Some Computer upgrades?

[DRPSignsNGrafix]

OK i have a PC that was built in 2006. It has been great. However we are starting to use a lot more and it's starting to be a little sluggish. It is a Intel Pentium D Processor 930 LGA775 PKg 3 Ghz, 2x2 L2 Cache the mother board is a Intel D945Gnt it currently has 2 gig of DDR2 (samsung) Ram. it has 2 hard drives. One that OS and programs are on.
Hard Drive 1 74.5GB Capacity and it's got 36.4 GB used
Hard Drive 2 149GB Capacity and it's got 81GB used.
Both are Sata HDdrives. But not SATA powered.
I run Flexi 8.5 Pro and CS3 as well as Corel x3

What i was thinking of doing is this. Upgrading power supply to a 500W with sata power plugs on it as well. Then putting in this 500GB Sata hard drive i have to replace drive 2. (used to store files only) Taking and adding 2 more Gigs of RAM

My question is. Will the 4GB of Ram work for me. Will Windows use it all? Or will Flexi or CS3 At least use it all? Is this a good idea. I can do all this upgrade for about $100.00 so I'm thinking if it will help CPU then it's worth it. New CPU is not an option right now. Just want to make this one work a little faster. Come on you computer guys let me know what i should do. Thanks

Now i need a few after the day i have had.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

I sudgest you look at ......signburst ... they already have built whats needed at a fair price

 

[DRPSignsNGrafix]

Not wanting to spend Thousands on a new system. Just want to do a little upgrade on this one is all. When it's time to buy a new one. Then I will.

 

[ndemond]

Mike my computer which is configured similar to yours but only one hard drive was looked at the other day. He recommended a program called crap cleaner. I downloaded it ran it and things are running 50% faster at least. I now need to defrag and Friday he is installing 2 more 512's? of ram. Any more than that he said "would be over kill" I do not know all the particulars about it but I did see improvement.

Don't really know if this will help or not but you never know.


http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/


Nancy

 

[kustomsigns&designs]

Put the 4gigs in it. Ideally all of the ram should be the exact same, but some times you can get away with mis-matching ram, its a gamble.

Guys correct me if I'm wrong but Windows XP 32bit will accept 4gigs but you will not see it all. Mine only shows 3.25gb

Forget the power supply, buy an adapter for your new drive if it does'nt come with it. You have enough space on your existing drives so just add the new drive and don't store files on it, use it as a photoshop scratch drive only. This will give you the most boost for the buck.

 

[kustomsigns&designs]

Re-format that will help if its been awhile. Get all of your necessary software loaded. Then buy a ghost software and every 6-8 months reload. Its like reformatting to get off all of the crap that accumulates, but you don't have to reinstall all of your software.

Go to www.newegg.com for the parts

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Upgrading to 4GB of RAM will help. Depending on your motherboard, you may see between 3.2-4.0GB of actual usable RAM. It won't do wonders, but it will speed things up a bit. Definitely try to get matching sticks of RAM.

 

[anotherdog]

I don't think XP will take more than 3.5. mine didn't.
Whatever you do avoid vista!

 

[SignBurst PCs]

I don't think XP will take more than 3.5. mine didn't.
Whatever you do avoid vista!

It is funny. I design, rip, surf the web, do billing, everything business related on a Vista based PC. In almost two years of running Vista, I have had ZERO problems. I can't say that about any version of XP.

No viruses, malware, trojans, blue screens, errors, nothing. I have to say that Vista is the most reliable OS that I have ever used. Now that being said, I only work with a small set of hardware and drivers. I cannot account for all of the millions of different hardware combinations out there. I know there have been driver incompatibilities and legacy software incompatibilities, but Service Pack 1 (SP1) ironed out almost anything quirky about Vista.

I have to believe that most issues people have are due to driver issues or lack of resources. Installing Vista on an older PC is a bad idea. Vista likes lots of RAM, a decent processor, and a good video card.

With our systems, deciding on XP or Vista is almost always software related. Is the software that you work with compatible with Vista? If not, are you willing to upgrade to a newer version of your software that is more likely to be compatible? If not, stick with XP.

 

[Techman]

I can't say that about any version of XP.

I have a XP box that was XP since it XP first came out. Never had a problem with it. It was tweaked to the max.. Almost never turned off. Never a reformat, Never even a ghost job. I cant begin to say how many times that hard drives were loaded to the max with a clients ghosted drive..

I just replaced it because the mobo gave out. However I will replace that mobo with another XP board. Ill have it back as soon as the replacement gets here.

I have/had a vista lappy. What a friggin DOG. ARF ARF. Core Duo 2 gigs ram, SATA drive.. Slower than my old 333. Ditched vista for a real XP redo and been so happy every since.
VISTA is a flop. I've reloaded XP onto countless machines. Sure Vista is a reasonable OS for lots of people. However as a real OS its done. Stick a fork in it. Let it be known its forked. 4Q vista. yer dead and soon forgotten.

 

[DRPSignsNGrafix]

Well my other 2 gig of memorey and new power supply just got here. Looks like i'm gonna do that for the rest of the afternoon.

 

[TresL]

Ygpm.....

 

[BRUSHMARKS]

Let me know how those extra 2 gigs of ram help. we are looking to also do some upgrades. we have 4- 512m DDR2 PC2- 4200 sticks of ram now think about jumping to 4 1gs or even 4-2gs. also what size hard drive should we install to have for just CS3 and Illustrator scratch disc?