Faster PC - what needs upgrading first...?

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pardus

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My current spec:

Motherboard: Biostar TForce P965
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.80GHz
HDD: Primary - Seagate Baracuda Sata II 250 GB 7200rpm 16MB
RAM: 1 x 1GB Kingston PC2-5300 DDR2 (333MHz)
1 x 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 (400MHz)
GFX: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT

Yes, yes, probably need to upgrade all of them :o but which'll show the biggest performance increase? Currently the disk seems to thrash a bit causing delays when I open some certain programs, it is defragged, but would faster RAM help there?

I use the PC mainly for business and home, very occasional games and some photo editing. Budget is tight too...

Thanks
 
The one 333Mhz sim brings the other one down to 333mhz. this means that your memory bus is running at 666mhz instead of 800mhz. your cpu is running at 800mhz fsb but because of the ram it will not perform at max speeds so you should see an increase even if you only swap the 333mhz ram sim

edit: might want to upgrade that CPU as well...
 
Your system should not be slow, even taking the RAM into consideration. Download autoruns from www.sysinternals.com and see which applications run at startup.... For what you are doing with it, I actually can't think of any one component that needs upgrading :)
 
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what's the budget? It's either memory or processor, but one is much more expensive than the other.
 
start with a new mobo. (you will prob. need ram to go with it but they are usually very cheap - like R300-R400 for 2GB 1006 MHz DDR2.

*just make sure your cpu is supported by the new mobo.

the dual core and the GFX card are OKayish for now - but not the RAM.
 
Keeper said:
start with a new mobo. (you will prob. need ram to go with it but they are usually very cheap - like R300-R400 for 2GB 1006 MHz DDR2.

*just make sure your cpu is supported by the new mobo.

the dual core and the GFX card are OKayish for now - but not the RAM.
Click to expand...

he doesn't need to get 1066mhz ram. 800mhz is enough.
 
1. Get a Hyper TX2/3 (R200 - R250) and overclock your CPU. You can get anywhere from 3.0-3.6GHz with that chip.

2. Either get a 2x2GB DDR2 800/1066 kit (round R800) and stick with the 9600gt, or, a 2x1GB kit and go for a second hand 4850.

Nothing wrong with that board, (they reached 490 FSB with an E6300 7x multi)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/biostar-tforce-p965_5.html#sect0
or the CPU, (they reached 3GHz at stock voltage)
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_2_duo_e4300_review/page13.asp
just needs to be OC'd a bit with a decent cooler.

I've got a 2180@3150MHz and I play most games out there at 1920x1080 except GTAIV, 1mb less cache than your chip.

9600gt should be fine for most games on high-ish eye-candy on a 17" / 19" (1280x1024)

What res is your screen?
 
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Just do your RAM dude... can can consider your CPU afterwards.

I added 2x1GB sticks to my system in the last week which makes it run a whole lot faster!
To compare: E2180 @2Ghz, 3x 1GB 800Mhz Ram, 8500GT 256Mb

Good luck on your upgrade :)

edit: +1 what dudewotevr said!
 
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go for one 2Gb DDR2 800 module and an Intel E7400 or Q8200.
 
try your hand at overclocking your cpu... and upgrade your ram to ddr2 800... but your system is still desent, shouldnt be running slow at all!!
 
First things first I'd say spend <R500 on a good 2GB DDR2-800 RAM Kit to replace your curren RAM. As far as manufacturer's go, I would go with Corsair or Kingston. You could also get a 4GB Kit for <R800.

Then you could pick up an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 or E7500 for <R1500. If you can stretch your budget go for one of the Intel Core 2 Duo E8xxx processors.
 
cerebus said:
what's the budget? It's either memory or processor, but one is much more expensive than the other.
Click to expand...

Ah wait - I see the mobo supports 800 MHz RAM :confused:

I thought he couldn't go above 400 MHz and it only had two slots or something :p

Priority list:
1) GET 2GB or 4GB of RAM
2) Get a Quad Core
3) Get either a bigger HDD if you need it, or a better GFX Card (but a 96GT is okayish though.....)
 
pardus said:
My current spec:

Motherboard: Biostar TForce P965
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.80GHz
HDD: Primary - Seagate Baracuda Sata II 250 GB 7200rpm 16MB
RAM: 1 x 1GB Kingston PC2-5300 DDR2 (333MHz)
1 x 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 (400MHz)
GFX: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT

Yes, yes, probably need to upgrade all of them :o but which'll show the biggest performance increase? Currently the disk seems to thrash a bit causing delays when I open some certain programs, it is defragged, but would faster RAM help there?

I use the PC mainly for business and home, very occasional games and some photo editing. Budget is tight too...

Thanks
Click to expand...

When did ddr2 come out with 333 and 400 mhz ram? i thought it started at 533?
 
You won't see a huge gain going for a Quad Core processor over a Dual Core unless you're doing something like Image/Video processing or complex database queries.
 
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