Quick upgrading question

[robfosters]

I'm sorting out a friends very old PC (P4 2.0GHZ).

I will double the RAM to 1GB. That should get the biggest speed increase for the money. I dont think it's worth upgrading to a P4 3.2 GHz. I'm not sure that would do much at all.

However, he has a 64MB intel integrated graphics chip. There is a 4X AGP slot available. If I whacked in a 256MB card off of ebay, would that make the system run faster in the way of freeing system resources?

 

[funkyspider]

Firstly, post a wanted post on the computer classified ads forum in here, you will probably get 1 (or 2gb) memory and a cpu very cheaply. I'd be tempted to do both if you can.

As for onboard graphics, just using windows I doubt you would notice much difference unless you are doing any graphics manipulation like photo editing etc, but if you can get one from these forums for the price of a pint it won't do any harm obviously and he will be able to play 3D Quake, which is still a cracking game

 

[CP-PC]

agree'd it depends entirely what your mate wants to do on the pc.... for general websufring and msn 512mb should be fine. is the whole pc being slow? maybe the hard drive needs sorting out?
(de-fragmenting or de-cluttering)

you can upgrade the processor ram and graphics card (quite cheaply if you look on the clasifieds on here or on ebay) but it all depends on what the pc is being used for as to what would make the biggest difference. if you upgraded any of then it wont "hurt" anything but you may not see a performance boost if you upgrade the wrong parts

 

[Krakin]

Adding a graphics card will do more than anything else.

Scan have a 128mb AGP 6600GT which is very good for Windows 98se, and they have a 512mb 7300GT which would be better for Windows XP. They've been on deal of the day the last couple of days so maybe you'll be lucky and still find them there at £35.

Use the free postage from Avforums, you can find it through the introduction link at the top of the page. I don't know if it's for over £20 or over £50 orders though as my last order was over £50, it says one on one page and the other on the next, just try the card alone and see if it comes up as free post and hopefully it will

There's a comparison of them here: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1970&cid=3&pg=4
The Red line is a 7300GT 256MB DDR2 and the 6600GT is a 128mb DDR3 so it should be near enough a good comparison.

 

[CP-PC]

Adding a graphics card will do more than anything else.

Scan have a 128mb AGP 6600GT which is very good for Windows 98se, and they have a 512mb 7300GT which would be better for Windows XP. They've been on deal of the day the last couple of days so maybe you'll be lucky and still find them there at £35.

Use the free postage from Avforums, you can find it through the introduction link at the top of the page. I don't know if it's for over £20 or over £50 orders though as my last order was over £50, it says one on one page and the other on the next, just try the card alone and see if it comes up as free post and hopefully it will

There's a comparison of them here: Gigabyte GV-NX73T256P-RH (GeForce 7300 GT 256MB DDR2) :: Articles :: www.hardwarezone.com®
The Red line is a 7300GT 256MB DDR2 and the 6600GT is a 128mb DDR3 so it should be near enough a good comparison.

stop giving this guy false info mate. if he was going to be gaming then yes a graphics card would probably give the biggest increase in performance but we dont know what he wants to do on his pc. the agp slot is only 4x so its not going to be very good. i would go with the 6600gt which will be more than enough for the rest of the system let alone max out the agp4x slot.

@ the op: what will the pc be used for?? just websurfing? spreadsheets? msn? if your not using it for any games then dont bother getting a graphics card. maybe some more ram or a faster processor.

in terms of "freeing" system resources if you add an agp graphics card.... yes it will free up 64mb of ram (which is currently reserved for the onboard graphics) but if you have 1gb of ram then having an extra 64mb of ram wont make sods all difference. 1gb of ram should be ample for the rest of the system. but once again it all depends what the pc is going to be used for..... a faster processor can make a huge difference especialy such a huge jump from 2ghz to 3.2ghz thats over a 50% increase. but again will he need all that speed??

if he wants to do some LIGHT gaming then a 6600gt will do the job (faster processor too if you can) but dont expect good gaming performance as things will be held back by the 4xagp slot.

 

[robfosters]

Cheers for all the advice.

If I came across as a beginner, then i'm sorry, I am not. I actually built the PC in my sig. I Just wanted opinions on getting performance from such an old PC.

The fella actually wants office apps, itunes, and surfing. I have decided against a graphics card and am just going to double the RAM to 1GB. I dont think he should start spending too much money on it as it would be uneconomical in my eyes. It's just too old.

 

[CP-PC]

if its just an office pc then yeah i agree a little more ram. if its still to slow then tidy up the hard drive and posibly a faster p4 but there is no need for anything more than onboard graphics for office use.

 

[robfosters]

I have run AVG and am currently in the process of error checking and then defragging. He said it was too slow tp start up. I'm not surprised, there was about 20 programs on startup!

 

[funkyspider]

stop giving this guy false info mate.

Completely agree. As I said, for general windows XP /browsing/office app work a graphics card will see little or no improvement over onboard.

I was going to suggest a full reinstall of windows. Its amazing how sluggish windows becomes over time and a reinstall will really freshen up the PC. Removing programs and cleaning up startup will make a slight difference, but the registry just gets bloated and registry cleaners don't really do a proper job. Up the memory, processor if you can get one cheap, backup the data and reinstall the OS from scratch and it will cope fine with what he needs it for.

 

[CP-PC]

yeah i find a fresh OS install from time to time works a treat.