 series onwards IIRC.

If you want to build a general purpose PC I would suggest you look at the following parts:

AMD Athlon II X3 445 ~ £60

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-269-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=

You can get the Athlon II X3 450 for around the same price if you shop around.

Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 ~ £55

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-025-FC&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=

This has the HD3300 IGP which has UVD unlike the HD3000 IGP found in 740G and 760G based motherboards.

4GB DDR3 ~ £30

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-219-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-220-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-188-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=

If you have a PCI-E HD4650 you could get a cheaper motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-424-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=1481

However,the Foxconn motherboard is based on the higher end 790GX chipset and even does symmetrical Crossfire.

I also assume you have a decent PSU too.
 
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Asus P8H67-M Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) £87.98
(£73.32) £87.98
(£73.32)
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Sub Total : £206.63
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £43.23
Total : £259.36
 
Is there a reason why you have separate gaming and browsing machines? Surely you could save a lot of money by simply using your gaming machine for both?

If you have to upgrade, I'd be looking at something like the following for just £190, as it makes no sense going mad on something that sees such light use.

Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3) - Retail £71.99
(£59.99) £71.99
(£59.99)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sub Total : £149.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £31.79
Total : £190.76
 
coldfused said:
screenshot20110207at181.png


How about this? It's a bit more than spending £340 on the bundle you suggested, but this is much quicker, the Geil Ram top quality. There is a problem with the SATA port on the motherboard - you could wait until they fix it.
Click to expand...

This is very good!

And yes I am using the latest version of flash...
 
This will last you for a good few years. Rather than buying something cheaper and then needing to replace it in a year or so and end up spending more money.
 
wow hats some cheap memory, not sure about the cooler though. bit ugly for me but looks are secondary
 
I didn't know that word processing and internet browsing needs a a £165 CPU and a £134 motherboard.

It seems that the vast majority of desktops under £600 and most laptops under £1000 will also be outdated in 12 months time too as many have CPUs which will be slower than a Core i5 2500K.
 
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If you just need it for word processing and internet browsing a 2500k is an overkill. That's actually faster than your gaming PC.
A more modest choice while remaining at the 4 cores market could be this:

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £45.59
(£37.99) £45.59
(£37.99)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3/775/1155/1156/1366) £20.99
(£17.49) £20.99
(£17.49)
Sub Total : £185.46
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £38.99
Total : £233.95

you will be able to do some overclock to the processor if you want and it'll be more than enough for what you want it for years.
 
I would even go Phenom a cheap Athlon II x3 build will see a good few years service as a general office machine, cheap and cheerful but will still get the job done well, couple that with the possible core unlock and it'll be well worth its money
 
TheGedi said:
Im guessing disabling this does not affect flash video performance other than reduceing ram usage?
Click to expand...
To stop flash apps crashing firefox they are run in a seperate process, plugin-container.exe, if a flash app crashes plugin-container.exe closes but firefox remains open, however, this flash container has performance issues, so I disable it. Of course if flash crashes firefox will now close, but at least well behaved flash apps now work as they should. Slightly lower RAM usage is a bonus.
 
Its not so much crashes, its more the plugincontainer.exe goes up to 50% + cpu usage on this website: www.newsnow.co.uk in firefox, and opening new tabs etc... is excruciatingly slow.

I dont know if its a firefox issue, a flash issue or my pc's issue.

Flash + Firefox + website seem fine on other (more powerfull) computers....

But yet, my p4 machine is fine on all other website, with flash....
 
Yeah following the steps in that link I posted will solve that. It's behaviour you'll see on your upgrade aswell, so don't expect it to go away without disableing the plugin container.

Hopefully it'll be fixed in firefox 4 but for now this is a workaround.

If I was you I'd still upgrade though, you'll see a big performance increase all round from your old setup, but just for fixing the firefox issue, doing that tweak is likely all that is needed :)
 
opethdisciple said:
Its not so much crashes, its more the plugincontainer.exe goes up to 50% + cpu usage on this website: www.newsnow.co.uk in firefox, and opening new tabs etc... is excruciatingly slow.

I dont know if its a firefox issue, a flash issue or my pc's issue.

Flash + Firefox + website seem fine on other (more powerfull) computers....

But yet, my p4 machine is fine on all other website, with flash....
Click to expand...

Rather than throwing money away, have you tried running that website in another browser? If its just a FF + Flash plugin issue as has been suggested, then you should easily be able to tell by running the site in IE8 and seeing if its got the same problem.

But if you really want to buy a new set-up, I really don't see any reason not to get the cheapest dual-core processor you can find. Even an i3 is pretty overkill for word processing and internet. Get yourself a cheap Athlon X2 (or a Pentium Dual Core if you want to go Intel) and it wil be plenty fast enough and you should be able to get a good core set-up for under £200. Just slap on of these bundles in your PC and it will be more than good enough.
 
That old P4 is obsolete, any contemporary CPU/MB/RAM upgrade will be night and day different. Just get the cheapest, modern tech out there. I'd be looking at duel core AMD in a cheap MB.

The Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G is £65 with integrated graphics, add a Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 for £72 and 4GB for £40 and you're laughing.
 
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