New Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
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G'day everyone. My PC is a bit about two and a half years old so it's starting to show it's age when running multiple programs. I was wondering if upgrading the ram would have any significant benefits, rather than simply buying a whole new system which is going to be a lot more expensive. My system is as follows:
Athlon 2200+ 256MB PC2100 80GB HD nVidia GeForce4 MX420 64MB DDR Running XP I can max it out at 1GB Ram from crucial for $152.70 US delivered. It's mainly used for the internet, music, downloading, ripping and making CDs, MSN and doing assignments for uni. I used to play games, but the graphics card sucks bad. Thanks for any advice. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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Sell it and get a Mac. (Well this is AN after all.)
The real question is do you want to put money trying to make this thing last or would it just be better to buy new? How much money do you have to spend? Putting more RAM in it will help, but as you know it is aging. Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Well, since you're at a Mac board, expect a few people to suggest replacing it with a Mac!
No seriously, Macs are really wonderful. I would say instead of putting a couple hundred bucks into this thing, just sell it and buy a Mac mini. They're great machines. I'm using one right now and I couldn't be much happier with its performance in everyday tasks like the ones you describe. Gaming performance is pretty lacking, but what do you expect from a video card saddled with 32 MB of VRAM? That said, if you insist on upgrading your PC, I think upgrading the RAM would help. 512 MB should be enough, but bringing it to 1 GB would be great too. What motherboard do you have? How many RAM slots does it have? Is it dual-channel, like many Athlon XP motherboards? Second priority, if you care about gaming, is the video card. Trash that old GeForce 4MX, those have always been bad, especially the 420s! There are plenty of good replacements that don't cost too much. A Radeon 9600XT, which is a big improvement over what you have but still not much by today's standards, is about $80. For a nice jump in performance, the GeForce 6600GT costs about $140 and gives performance slightly above the old favorite, the Radeon 9800 Pro. Either one of those would give a nice kick in the seat to your computer's gaming performance. A processor upgrade won't hurt either but it's probably not necessary. The 2200+ is a decent processor and it shouldn't be holding you back much. Besides, your upgrade options are a bit limited if you don't want to spend a ton of money or replace your motherboard. Just keep the CPU until your whole computer needs replacing. If you do wish to upgrade your CPU, one option would be a Barton-core Athlon XP. NewEgg has a Barton 2800+ for about $90, which operates at 2.08 GHz and has twice the L2 cache of your CPU. But I'm not sure if it's worth $90 for such a nominal upgrade. And for the record, I do not thing your computer needs replacing yet! Some of the stuff in it might be a little old, but it ought to give you pretty good performance. Once you upgrade the RAM and, if you care about game performance, the video card, it'll be great. |
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You can easily tell using the Windows Task Manager, it has a gauge for RAM use. Quote:
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New Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
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hmm imnot sure which motherboard i have. its a compaq presario 6000 (6627AU) series if that helps. it has two ram slots maxing out at 1GB total. can you upgrade the graphics cards in these? (i've never done it before)
i don't really have the money for a total upgrade at the moment. I'm planning on getting a new iMac sometime early next year - but that will be as a 2nd computer for my room so i can do my assignments without my annoying brother around me. the PC is used by my older brother and sister aswell, who are.. well stupid when it comes to computers which makes me hesitant when switching them to mac. i will do it eventually tho after i get the iMac and become acquainted with OSX. that way i can answer there questions. :smokey: I'm not looking to turn it into a supercomputer or anything, just enough to make the period between now and when i buy new next year a little bit easier |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Okay... well, since it's a Compaq, I'm going to change my opinion. It's crappy and I wouldn't recommend putting anything into it. Maybe you could upgrade the RAM to 512 MB just to hold you over until you can afford a Mac.
If it were a homebuilt machine with a decent motherboard and everything, it might still have a couple years of life in it. But pre-built systems like yours have no life in them. |
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Veteran Member
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Based on Crucial's configurator, looks like you need PC2100 DDR.
Get a 512 stick from Newegg, take your pick of manufacturers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...mit=Propert y |
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New Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
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yeah i know, i was a little young and inexperienced when i told my mum the compaq was a good thing to buy. the same goes for my sisters laptop, just got caught up in the excitement of getting something new. but i know better now. ill just upgrade to 512.
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New Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
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does anyone know a good online RAM store which ships internationally (australia)? i don't think newegg does. thanks
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M AH - ch ain saw
Join Date: May 2004
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I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you Luca. If he's complaining about slow down, I don't think the Mini is the way to go, it will just disappoint him.
Although I can't really say what to do next, how about an iBook? User formally known as Sh0eWax |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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I have to agree with Luca. I have a Mini and several PC's. The only time I get a slow down on my Mini (which I'm using now) is when I'm ripping a DVD and Folding@Home, and iTunes while watching my Widgets. It runs just as fast as my mid-range PC's, only most stable. Heck, I forgot to mention that while all those things were going on I'm also hosting a web page and an FTP site that is always transferring files. I think it would be more than enough for what was described as the need, and with the new 64MB of VRAM it is even better. Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Thanks turtle. I don't really understand what you're saying, Maciej. The mini isn't a slow computer for the tasks he says he'll be doing. I have been really happy with mine. I used to own an 800 MHz iBook G3, and let me tell you, the mini is a huge leap forward in general OS X performance. I'm kind of surprised, actually. It rarely keeps me waiting for anything.
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