PC Performence (1 Viewer)

[Jonathon Tillman]

Hi, I currently have a Pentium 2 350 MHz machine I consider it ancient but still works fine. I am running window 2K and I am kind of a performance freak. I don't do much gaming, not much at all. I have 196 Megs of ram. When I have a program such as windows media player running with the visualizations running it uses 100% performance in the task manager and give the music to me in bits and pieces. When I upgrade to service pack 4 or run Norton the machine has trouble multi tasking. I get a dely in response and get ghost lines in the task bar because I have in hide.
I know that if I went to a P4 this would help tremulously. I had just got the privilege to work on my cousins Dell 2.40 Ghz Pentium 4 machine with 512 megs and it was allot better with doing multi-tasking and when running media player it used 7% of the CPU usage. The machine still did dely when installing service pack 4 and other large programs but not as bad.

The big question is what machine would give me what I am looking for as to multi-task without delay and have room to spare.

Would a P4 3.60ghz do it?
Does choice of motherboard come into this, like Intel and Intel chip? Duel processor? Should I build my own? Buy a dell or buy an Apple 3+ GHz. is it the operating system I am using. Is windows XP a better choice?

Thanks
Jonathon

 

[Scott L]

Any of the newer machines will definitely let you multitask with ease with only 512mb of ram. If you do something memory heavy like DV editing while switching back and forth between Flash and Photoshop you'd want 1gig of ram.

For cpus, any of the current P4 Northwoods or Athlon 64's would be more than you'd need, but would also help future-proof your system. You can upgrade to a modern system with quality parts for around $500-$600 if you don't game, even less if you carry over your old devices like the harddrive, disc drives, keyboard, case, monitor, etc...

If you are hardware savvy it would be nice to build your own. My general rule of thumb is if you can program your VCR you can build a computer. Otherwise a Dell with those ghastly MIR's are hard to pass up. Check the deals section of this forum to see what GotApex is advertising.

 

[ThomasC]

I'm in a similar situation. I've been making a lot of upgrades to my computer lately, so I've been thinking about getting a faster processor, but not buying an entirely new computer. I currently have a 1GHz P3. Can I get a processor preinstalled on a motherboard, and if so, where should I get it from?

 

[SethH]

Don't get a P4 3.6 unless you've just got lots of money burning a hole in your pocket. To buy the processor by itself right now -- JUST the processor -- would be $535 for the 3.6GHz (from Newegg.com) compared to $199 for the P4 3.0GHz LGA775. Just get a computer with one of the P4's that has HyperThreading. I just built a computer using the 3.0 processor mentioned above with the Abit AA8-DuraMaxx board and 512MB Ram and I assure you that it could do what you're looking for. I came in under $1100 bucks for everything including a DVD burner (no monitor included in price).

 

[DaveGTP]

You can if you really want (I think Mwave will do it). The CPU install isn't the hard part, it's installing the motherboard into the case. You would probably have to get a new case, power supply, and motherboard. And you also have to get new DDR RAM.


As far as a PC for general usage, you don't need a 3ghz. Unless you are doing heavy duty gaming or video processing. 2ghz is more than enough. I use my 1800+ for gaming (although an Athlon64 upgrade is in my sights).


Here's a good example: http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4085872

Athlon 2700+ CPU and ECS motherboard for $99. Just add a CPU fan, some RAM, a case/power supply, and a cheap video card (say a Radeon 9100 or something) and you're all set. A very speedy PC, all components, should run less than $500. A legit version of WinXP will be about $150.

Or you can go the Dell budget PC route if you don't feel comfy trying to build (or if you need their customer support).



2 and 3 ghz are not needed yet for most users. Even gamers mainly need video card power, not CPU power.