Upgrade processor or motherboard?

[#43 fan]

Originally Posted by couture8

Glad I bumped into this place

LOL, yes, it may seem ancient, but this is just my 3rd computer since 1993, I tend to max them out fully until I can no longer be productive. Job-wise, I go back further, to the *early days* of the TRS-80 and 5.25 floppies

The concensus seems to be to max out my RAM first.

howste: Yes, that is my MOBO, a Socket 754. I printed out the specs.

Rootstonian: With regards to the HD, I checked those out, but they run small (max 65GB?). I currently run two internals (as is standard eM config) C:145GB and D:4GB. Maybe I could upgrade the 145. My external is a WD 500GB. Of course, that means reloading everything . Nice Labor Day weekend project.

Oh...the reason I can't spring for a new PC yet...need to get a new laptop. Traveling internationally with my Averatec is just too heavy at 4 lbs. Thinking of a ToughBook at 2.5lbs Don't like new MAC performance specs.

Thank you all again for the suggestions!

Western Digital Hard drives come with software that allows you to simply transfer all the data from one drive to another.
Not to mention a new hard drive would vastly improve the system's performance.

[Chuckiechan]

You may want to buy a nice laptop with a docking station for use at home. You can still back up externally and to CD's or DVD's from your lappy. You'll have the benefits of the peripherals.

On your PC, assuming you have the room inside you can upgrade has high as your wallet. If you keep running XP3 and it runs on your proprietary software now, it should run ok after the upgrade.

[pullmyfoot]

How much are you willing to spend? Thats the most important part

[couture8]

Originally Posted by pullmyfoot

How much are you willing to spend? Thats the most important part

Update:

I've upgraded the RAM to 3GB with 2 GB more coming, which I will swap out the 2/512s for, bringing me to 4GB. That WD Raptor drive looks good also, however I'm concerned that the SATA will not work on my MOBO, which BTW is a MSI-7093 w/ 1394. Researching that now. Also, my power supply is only 300w and after using one of those consumption calculators online I'm going to upgrade that to 400+w Earthwatts. Thinking of a new WD external 1TB Green drive for photos/graphics and that should do it for a few years.

Oh...while cruising the web I found a lovely Lotus Europa , and as luck would have it the only Lotus dealership in the US is in a town 40 minutes away...the bad part, the Europa isn't available in this country, yet. Which is OK, as a new car is a few years off yet.

[howste]

Upgrading to a Lotus Europa is much more expensive than a computer upgrade...

[couture8]

Originally Posted by howste

Upgrading to a Lotus Europa is much more expensive than a computer upgrade...

But it would flatter me more

I went over to the MSI site, and it appears my MOBO is 794-based, which means I can try for a dual core, correct?

Oh...Happy Sunday!

[#43 fan]

If you mean a 754 socket, then you can't upgrade to Dual-Core.

[couture8]

Originally Posted by #43 fan

If you mean a 754 socket, then you can't upgrade to Dual-Core.

Oops, typo, I meant 939. Been looking at too many specs, LOL I found sveral upgrade forums for the T6212 and that was duly noted as a perk of this machine back in 2005.

[nemowolf]

Originally Posted by couture8

Glad I bumped into this place

LOL, yes, it may seem ancient, but this is just my 3rd computer since 1993, I tend to max them out fully until I can no longer be productive. Job-wise, I go back further, to the *early days* of the TRS-80 and 5.25 floppies

The concensus seems to be to max out my RAM first.

howste: Yes, that is my MOBO, a Socket 754. I printed out the specs.

Rootstonian: With regards to the HD, I checked those out, but they run small (max 65GB?). I currently run two internals (as is standard eM config) C:145GB and D:4GB. Maybe I could upgrade the 145. My external is a WD 500GB. Of course, that means reloading everything . Nice Labor Day weekend project.

Oh...the reason I can't spring for a new PC yet...need to get a new laptop. Traveling internationally with my Averatec is just too heavy at 4 lbs. Thinking of a ToughBook at 2.5lbs Don't like new MAC performance specs.

Thank you all again for the suggestions!

Macs should be your bread and butter if your doing media work. The specs for the cost are bit over priced but they are solid and have a "More" reliable OS and more features to help you with the graphics side. Far better performance wise then XP Home, which is a bastard child of XP Pro. You should not fear the XP Pro, everything is written to run on XP in general not specifically one or the other so no software should break if you make a switch to XP. Just my two cents.

PS: 4 lbs for a laptop is not all that bad, atleast your carrying around a 12 lb juggernaut of a war machine. God i hate the hand me down equipment.

[ShyguyXPC]

Download CPU-Z & run it, see what Socket Design you have, then we can go from there, just to be sure... CPUID (will/should state the socket design on the first tab after its analyzed your CPU, Mobo & RAM setup.)

sounds like your getting mixed info on what socket design this board is...

you also mentioned you bumped the RAM to 3GB with 2GB more coming?

good luck being able to run all that, with out a 64-bit OS.

I noticed it must be a typo, since you said you'll have 4GB, 3 + 2 = 5... but anyways

even with 4GB, you might not be able to use all that RAM, if running a 32-bit version of Windows, in this case XP Home...

you'll have anywhere from 3.25GB to maybe 3.5 or a bit more, but not the full 4GB...

so considering the cost of upgrading the RAM, unless your getting a sweet deal on the older DDR RAM, if you have 3GB now, really wouldn't even bother too much with bumping to 4GB.



Which Europa are you talking about, the old Classic one, or the newer Elise based model?