Computer Talk

[ChaseSpace]

Thought I would move the conversation from the chat to here

This is the computer I currently have.

I was looking at either upgrading it or buying a new one for a decent price. I will mainly be using it for everyday use and designing in Photoshop, Illustrator, and more than likely Dreamweaver and Flash as well.

Any ideas?

[Flycoon]

Looks a bit light on ram.

[Bolts_26]

Are you kidding me,We have the exact same computer..

[Avery86]

If you want to work in Flash or After Effects, that machine is lacking in RAM.

Also, you might want to look into getting a refurbed iMac or MacBook. Check Apple's website religiously.

[ChaseSpace]

Originally Posted by Bolts_26

Are you kidding me,We have the exact same computer..

Haha nice

[ChaseSpace]

I was thinking of possibly upgrading to a newer processor(AMD has some that are priced fairly) and dropping in more RAM but in the chat last night(can't remember who) said that on a 32-bit OS it will only recognize up to 4GB of RAM

[jdhebner]

Stay away from Windows Vista. My daughter runs programs like you plus some others for her architecture classes, and had nothing but problems until she upgraded to Windows 7--had to scrub the whole drive thank goodness she knows a computer person who could save her data. Our home computer, an HP, also has one or two of these problems, mostly data execution prevention messages--vista was stopping programs from running that we wanted to run.

[Sotnos]

I'd say go for Win7 & upgrade the RAM if you can still get RAM for that motherboard. Processor looks fine to me really, the lack of RAM is holding it back.

[the_narrow_way]

Originally Posted by ChaseSpace

I was thinking of possibly upgrading to a newer processor(AMD has some that are priced fairly) and dropping in more RAM but in the chat last night(can't remember who) said that on a 32-bit OS it will only recognize up to 4GB of RAM

That's correct. You need a 64-bit OS to make use of more than 4 GB RAM.

[Hoek]

I'm not sure what motherboard is in that but AMD is very good about not changing the processor socket or requirements so you should be able to plunk in any new AMD CPU without a problem. Check out the Phenom II X4's and the X6's if you want to go to hexacore. Make sure to get one with L3 cache. I think there's a couple cheap ones out there that don't and thus don't have a huge boost over the Phenom I you have.

One thing that is odd is the 3GB of RAM. DDR2 usually works best with two similar sticks of RAM paired together. To get 3GB there's either three 1GB sticks or one 1GB and one 2GB, ruining the dual channel effect. Normally that isn't a huge deal performance wise, but who knows. If you feel like it you can swap it all out for a pair of 2GB (4GB total) or 4GB sticks (for 8GB total). If the latter, then you'd need Windows 7 64-bit.

Perhaps just the OS change to Win7 will help too. I have a laptop with Vista that isn't bad at all but I know a lot of people whose performance has increased with the upgrade for whatever reason. Certainly the RAM usage has lowered.