Speed up workflow on an old pc!

Damian Brown

Damian Brown

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Damian Brown
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I know you all love my threads ;) so here's another:

I currently work on a rather old machine and won't be able to get a new one until after this wedding season so i'm stuck with it.

It's increasingly obvious that my workflow would go a lot faster with a new set up but for now I'm looking at ways to maximise the efficiency of my machine, hence this thread...

I use, and brace yourself:

AMD Athlon XP1900+ Thunderbird
1gb ddr ram (another 1gb due in a week)
XP Service Pack 2

2 hard drives in the tower, 1 80gb running programs and 1 160gb for storage.

2 external hard drives for storage

the usual graphics, sound, cd and dvd burners..

Relevant software - CS2, Bridge.

I regularly clean the pc, perhaps need to defrag more regularly.


Workwise I shoot raw, use Bridge to go through and delete unwanted shots then use ACR in CS2 to process, resize etc.

That's the part I'd like to run the fastest, because it takes most of my time as i'm sure it does many forum readers.

I upgraded from 512 to 1gb ram and that helped, so i'm hoping 1gb more should top it off nicely. I suspect that is all I can do without spending serious cash... at which point i'll get a new pc/ mac.

Just wondered what you would do in that situation? And to clarify, I mean before being able to get a whole new system.

Regards
 
Check your motherboard specs... it might take a faster processor.
Given it's "age" you might be able to drop in a better one for not much dosh
 
I know this isn't really what you're asking, but you could always buy a C2D intel chip which would definately speed things up, and put it in one of the Asrock motherboards that allow you to use both DDR1/DDR2 ram and both AGP/PCI-E graphics cards (not at the same time!) - that way you can use your old ram, graphics cards etc with a much faster processor and just upgrade the rest later on.

The motherboard is about £40-50, and I would guess about £100 on a reasonable C2D chip.
 
Food for thought! I'm not in the home office at the moment but from memory the motherboard is a asus kt766 (something like that). When I get a chance, a bit of googling should tell me what chip i could drop in as you say oldgit. Sounds like a very good move.
 
2Gb ram which you are doing already.

You could get a faster processor, your MB should take up to at least an XP2400+ and depending on the model all the way up to 3200+, I wouldn't bother with this upgrade though unless you get a 3000 or 3200 chip for REALLY cheap.

Bigger FASTER hard drives would also make things a bit smoother but that would require a windows reinstall.

So basically put the 2Gb in it and stick it out until you get your new one.
 
Oh and socket A motherboards with older coolers are crap in that when you install the new cpu and put the cooler back on you CAN damage the cpu's core if you get it wrong.
 
OK, received the memory.

It is the supposedly same type of ram as I already have in, 1gb pc3200 ddr 400, on the actual chips it says 128x8 , 1024mb then... but i put it in and i´m reading as having 1.5gb now and that´s not good. I´ve emailed ebuyer to see what the craic is. I actually emailed them before i looked at the stick again and noticed it had 8x128mb chips and told them it was a 512 and not a 1gb and i´d like the full 1gb thank you very much. But if it´s the same as the other 1gb i have, then why is it showing as only .5 when my motherboard and pc can take 2gb fine. HELP. and b****r
 
Sounds like double sided memory in an older motherboard if only half the ram has been seen. You would have been more sucessful ordering from crucial.com they will guarantee compatibility wheras ebuyer don't.

You can argue with ebuyer, best to just return it asap under DSR and order proper stuff from crucial.

Almost all the ram from ebuyer will be the cheaper to manufacture double sided stuff which doesn't work with older motherboards.

Oh and have you found out the exact model of your motherboard?
 
mikeleslie said:
Sounds like double sided memory in an older motherboard if only half the ram has been seen. You would have been more sucessful ordering from crucial.com they will guarantee compatibility wheras ebuyer don't.

You can argue with ebuyer, best to just return it asap under DSR and order proper stuff from crucial.

Almost all the ram from ebuyer will be the cheaper to manufacture double sided stuff which doesn't work with older motherboards.

Oh and have you found out the exact model of your motherboard?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply..

The motherboard model is ASUS A7V266-E and the chipset VIA VT8366A KT266A + VT8233

Athlon XP1900 Palomino

ATI R200 Video chipset / Hercules 3D Prophet 8500 video card
 
Ok so you can get up to an xp2600+ cpu on that but only the 266Mhz FSB version so realistically it isn't worth the upgrade.

Also it doesn't support double sided high density ram so you WILL have to send it back to ebuyer and order proper stuff. I think 1gb low density should have 16 memory chips on it. Anyway as I said before Crucial will definately be compatible and costs £49ish for a 1gb dimm.
 
mikeleslie said:
Ok so you can get up to an xp2600+ cpu on that but only the 266Mhz FSB version so realistically it isn't worth the upgrade.

Also it doesn't support double sided high density ram so you WILL have to send it back to ebuyer and order proper stuff. I think 1gb low density should have 16 memory chips on it. Anyway as I said before Crucial will definately be compatible and costs £49ish for a 1gb dimm.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help, appreciated! Now to get ebuyer to give me a return note!
 
TomB said:
I know this isn't really what you're asking, but you could always buy a C2D intel chip which would definately speed things up, and put it in one of the Asrock motherboards that allow you to use both DDR1/DDR2 ram and both AGP/PCI-E graphics cards (not at the same time!) - that way you can use your old ram, graphics cards etc with a much faster processor and just upgrade the rest later on.

The motherboard is about £40-50, and I would guess about £100 on a reasonable C2D chip.
Click to expand...

Tom, what do you think to this:

this motherboard

And a nice Core 2 Duo...

like this one

I was recommended that on another forum and can get it fitted for 25.
 
Before you spend money have you considered formattign your HD and startign again??

2GB of RAM will help alot by the way.

Whenever my PC used to get slow i would wipe it and put a clean copy of XP on it.
I used to put programs on and take them off frequently, but they never really went away and would sit somewhere slowing my PC down, then when i wiped it it would be running ALOT faster, and i learned not to install as much

It is a pain in the bum, but it is worth it for what is essentially half a days work.

OR, buy a new PC with Vista. I love Vista :bonk: as my PC NEVER slows down no matter how much i throw at it.
 
Won't comment on the machine specs, but on your initial processing, I always found bridge in PS2 very clunky and slow (even with a high end machine with 4GB ram)

I use exifpro (free download) to go through, delete, tag all my shots on card.
before sending them to PS.
 
To be fair last thing I tried which was fractionally better was to close Bridge, up the % ram usage on cs3 to 75% (with no other programs running) and drag the raw files from explorer into cs3, thereby skipping the need for ram to be set aside for bridge. That worked a little better and i managed to get through 20 images an hour, spending a minute or two on each once it had been through camera raw and got into cs3 itself.
 
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