Basic upgrade or more needed

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Reidy36

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Hi all,

Hope you can help (please keep it basic English not geek speak):lol:

Not saying my PC is slow when doing the stuff for my course and having the net open at the same time, but i could at times go away and make a cuppa.

Basics are:
Intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz
1.49gb RAM

Presuming i need to up the RAM a little or a lot, or do i need something more?

CS3 and lightroom 3 are the programs i am running, and this is where i notice how slow things are.

Don't play games on it, so no issues with that side of things.

TIA
 
You need a new PC.

Your processor is slower than the one I have in my firewall! A modern (i5) processor is about 20x as fast and you will be running out of memory with only 1.49G. You will also probably find your motherboard is limited in memory capacity AND the memory will be very expensive to buy.

How much do you want to spend?
 
Yep, buy a new PC. Adding more RAM will be relatively expensive as it'll be out of production now, and will be akin to putting a sticky plaster over a missing limb.
 
arad85 said:
You need a new PC.

Your processor is slower than the one I have in my firewall! A modern (i5) processor is about 20x as fast and you will be running out of memory with only 1.49G. You will also probably find your motherboard is limited in memory capacity AND the memory will be very expensive to buy.

How much do you want to spend?
Click to expand...

That will explain things then.....lol

Ideally i want to be able to transfer my main hard drive straight over as it's 500gb, the secondary one is 75gb. Do you think worth going to an independant dealer and getting something done with them?

Would like to spend as little as possible really, what do you think i am looking at price wise?
 
So as a basic spec, what would you say i need?

Can you recommend any places to go?

I have never attempted to build, so don't think that would be a good idea, and as i said above, i would like to keep my main hard drive (would i be able to just plug this into the new PC and use as it currently is? sorry for moron question, just need to get it right...lol).
 
If the current drive is SATA then you'll be able to plug it in to an existing system and keep using it as a secondary drive, if it's IDE then you won't.

What is the make and model of the current system?
 
Thorburn said:
If the current drive is SATA then you'll be able to plug it in to an existing system and keep using it as a secondary drive, if it's IDE then you won't.

What is the make and model of the current system?
Click to expand...

It is a SATA drive. As i had to put it into a base unit from the local pc shop when the old system died.

Base unit is a Dell dimension 5150, the drive is a Samsung HD082GJ

If i had it built, would i be able to have this drive as the primary, or would it be best to put it as a secondary and use what comes with the pc.
 
Probably best to use it as a secondary as the drive in a new pc will have a new OS on it, most probably windows 7 or 8.
Something like this and another £70 for Windows 7. This assumes you're keeping your monitor, keyboard and mouse from your old pc.
 
Mike-a said:
Probably best to use it as a secondary as the drive in a new pc will have a new OS on it, most probably windows 7 or 8.
Something like this and another £70 for Windows 7. This assumes you're keeping your monitor, keyboard and mouse from your old pc.
Click to expand...

Thank you Mike.

That was cheaper than i thought.

Thinking about new monitor as well, only because when i look at photos on my galaxy, they look better than on my monitor and it is a few years old now.

Could i get away with an I3 processor? Presuming anything is better than what i currently have.
 
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I think before you decide what you want to do, you need to decide on how much you want to spend. Once you have decided you can look at the options available to you.

I do not think you will be able to put your OS and apps HD into another PC and get it to work straight away.

Do you have the disk's for all the OS and apps you want to install?

Gary has a number of quad core PC for sale in the thread below:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=467448

One of the quad core ones will be an improvement and will probable do what you need it to do for a while. I think these have a OS sticker but will come without any OS so you will have to factor in the price of OS. You might be able to download vista and use the sticker on the box to register.

I have a Dell Vostro 200 which is a core 2 duo and that work fine, however I have issues with LR4 as it is very CPU hungry.
 
For the monitors have a look at the Dell IPS range. Again depending on your budget you can decide on size. I have a Dell 2209WA which is a 22" and am happy with it. I also had to buy a screen calibrator. This change will cost you a bit...
 
Reidy36 said:
If i had it built, would i be able to have this drive as the primary, or would it be best to put it as a secondary and use what comes with the pc.
Click to expand...

You'll want a clean Windows install anyway, if I was speccing a system I'd order with a smallish (128GB) SSD with Windows 7 installed and then add the 500GB in as a secondary drive for storage.
 
All,

Thank you very much for this.

With regards to monitors, anything you could recommend or say don't get.

I can borrow a screen calibrator off a mate at work as he says he doesn't use it, so saved a spot there.

If i said £500 inc Vat, base unit and monitor, what would you get for me?
 
As a means of a better/faster pc the AMD system I posted is the absolute cheapest option.
Granted, with a budget of £500 you would of course get a higher spec system.
Anything on the market today will be mucho faster than a P4.
 
Mike-a said:
As a means of a better/faster pc the AMD system I posted is the absolute cheapest option.
Click to expand...
It is also the one that would need upgrading soonest. Going from one slow system to another slightly less slow is an upgrade of sorts I guess....

You'd get 3x the performance from this: http://www.ebuyer.com/443470-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1081 at £40 more. Those AMD processors are great for htpcs, but leave a lot to be desired for general purpose computing.
 
True. Always dependent upon depth of pockets.
Having gone from an AMD system to an Intel they are definately the better option and I'm only using a 3ghz Core2Duo.
 
Thanks all.
Looks like I will have to spend a few days looking.
Any other suggestions?
 
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