do i upgrade - advice please

[Yardbent]

i can maybe afford ONE upgrade before i quit my 'retirement job'

so - do i need to.??..
what i have seems to works ok for me ATM. Editing of RAW with Elements, emails, no Games, limited use of ''Open Office''. Storage of images with 2 external 320GB HDDs for backups

please bear in mind - no DIY build skill/knowledge whatsoever,
i just get my stuff built by a local family run PC shop - supporting the locals..

looking at Computer/Properties and C:\Properties I have....
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ 2.81 GHz
4GB RAM
32 bit system
WDC 259Gb SCSI Disk Drive
running Windows Vista Home Premium

OPTION 1. stay as-is, and the shop will add a separate graphics card ..installed for £85



SHOP QUOTE #1 @ £450
Intel Pentium E5700 Dual Core
Intel DDR3 Motherboard

SHOP QUOTE #2 @ £550
3.1GHz Intel i3 2100..........[I'm told this is ''future-proof''..?
Intel Motherboard SKT 1155

both with
16Gb DDR3 PC1333 Mhz
512Mb NVidia Graphics
16x +/- DVDRW
500Gb S-ATA2 7200 Hard Disk
PCI Wireless adapter
Midi Tower ATX 500W
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
64 bit system
Windows 7 Home Premium

additional GeForce 210 1Gb DDR3 [with either quote]..add £45
......................................................................................................................................

any thoughts about the 3 options. I wont be able to understand a lot of tech-talk..

looking for guidance if the 2 quotes are ok - or if any substitutions advisable

excuse the long post................thanks.......john

 

[Mikesphotaes]

If you are happy, save your cash.

 

[Yardbent]

If you are happy, save your cash.

 

[Steve82]

An SSD hard drive in my opinion is the best upgrade you can make to a PC. It will make everything load faster, especially loading image libraries and editing software.

Boot time will be massively reduced as will the time it takes to open anything in windows.

 

[Yardbent]

An SSD hard drive in my opinion is the best upgrade you can make ....................Boot time will be massively reduced as will the time it takes to open anything in windows.

thanks ... appreciate that, but boot time isn't a factor
i usually boot up the system, monitor etc and then go downstairs to make a cappuccino...

Photoshop Elements 7 Editor takes 11 secs to load from clicking the desktop shortcut...so that's ok too.....

 

[arad85]

Option 1: probably pointless. Even the cheapest of cheap graphics cards will do Photoshop well enough. If your gfx is that old (i.e. 4 or 5 years old) you MAY benefit from buying a £25 card. No speed increase.

Option 2: processor performance "similar" but you will probably get the impression of the box being quicker as Win7 will have access to more memory and will use quite a bit of your 16G as a disk cache.

Option 3: processor is around twice as fast as either of the other two plus you'll have the bells and whistles of option 2 in the better OS and memory management of Win7.

The 512Mbyte graphics option will be fine for either system.

If you could stretch to an i5-2xxx based system with all the same specs - that would be my choice as you get another nice boost in performance. Add an SSD if you can but as I posted elsewhere, it depends on your usage if it makes a lot of difference (i.e. you have to be booting/opening programs a lot to notice the speed increase). I boot once a month and keep my programs open 24/7, so notice little benefit.

Nothing is future proofed. I'm sure the next gen chipsets will be incompatible with the current gen.

 

[Yardbent]

thanks Andy....all duly noted. Option 3....hmmmm.

SSD bit OTT for me i think

BTW
i boot mine morning and evening....good/bad practice..thermal shock to components.?

it's actually disconnected from the mains in stormy weather when not in use, as the power is overhead line to the farm - and we get a fair few lightening strikes, with Scot Power Auto - Reclosers banging in a few secs later

I do have a surge protector ..........:shrug:

 

[arad85]

i boot mine morning and evening....good/bad practice..thermal shock to components.?

No problems with this at all.

it's actually disconnected from the mains in stormy weather when not in use, as the power is overhead line to the farm - and we get a fair few lightening strikes, with Scot Power Auto - Reclosers banging in a few secs later

I do have a surge protector ..........:shrug:

Which would be as good as a chocolate teapot if you have any spike close from a lightning strike. Unplugged is good and what I do here if there is a thunderstorm nearby. That includes all PCs (there are 6 on permanently) as well as TVs and hi-fis.

 

[Yardbent]

@Andy...thanks