Hardware
I recently replaced my old P3 with 1G and 512 of RAM with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 2.2G and 1G of RAM. It is fairly fast, definitely faster than my old one...but I am wondering..
what can i do to upgrade and or speed it up (aside from maxing out the RAM)? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!
by jdpowers41 Accepted solution
by thechas Accepted solution
As you already know, more RAM would make a big improvement in performance. However, "maxing out the RAM" could actually slow things down.
On the presumption that you are running the 32 bit version of XP or Vista, I would not install more than 2 - 3 GB of RAM.
Make sure that ALL of the RAM modules are of the same speed and all other performance specifications, and then, you can expect maximum Dual Channel performance.
If you are running a 64 bit version of Windows, by all means install as much RAM as you are willing to.
Next, what are you running for a hard drive? And, did you perform a clean installation of your operating system. Performing a clean install of Windows onto the fastest SATA II drive you can afford will make a big difference.
Next, take a look at this article, and consider the tips for optimizing your page file:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm
Your video card can make a difference in system performance. I would need to know more about what you have now, and how you use your system in order to make suggestions there.
Chas
by jdpowers41 Accepted solution
I found some RAM some guy was selling on Craigslist that lived near me, so i now have 2 gbs of RAM instead of 1 gb, which seems to be helping and speeding things up a bit.
I dont know which bit version of XP I am running?? It was already loaded when I bought it. Its currently running XP home version 2002 with service pack 3.
As for my hard drive, I dont know what brand it is. I am only using 8 of the 150 GB available. I try to defrag it about once a week, or whenever i do any major deleting.
I took a look at the article you attached to your reply about tips for optimizing my page file..this was kind of interesting reading, unfortunately I have very little idea of what its about and what to do with it.
I also have an e-GeForce 8600GT graphics card with 256 mb ddr3 that i picked up and was considering installing hoping it might help speed things up a bit as well?!
but after doing some reading/research today while at work, I realize my puter only runs on ddr ram...so will i even be able to use this graphics card? is it too much for my puter? or will it be ok?
I usually just use this puter for emailing,
research, reading, playing games in myspace,
and i do have one game on here i downloaded from a disc called Hotrod that i play every once in a while. the graphics on it suck a little...they are somewhere between PS1 and PS2. Thats about all i do with it. No, im not a big gamer. I usually only play games on my PS2.
thanks again for your reply and attempt to help, appreciated!
by oh smeg Accepted solution
If you don't know which version of Windows you have open My Computer and then Left Click on the Word Help. Scroll down the Drop Down Menu and left click on About Windows. If it doesn't say 64 Bit you have a 32 Bit OS and this can not use much more than 3 GIG or RAM that is a design limit built into that OS.
As for the Video Card if you have a Socket that you can plug it into it should work with your M'Board the Video RAM is not System RAM which is what you are talking about here they are different things. The only possible problem may be that you could hit a Chip Set Incompatibility between your M'Board and Video Card Chip Sets which will stop the system from booting.
The other thing to watch with the NVidia Video Cards is that they have had some issues with some of their Chip Sets and you need to keep the Graphic Processing Unit Cool to prevent problems. Do not overclock the Video Card or cut back it's cooling. You could run into problems that require you to replace the Video Card.
Col
by thechas Accepted solution
I pretty much agree with the advice that Col (Oh Smeg) gave you in his post.
There are a lot of different opinions about what to do with the page file. If you do not understand the page file settings and options it is better to just let Windows handle the task.
About the only other step I would consider would be to look at the motherboard manufactures web site and see what is the fastest CPU that the board supports. Then, watch your favorite web shopping site (I like Newegg and Geeks) and when the price for the CPU is right for you, upgrade it and get a matching heatsink.
Aside from that, happy computing.
Chas
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