[SeeHear]

Newbie here needing help.
Just bought a base unit from a computer fair. It already had xp pro pre-installed but no disc.

System info displays as

Intel (R)
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
3.19GHz, 480 MB of RAM

Dont know what graphics card it has.... could it be ? VIA/S3G UniChrome Pro IGP??

My problem is it doesnt do what the guy said it would do... which is run large photo files such as TIFF.. Ive tried serveral images large as 35mb, photoshop runs pretty well though.

Im thinking of taking it back and getting this ...
http://www.pcnextday.co.uk/products/...Code=3361-2304

Any advice ??

PS be gentle as im a novice lol

[Pirate!!]

You have a Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz processor. Fast fish!

Try this to see what the graphics card is:

Go into:

My Computer
Control Panel
System
Hardware
Device Manager
Click the + sign next to Display Adapters

Left click on it to highlight it blue, then right click on it and select Properties

You can then select the tabs to see the manufacturer and driver number.

Then search for the manufacturers website and download the latest drivers. Install these. Configure your graphics setup from the Control Panel/Display/Settings options.

[Kaoshan]

480 MB of RAM

With only this amount of RAM your system is really going to struggle with image manipulation/display. I'd recommend a memory upgrade.

FWIW, I have 4GB memory in my 3.2GHZ HTT system that I use for Photoshopping. It's also a good idea to add a second HDD and allocate the Photoshop scratch drive on there.

[pixelpixel]

Can you even get 480 MB. It goes 128mb, 256mb, 512mb ect.

Dont know where you got 480MB.

If you click on start the run. Then enter 'CMD' press enter. On this dos window type 'systeminfo' and enter. You will get a complete list of your computer also has what hotfixes have been installed.

[Pirate!!]

Originally Posted by Kaoshan

With only this amount of RAM your system is really going to struggle with image manipulation/display. I'd recommend a memory upgrade.

Originally Posted by Kaoshan

FWIW, I have 4GB memory in my 3.2GHZ HTT system that I use for Photoshopping. It's also a good idea to add a second HDD and allocate the Photoshop scratch drive on there.

The other thing I was going to lead on to was the memory. Is it SD or DDR? If it's SD and all you have is 480 Mb, then your system will be creaking under the load.

Frankly, I would upgrade the motherboard and have DDR installed. Too much money you ask? Fair enough, but make sure you get as much RAM as you can afford.

[ufitsy]

Originally Posted by Pirate!!

You have a Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz processor. Fast fish!

Try this to see what the graphics card is:

Go into:

My Computer
Control Panel
System
Hardware
Device Manager
Click the + sign next to Display Adapters

Left click on it to highlight it blue, then right click on it and select Properties

You can then select the tabs to see the manufacturer and driver number.

Then search for the manufacturers website and download the latest drivers. Install these. Configure your graphics setup from the Control Panel/Display/Settings options.

You can also do this by right clicking "my computer" and choosing manage.

[Astaroth]

Originally Posted by pixelpixel

Can you even get 480 MB. It goes 128mb, 256mb, 512mb ect.

Dont know where you got 480MB.

512mb of system ram with 32mb allocated off to the onboard graphics chip would be my guess

[pixelpixel]

ooops forgot onboard shared memory! ahh the penny drops!

[senu]

Most modern motherboards will take either DDR ram or both types though not together . Your motherboard may not need changing

The odd figure of 480Mb Ram could be due to an onboard graphics card sharing sytem RAM
It seems that if what you have is not DDR: that needs changing to a minimum of 1Gb .More is better but 1Gb with a decent graphics card is a great start IMHO

The graphics card race is really a 2 horse race , Nvidia or ATI : Agp is OK, PCI- Express better and onboard RAM:min 128Mb: The terms refer to the way the graphics card is connected to the MB and PCI-E is the newer and faster slot.

If its an onboard graphics card, I find that for graphics specific task like Photomanipilation esp with Photoshop very few of them are up to the task.
Some ATI or Nvidia onboard graphic card are OK but if they rely on shared memory their performance may prove dissapointing

These specs may all read interesting ( or very boring ) or even ( surely not... ) : what is most important is fitness for purpose: If the PC wont do what you want: the most cost effective way of getting there is the best

Could mean upgrading the specs or

Getting a better specced one

HTH

PS : I was posting the same time as pixepixel; needless to say, it is unlikely that an intergrated graphics card with such minuscle amts of shared Ram will help you with your large TIFF files in Photoshop