What to do next?

Ricky91t

Hello all
I got a vista pc from pc world i april 2007 it came with home basic and 512mb of ram..It was very slow and had very little use.I recently got a 1 gig stick of ram so its now 1.5gb and ill soon be upgrading it to 2gb,iv also got an Ati x600 series 256mb gfx card and a 120gb hd.The processor is a celeron D 3.33ghz.My question in what to do next?Do i buy a better gfx card of save for more ram.I mainly use it for photo editing web browsing and a bit of gaming and it seems kind of slow on gaming..

Many thanks

AlmightyCushion

Upgrade the processor, it's pretty bad.

Villain

Welll the Celeron chip is going to limit what you can achieve. TBH I wouldn't spend any more on Graphics or Ram while using that board and chip

Ricky91t

I read on a forum the motherboard is pretty good a foxconn i think cant remeber the model number and it can support dual core processers

Villain

Just a new Processor so and you'll be flying

Ricky91t

Would this be any good?

Villain

Bit more and go for http://www.dabs.ie/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4MNF&CategorySelectedId=11147&NavigationKey=11147,13&InMerch=1

Ricky91t

Thanks for the quick help
I will find out my motherboard model number tomorrow and post a link to the page to make sure its a good one

TerrorFirmer

I would stick with the original E2200 you picked out - it's almost 30 quid cheaper then the 4500 and almost as fast. Just less L2 cache. I used to have one of the Pentium Dual Cores, used exclusively for gaming, and overclocked to 2.2Ghz was more then enough to run any game at high settings as long as you had a decent card to go with it. Even just at 75 quid, it's - literally - about three times as fast as your Celeron D.

That said, the X600 is what's crippling games, not the Celeron D. The Celeron D isn't good, but it's not that bad - still sufficent for most games at reasonable settings and resolution with a good card. I used to have the slightly slower 352 with a 7600GT, no problems handling most slightly older games at high settings (Company of Heroes, Half Life 2, etc). And I know you're not playing the latest games, as the X600 wouldn't handle them.

If you have a limited budget, the card is far more important then the processor in your case. If you upgrade the processor now, your games will still perform the exact same, upgrading the card will give you a massive boost.

Anti

I would reccomend a 9600gt to be honest. Its only 130€ and is amazingly powerfull.

Ricky91t

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I would stick with the original E2200 you picked out - it's almost 30 quid cheaper then the 4500 and almost as fast. Just less L2 cache. I used to have one of the Pentium Dual Cores, used exclusively for gaming, and overclocked to 2.2Ghz was more then enough to run any game at high settings as long as you had a decent card to go with it. Even just at 75 quid, it's - literally - about three times as fast as your Celeron D.

That said, the X600 is what's crippling games, not the Celeron D. The Celeron D isn't good, but it's not that bad - still sufficent for most games at reasonable settings and resolution with a good card. I used to have the slightly slower 352 with a 7600GT, no problems handling most slightly older games at high settings (Company of Heroes, Half Life 2, etc). And I know you're not playing the latest games, as the X600 wouldn't handle them.

If you have a limited budget, the card is far more important then the processor in your case. If you upgrade the processor now, your games will still perform the exact same, upgrading the card will give you a massive boost.

Just to add to my list of things..When im playing music and browsing the web the music kind of slows downs while i scroll.So im thinking this must be the processor!you see i dont play many games and any i do will be fairly old and able to run on 512mb of ram or lower..

TerrorFirmer

ricky91t wrote: »

Just to add to my list of things..When im playing music and browsing the web the music kind of slows downs while i scroll.So im thinking this must be the processor!you see i dont play many games and any i do will be fairly old and able to run on 512mb of ram or lower..

No, that wouldn't be attributable to the Celeron D - honestly, the Celeron is not as bad as common legend makes it out to be, and certainly not for the most rudimentary of tasks. As I said, I used to play Company of Heroes on high settings in a Celeron 352 system with 1gb ram and a 7600GT - no problems whatsoever. What you're experiencing is a software issue of some kind.

If you're only playing old games that actually run well on 512mb of ram as opposed to it being a minimum requirement, to be honest, you really don't need to upgrade at all!

Anti wrote:

I would reccomend a 9600gt to be honest. Its only 130€ and is amazingly powerfull.

I can't imagine a PC World machine (probably HP or Acer) based around a Celeron D and X600 coming with a PSU capable of providing remotely enough power on the rails to power a 9600GT, but I could be wrong....last time I checked one of those out, it came with a 250w psu with 16/17a on the rail...isn't the GT supposed to have 24 or thereabouts?

Ricky91t

Heres the link to my motherboard! will the processer i picked be compatible with it?and any gfx card you spoke about be compatible with it?
My psu is 300w i think that was just looking at the side of the casing any program that can get an accurate read?
Thanks for all the help

found this Cheap 512mb any good though?

Virgil°

ricky91t wrote: »

Heres the link to my motherboard! will the processer i picked be compatible with it?and any gfx card you spoke about be compatible with it?
My psu is 300w i think that was just looking at the side of the casing any program that can get an accurate read?
Thanks for all the help

found this Cheap 512mb any good though?

The motherboard should be fine for that processor. But that graphics card isnt worth your while purchasing imo. You wont really see much of a difference between it and your current one.
If i were you and on a limited budget id be saving for a better graphics card like the 9600 or something similar and if needed a better psu to juice it.
All depending of course on what games you're playing.

Ricky91t

Sorted out the sound problem had it set to studio quaility so i think that was just for playing music and not other thing ...Its perfect now