Design PC Upgrade - Which parts?

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Designer156

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Apr 20, 2013
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Hi all. About 10 years ago I thought I knew a thing or two about PCs, but since then I've completely lost touch and don't know what's good, ridiculously out-dated or unnecessary. I have a PC that works fine, I guess, but I keep wondering if I'm missing out on something since it was initially built 10 years ago and had various upgrades along the way. in truth the only original element is probably the case but I just don't know if what I have is a mixed bag of unsuited components or a perfectly adequate machine.

I guess the advice I'm looking for is what, if anything, should I upgrade for noticeable gains and is anything I have worth keeping.

I use my PC for Graphic design mainly - Adobe CS (Illustrator and Photoshop mainly), plus some web design. I don't use a Mac because much of my work is for PC-based businesses and I actually do a lot of work in MS Word and PowerPoint too. I'm no gamer.

I need a PC that will happily run with Illustrator, Photoshop, Word, PowerPoint, Chrome and Outlook all running at the same time and happy to crunch along - accessing files quickly and not struggling with all the multi-tasking.

I'm running XP 32-bit because my copy of Adobe CS2 wouldn't run on 64bit. I have just upgraded to CS6 on my employer's laptop (I have a full-time job and run my own business), so there is a chance I can load that on my own machine too if licencing allows. CS6 does support 64bit so I guess would open up 4GB+ RAM configs?

Budget...I'm hoping I can see some sensible gains for around $600. I have just bought an acer 24in monitor. I have used dual display for years, but frankly, with these wide-screen monitors nowadays, one is enough I think.

OS...I'm running XP home. Not particularly keen to spend a load of cash changing it. But interested to hear your thoughts on benefits if I did.

System details:

Processor:
3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium D
16 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board:
Board: ASRock G31M-S.
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.80 07/08/2009

Memory Modules:
3320 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB
Slot 'DIMM1' has 2048 MB

Drives:
WDC WD3000JS-63PDB1 [Hard drive] (300.07 GB)
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223F [Optical drive]

Display:
Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family [Display adapter]
Acer G246HL [Monitor]

Controllers:
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller - 27C0
Primary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] (2x)

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks,

O.
 
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Outlander_04

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Nov 18, 2008
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The age of your hardware means upgrades are probably not possible . There are no current parts that are compatible . No 2013 processor will fit your mb etc etc .

The limitations of win XP mean that you wouldnt get full benefit of new hardware if you did do a full sap of mb, cpu, RAM and hard drive .

You are missing out on 8 second boot , fast file loads, your processing times are probably 5 - 10 times longer . But if your system works for you then keep using it
 
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xomm

xomm

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This configuration gives you a pretty big increase in performance while staying under $600, and includes a copy of Windows 7 x64. If you do graphical work with large files, the 240GB SSD will give you a massive increase in speed for file operations and boot times compared to mechanical drives.

The only part you can really reuse is your CD drive, since uses a SATA interface.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: OCZ Vertex Plus R2 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($136.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $534.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-20 17:39 EDT-0400)
 
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xomm

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I think he's saying if you do a full upgrade and stick with XP 32-bit, you'll be holding your system back. (Which I agree with)
 
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Outlander_04

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These are the benefits of new hardware , and a a new 64 bit operating system . 8 is a little faster

Thankfully it takes only a few minutes to uninstall most of the metro apps and install a start button . After that it behaves like any other windows OS .

I used ClassicShell to add the start button and I can make it look and handle like 98 , XP or 7 with a mouse click

 
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Designer156

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Apr 20, 2013
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That made me chuckle.

I guess it's fair to say it's a pretty ancient setup then and basically I'm looking at a new-build rather than an upgrade?

 
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Designer156

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Apr 20, 2013
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Thanks for the tip. I've had limited experience with Windows 8 and I have to say I wasn't impressed with the interface. Appreciate things sometimes take a little getting used to but I felt it is a step in the wrong direction. Good to hear you can change the look and feel.

 
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xomm

xomm

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SSDs should be used as boot drives, since that will also drastically reduce your boot times. Of course, you can also store files and programs on it like any other boot drive, and access speeds to those files and programs will also increase.

There are SSD optimization tools out there, but I'm not too familiar with them. The general logic is to place working files and most commonly used programs on the SSD, and use your standard mechanical drives for storage and less commonly used programs.
 
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Designer156

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Apr 20, 2013
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Thanks for clearing that up.

Final questions...

RAM - for the extra $40-$50 is it not worth going for 16GB?
Graphics - dedicated graphics card only require for gaming I guess, which is why not included in your list? If I wanted to include one that would be ok to start gaming on and be useful for my design work, is there one you'd recommend?

Thanks again
 
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xomm

xomm

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16GB of ram tends to be a touchy subject. Ask any number of people and they'll give you about the same number of answers. I would get 8 initially, and see if it fits your needs.

I also just realized that I chose a 1x8GB kit, which means you won't being taking advantage of dual channel speeds. That's also an iffy area, but if you do want it, you'll need a 2x4GB kit, and a board with 4 ram slots if you decide you want 16GB.

That aside, my recommendation for a graphics card would largely depend on what games you'll be playing. So long as you aren't doing 3D CAD work, gaming cards will work fine.
 
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