I have an old-ish PC (3.2 Ghz P4 + 1GB Ram) running Vista and the performance is less than desireable. The sidebar widget that displays CPU and RAM usage shows CPU consumption is maxed out at 100% whereas the RAM lingers between 60 - 80%. Will adding more RAM resolve the slowish performance issue ? (I know most will say yes right off the bat but the reason I'm confused is that the RAM consumption never reaches 100% so there could potentially be available memory for use, its the CPU that seems to be going belly up)

I also did that Vista "score" thingamagig and my CPU received the lowest rating.

My question is, should I still try and add more RAM to remedy the situation or should I just upgrade and get a relatively el-cheapo dual core HP machine (which I dont really want to do because I spent a load on my current system when I built it and dont want to retire it just yet, however if it needs to be upgraded, then it needs to be upgraded.)

Some may wonder that the price difference spending $100 for RAM vs. at least $600 for a new PC doesn't make sense. Thing is I'm trying to reduce the noise the PC makes because of overheating and fans blowing outta control. For this purpose, I need to get a new case (about $50), a new CPU fan (about $24), new HD ($160) and the ram ($100).

This totals up to about $340 (shipping + taxes extra) so spending the extra $200 for a new machine isn't as bad.

I've been struggling with this decision because I dont really want to change my old PC but at the same time I am not sure if I spend the $340, get the upgrades, dont get the result I am hoping for i.e. slightly faster performance + lower temps and the net result is that now I've wasted $340 and have to end up getting a new PC. Yet, if it works, then not only do I get to keep my old PC but also save $200.

Will appreciate the recommendations,

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

"Ask not what Vista can do for you, ask what you can buy for Vista."

tough call Kamal. Not sure if the upgrades will give you what you want. Sorry not much help.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

I've used Vista on smaller machines with no problems. Just had to disable all the visual crap it brings.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

Try using Vlite and take some things out of Vista, load it and then see what you get. The most you'll waste is a few DVD's. Using vlite you can take out search and other things that slow down the performance of Vista with only a gig of ram. If it doesn't add up to what you want then go for the new hardware.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

go back to XP IMO :twisted:

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

btw Toasty, how has your time been with your HP ? It's actually the one I am considering as the new pc purchase

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=Kamal;550823]btw Toasty, how has your time been with your HP ? It's actually the one I am considering as the new pc purchase[/QUOTE]

OK, but now that I have a mac, the Vista PC really pales in comparison, so you're going to get a somewhat jaded opinion from me. When it's running, the HP PC performs well. I do have problems with it freezing up on me from time to time, typically when I'm away and leave it running for a long time (I use it as a Media PC, so there are times that it could be on and running for a week or so without me having occasion to use it). Line level sound output is just OK.

Apart from these occasional issues, though, it meets my needs just fine. It's not the greatest box I've ever had, but it's far from the worst. Very serviceable, and quite reasonably priced.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[quote=toasty;550809]go back to XP IMO :twisted:[/quote]

best possible answer ever! or get Ubuntu, if you like nice visuals with a rock-solid system. If you have to upgrade a 3.2 Ghz/1GB Ram PC just to get a decent user experience with an OS, then you've chosen the wrong OS. it's as simple as that.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=toasty;550843]OK, but now that I have a mac, the Vista PC really pales in comparison, so you're going to get a somewhat jaded opinion from me. When it's running, the HP PC performs well. I do have problems with it freezing up on me from time to time, typically when I'm away and leave it running for a long time (I use it as a Media PC, so there are times that it could be on and running for a week or so without me having occasion to use it). Line level sound output is just OK.

Apart from these occasional issues, though, it meets my needs just fine. It's not the greatest box I've ever had, but it's far from the worst. Very serviceable, and quite reasonably priced.[/QUOTE]

what about noise ? Is it too noisy when its on or you're viewing TV through media center ? Also did you upgrade the video card ? If so, can you tell me which one you went with ?

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

get dual core, imo

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=Kamal;550857]what about noise ? Is it too noisy when its on or you're viewing TV through media center ? Also did you upgrade the video card ? If so, can you tell me which one you went with ?[/QUOTE]

It's basically tucked behind my entertainment center, directly behind a speaker. It's a ways from where we're sitting when we're watching TV, and apart from the wireless mouse/keyboard receiver peeking up over a speaker, you'd never know that it was back there at all. Honestly, I can't hear a thing, but there's always some other audio on when we're up there and, like I said, it's behind a speaker.

Didn't upgrade the video card -- as I recall, it came with a slightly upgraded (i.e., not on-board) video card, but I don't play games on it so I wasn't too worried about upgrading it. My monitor is a 62" DLP TV so it's big enough that I'd notice serious performance issues, and it's worked just fine for me.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

You can upgrade and get RAM for damn cheap. If it's DDR then you can get another GB for $40 but if you're using DDR2 then you can get 2GB for $40. You can get a quality heatsink for your cpu from Thermalright for damn cheap and it'll be more efficient. What rating are your fans and are they mid-grade, low-grade quality?

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=beanzncheez;550902]You can upgrade and get RAM for damn cheap. If it's DDR then you can get another GB for $40 but if you're using DDR2 then you can get 2GB for $40. You can get a quality heatsink for your cpu from Thermalright for damn cheap and it'll be more efficient. What rating are your fans and are they mid-grade, low-grade quality?[/QUOTE]

can you send me a link where I can get that ? I have DDR memory and I have been really looking for a half decent deal but have been unsuccessful at locating one

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

Weren´t you going to save a buy your self a mac? I mean if noise is you concern get an Imac, the first thing I noticed was how quite it was.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

yea Mac is a future possibility, looking to fix my media center issues for now. The Mac upgrade will be at least $2500 so defo going to consider the cheaper alternative at this time ;)

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

so I ended up buying these from newegg, the case was $40 and the cpu fan was 24. will let you guys know the results. Keeping fingers crossed that it was worth the little bit I spent on it.

[IMG]http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/11-119-106-16.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/35-106-606-02.jpg[/IMG]

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

Isn't that a steel case? I know they're damn cheap but I heard it's flimsy and a bit noisy. As for the RAM deals, Fry's is the way to go.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

i bought an HP with vista on it. I always delete the sidebar: YOU DON'T NEED IT! or i couldn't imagine what you'd need it for.

mine runs on 2 gigs of ram. NEVER had a problem. not one glitch save for about a few weeks ago where i was working on 8 different word documents and had the mp3 player and windows explorer running for about 36 hours straight. and all i had to do was save everything and restart. i didn't even need to restart but just did it anyways.

i'd not squander on parts, imo. kinda like a car, you'll eventually need to get a new one. i'd save on the parts and the time/labor and put it towards a new machine.

mine was only a grand. 14 inch, with a 12 cell battery. lasts me forever.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=beanzncheez;552196]Isn't that a steel case? I know they're damn cheap but I heard it's flimsy and a bit noisy. As for the RAM deals, Fry's is the way to go.[/QUOTE]

So I finally got the case installed. Its quiet, MUCH quieter than my older case. Yea its Stainless Steel but the strategically placed 2 x 120 MM fans help keep things cool. ESPECIALLY my video card, the 6800 was noisy as HECK in the old case, but with the 120 MM pointing straight at the video card, I have yet to hear the fan kick into high gear.

I'm am expecting my CPU fan today, let's see how that quietens things further.

I also bought a 750 GB hard drive and removed 3 of the older EIDE drives to reduce heat + noise further in addition to an XBox remote control to control my XBox Media Center and am VERY pleased with the results so far.

Everything is networked onto the xbox and live TV + Divx are playing well on the TV through HiDef (even though the source is a compressed format not truly in hidef). BUT I am now seeing increasing network traffic as I play movies and watch TV through the XBox. While the XBox tests indicated that 10/100 should be sufficient to stream HiDefinition TV as well, I keep seeing Network Issue error on the top right corner of the screen when watching TV.

I am running DD-WRT software on my router (the latest RC) and I suspect it may have something to do with my settings. However overall I am very happy with the setup right now.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[quote=Kamal;552489]ESPECIALLY my video card, the 6800 was noisy as HECK in the old case, but with the 120 MM pointing straight at the video card, I have yet to hear the fan kick into high gear. [/quote]

have you tried using RivaTuner to reduce the noise from the 6800 fan ? it includes a tool to modify the speed of those fans, i'm using it with my 8800 and works perfect

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

He upgraded. No reason to go back to that 6800.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

am streaming everything media through my XBox on HiDef so I dont even have my 6800 working right now

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

doh!

anyway, use that in your new nvidia :p

anyone tried the ati 3870?

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

No, but the reviews are great for the price.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

quick questions. What is the ideal temp that your cpu and motherboard should be running at and what are the highest temps that they should reach before you should start worrying?

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

35 degrees Celsius and lower for the mobo and the GPU can idle at 55 safely (at least for when I had my 6800 Ultra, not sure what the newer line of GPUs is doing) - these are "safe" temps and at end of the day, the lower the better. When your temps are unsafely high, either your case fans will announce it for you or your PC will just hang / reboot.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

AMDs can run a lot hotter than Intel processors. It varries by model.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[quote=Kamal;555601]35 degrees Celsius and lower for the mobo and the GPU can idle at 55 safely (at least for when I had my 6800 Ultra, not sure what the newer line of GPUs is doing) - these are "safe" temps and at end of the day, the lower the better. When your temps are unsafely high, either your case fans will announce it for you or your PC will just hang / reboot.[/quote]

rofl my system is 40 degrees into my Thermal Take Soprano 45 on the processor with the new Thermal Take Blue Orb and 70 (min) and 90 (max) for my GPU, with cooler @ 80%. it's a 8800gts 320mb

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=arielus;556144]rofl my system is 40 degrees into my Thermal Take Soprano 45 on the processor with the new Thermal Take Blue Orb and 70 (min) and 90 (max) for my GPU, with cooler @ 80%. it's a 8800gts 320mb[/QUOTE]

did you forget to take it out of the oven ?

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

:roflmao:

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

in any event, I ended up getting a new HP PC Dual Core 5600+ AMD Processor 3 GB Ram 400 GB HD

and am thinking of slapping this passive cooling Video Card into it [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125070[/url]

Slowly getting my Media PC together. Considering switching from streaming stuff over the network through my XBOX to playing stuff directly from the PC to the TV since I cant get MKVs to stream onto the XBox

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

Nice. What did that set you back? $430ish?

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

the desktop was $629. It was $669 but I got $40 off after Christmas.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

return the monitor for some cash back.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

was only the PC, no monitor. I cant wait to see what the new vid card will look like on the TV in hi def

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

Mmmm HD... I love you.

This quote has been altered by beanz in his respect to Underworld and what they used to be.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

Be sure to go into msconfig > startup and disable the crap you don't need

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

clean installed a copy of vista ultimate, so there's no HP crap left ;)

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[QUOTE=Kamal;558490]clean installed a copy of vista ultimate, so there's no HP crap left ;)[/QUOTE]I know exactly what you are talking about as I bought my wife an HP computer over four years ago because I wasn't in the mood to build one at the time. So much crap I had to delete.

Re: Question for Vista Owners.

[quote=beanzncheez;558536]I know exactly what you are talking about as I bought my wife an HP computer over four years ago because I wasn't in the mood to build one at the time. So much crap I had to delete.[/quote]

There should seriously be some sort of law to stop this shit. I got a Vaio a few months ago, the first thing I did was format it and had to ring Microsoft for an activation code (even though I already had 1, but it wouldn't go through) Apple have the right idea.