Anybody good at PC upgrading?

Damian Brown

Damian Brown

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Damian Brown
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Without spending too much I'd like to speed up this particular PC.. more ram ideally. It appears my motherboard P5VD2-MX SE is a bit rubbish in that it is apparently maxed out at 2gb according to a crucial.com system scan.

INTEL CORE2DUO E6600 / 500GB / 7200 512MB GFX/ 2GB DDR2

Now... Who is good at this stuff? Can you advise?

The crucial scan results:

Maximum Memory Capacity: 2048MB
Currently Installed Memory: 2GB
Available Memory Slots: 0
Number of Banks: 2
Dual Channel Support: Yes
CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
CPU Family: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz Model 15, Stepping 6
CPU Speed: 2400 MHz

Running XP. The machine does a decent job as it stands but i'd like to improve it. And overall I want Photoshop faster on this machine, at least for another year, hence not buying a new tower/set up. I'm quite thrifty


I think I'll need a new motherboard but what are my options. If that is my only, cheaper, option then what do you recommend based on what I have already?

Thanks!
 
You will only be able to have 3GB of RAM installed unless you switch to 64bit anyway, so the expense may not be worth the hassle.

Your system seems very modern, and is miles better than mine...yet I'm running CS3 pretty speedy and that is with 1GB RAM, AMD x64 2.1Ghz on Vista Ultimate x64. Perhaps try streamlining your XP. Disable any unused start up items, swap your scratch disk to a non-system hard drive. Software improvements may be a better option, and free...which should suit your thriftiness down to a T ;)

Then buy a new system when it does become more of a hassle.
 
CS3 runs fine, sorry I should've been clearer. It's mainly for when I'm working on a number of large raw files at once. Anything over 15 selected starts to take it's toll :)

Just that I'd like more speed :) :) I'll have to try the scratch disk recommendation!
 
The mobo is asus and you're right it's max 2gb so no real opportunity for improvement there and your processor seems to be the fastest it will take.

What graphics card have you in it?
 
First of all, i'd like to say Hey to everyone as this is my first post here.

Now to the original question, I second purplecloud's advice on the scratch discs, as this is photoshop's main resource when editing large documents.

My only other suggestion would be to upgrade your RAM , but in this case thats not possible.
So if purplecloud's advice does not improve your performance, you may have to live with it until you get a new motherboard/pc

I cant really see the graphics card holding the performance back, but I have no experience with this as i've always ran quite high end cards.
 
Thanks for making your first post a good one!!

Good advice all!

I'm interested in working out my options as far as upgrading the mb goes.
 
Well i run the same Processor as yours with 3 GB Ram on a high-end Asus motherboard, but this is now a few years old.

But I can see most motherboards these day being able to support that processor with 3GB of ram or more, just remember that 32bit windows will not 'See' any more than 3.5GB ram

I'll do a quick search for you for a motherboard.
 
Thanks, factor in if I upgrade to vista too :) Brilliant help guys.
 
With a little tweak in the BIOS you could easily have the CPU running over 3.0GHz, gives a nice little boost for photo-processing :)

(my E6600 & Q6600 PCs are at 3.2 GHz)
 
If you do overclock just keep note that they will produce considerably more heat so additional cooling may be required. And I feel that RAM may be the more limiting factor than Processor power here.

But it may be worth a try to see if it increases performance.
 
mrgubby said:
With a little tweak in the BIOS you could easily have the CPU running over 3.0GHz, gives a nice little boost for photo-processing :)

(my E6600 & Q6600 PCs are at 3.2 GHz)
Click to expand...

Care to expand ;) Bear in mind I'm not quite as savvy PC wise as you guys :)
 
I didn't think PS used the graphics card only the main processor and RAM so upgrading wouldn't make any difference. (correct me if I'm wrong)
 
A quick google shows lots of people asking how to overclock this motherboard and no definite answers, so it seems your motherboard is unable to overclock.

But for future reference overlclocking involves changing a setting on you motherboard that allows your computer to run faster than its meant to.

Its usually simple and involves changing the 'FSB' Or Front Side Bus speed. A quick google should find you a guide.

And photoshop does use the graphics card, here's a screenshot. I suspect it doesnt do much though

45381304.jpg


And as for the motherboard, something like this not too expensive and supports more RAM than your current one.

http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=57T6
 
Oooh interesting.. a friend came up with this (costs a tiny bit more so if you can't see a reason to take it over the one in that dabs link then let me know)

1x ASUS P5QL PRO iP43 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £68.79
2 x Kingston 1gb DDR2 800mhz/PC2-6400 Non-ecc CL5 £17.99

Cart total inc vat: £86.78 inc delivery

The ram actually can be bought elsewhere, slightly different but essentially the same ram, only diff is cl6 not cl5 (latency) and matter of £4 i think.
 
Comparing the two boards, the one suggested by your friend is higher specified ,and has a newer chipset.

It supports more hard-drives, and more RAM. But its all dependant on your needs, You may not ever use some of the extra features, but the newer board is be more future proof when it comes to expansion ports USB ports etc, the newer chipset may also be faster. If you've got the extra to spend, i'd go for it.
 
mrgubby said:
With a little tweak in the BIOS you could easily have the CPU running over 3.0GHz, gives a nice little boost for photo-processing :)

(my E6600 & Q6600 PCs are at 3.2 GHz)
Click to expand...

Sorry to hijack slightly, but I have a E6600 and wondered if dropping in a Q6600 with no other changes would show a little or lot of performance in PS / Lightroom etc ?
 
The general opinion on quad core , is it can help with multi-tasking or video encoding,
but allot of software generally cant make full use of the four cores, you would see a speed increase though but its likely to be modest.
 
Thmaga said:
The general opinion on quad core , is it can help with multi-tasking or video encoding,
but allot of software generally cant make full use of the four cores, you would see a speed increase though but its likely to be modest.
Click to expand...

It's a good way to futureproof your system for a while. The one cost I'm not happy about is for a Blu-Ray writer.
 
I was also recommended to get a fresh 4gb at 800 Mhz, like those in the aria link, thanks :) The reason being the two gig in this is 533Mhz, apparently :) So putting the 2gb 800 with it wouldn't be so effective. Didn't think of that at the time!
 
Mixing different brands of RAM can confuse some boards , so the advice given to you was correct.
 
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