Upgrade advice, please?!

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hi, everybody:

I do 2-D design work on an XP box and am considering some upgrades to help
with video refresh rates and to stop the occassional "bogging down" that I'm
starting to see: ( P4 1.7 GHz, 512 MB SDRAM, nVIDIA 64 Mb AGP). I love this
machine, and am hoping upgrades will keep it "purring" for a couple more
years!

My files are sometimes in excess of 100 MB, and many times are
high-resolution, multi-layered Photoshop CS files (this is where the bogging
down is starting to show). Things have slowed down many times in Corel Draw
12 as well, especially on particularly complex vector/line-based
illustrations.

Should I worry about upgrading my video card, or should I concentrate my
funds for more RAM, or do I need both in order to improve performance in
design tasks?

Thanks much!

Ava
www.acdcgraphics.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

acdcnews:

> My files are sometimes in excess of 100 MB, and many times are
> high-resolution, multi-layered Photoshop CS files (this is where the
> bogging down is starting to show). Things have slowed down many times
> in Corel Draw 12 as well, especially on particularly complex
> vector/line-based illustrations.

Buy as much memory as you can afford (1GB is good, 2GB is better), then
upgrade the CPU, forget about upgrading the video card.

--
Mac Cool

 

[jaster]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 21:57:14 -0800, acdcnews wrote:

> Hi, everybody:
>
> I do 2-D design work on an XP box and am considering some upgrades to
> help with video refresh rates and to stop the occassional "bogging down"
> that I'm starting to see: ( P4 1.7 GHz, 512 MB SDRAM, nVIDIA 64 Mb AGP).
> I love this machine, and am hoping upgrades will keep it "purring" for a
> couple more years!
>
> My files are sometimes in excess of 100 MB, and many times are
> high-resolution, multi-layered Photoshop CS files (this is where the
> bogging down is starting to show). Things have slowed down many times in
> Corel Draw 12 as well, especially on particularly complex
> vector/line-based illustrations.
>
> Should I worry about upgrading my video card, or should I concentrate my
> funds for more RAM, or do I need both in order to improve performance in
> design tasks?
>
> Thanks much!
>
> Ava
> www.acdcgraphics.com

Yes a bit tricky for you. SDRAM isn't cheap when compared to DDR. I'm
thinking $20-$40 US for 128 mb SDRAM and $100+US for 256-512mb.

I agree with the others if you can afford and can physically add more
SDRAM that's the easy upgrade. Some P-4 boards max memory at 2-256mb
SDRAM chips or can only accept low density chips.

A processor upgrade would really help as in faster processing, newer
features.

If your nVidia 64 is a onboard card then you're losing memory to the
onboard memory then a new video card (128mb) would help with your apps.

Other options would be mobo/cpu combo with DDR memory and cpu fan or a
bare bones system so you just swap drives and reinstall XP.

Also, could your system slowness be cured with system
maintenance, reducing the number of open screens, open applications,
killing background and taskbar applications like IM? System maintenance
(System Works, System Mechanic) like removing never used or no longer
needed applications, deleting cookies and temporary internet files, clean
disk, clean registry (Registry Healer), cleaning spyware (Spybot 13 SD and
Adware) and last defrag the HD.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"acdcnews" <ava@acdcgraphics.com> wrote in message
news:sqqdnUKFG5-jE2ncRVn-hA@comcast.com...
> Hi, everybody:
>
> I do 2-D design work on an XP box and am considering some upgrades to help
> with video refresh rates and to stop the occassional "bogging down" that
I'm
> starting to see: ( P4 1.7 GHz, 512 MB SDRAM, nVIDIA 64 Mb AGP). I love
this
> machine, and am hoping upgrades will keep it "purring" for a couple more
> years!
>
> My files are sometimes in excess of 100 MB, and many times are
> high-resolution, multi-layered Photoshop CS files (this is where the
bogging
> down is starting to show). Things have slowed down many times in Corel
Draw
> 12 as well, especially on particularly complex vector/line-based
> illustrations.
>
> Should I worry about upgrading my video card, or should I concentrate my
> funds for more RAM, or do I need both in order to improve performance in
> design tasks?
>
> Thanks much!
>
> Ava
> www.acdcgraphics.com
>

You can add either more RAM, another 512 MB, or a graphic card 128 MB,
say, FX5900XT, which is a bit more reasonable right now, about 120$USD.

The hotter graphic card is GFX6600GT, which is probably still a bit
expensive,
in the range of 230$USD - 300$USD.

If you can upgrade both RAM and graphic card, probably you can "feel" some
improvement in speed. In fact, the 1GB of RAM seems better than 512 MB.

 

[jad]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Ram ram ram...in 2d there isn't much that the vidcard will help with.
In your graphics programs, in preferences, when you set up your
scratch disk take a little time and thought in doing so. this will
help as much as anything.


"lakesnow" <asleep@night.com> wrote in message
news:ct2fd0$k2t$1@newsflood.tokyo.att.ne.jp...
>
> "acdcnews" <ava@acdcgraphics.com> wrote in message
> news:sqqdnUKFG5-jE2ncRVn-hA@comcast.com...
> > Hi, everybody:
> >
> > I do 2-D design work on an XP box and am considering some upgrades
to help
> > with video refresh rates and to stop the occassional "bogging
down" that
> I'm
> > starting to see: ( P4 1.7 GHz, 512 MB SDRAM, nVIDIA 64 Mb AGP). I
love
> this
> > machine, and am hoping upgrades will keep it "purring" for a
couple more
> > years!
> >
> > My files are sometimes in excess of 100 MB, and many times are
> > high-resolution, multi-layered Photoshop CS files (this is where
the
> bogging
> > down is starting to show). Things have slowed down many times in
Corel
> Draw
> > 12 as well, especially on particularly complex vector/line-based
> > illustrations.
> >
> > Should I worry about upgrading my video card, or should I
concentrate my
> > funds for more RAM, or do I need both in order to improve
performance in
> > design tasks?
> >
> > Thanks much!
> >
> > Ava
> > www.acdcgraphics.com
> >
>
> You can add either more RAM, another 512 MB, or a graphic card 128
MB,
> say, FX5900XT, which is a bit more reasonable right now, about
120$USD.
>
> The hotter graphic card is GFX6600GT, which is probably still a bit
> expensive,
> in the range of 230$USD - 300$USD.
>
> If you can upgrade both RAM and graphic card, probably you can
"feel" some
> improvement in speed. In fact, the 1GB of RAM seems better than 512
MB.
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

>> I do 2-D design work on an XP box and am considering some upgrades to
>> help
>> with video refresh rates and to stop the occassional "bogging down" that
> I'm starting to see: ( P4 1.7 GHz, 512 MB SDRAM, nVIDIA 64 Mb AGP). I
> love
> this machine, and am hoping upgrades will keep it "purring" for a couple
> more
>> years!>>> My files are sometimes in excess of 100 MB, and many times are
>> high-resolution, multi-layered Photoshop CS files (this is where the
> bogging>> down is starting to show). Things have slowed down many times in
> Corel
> Draw>> 12 as well, especially on particularly complex vector/line-based
>> illustrations.
>>>> Should I worry about upgrading my video card, or should I concentrate
>>>> my
>> funds for more RAM, or do I need both in order to improve performance in
>> design tasks?

Photoshop and Corel Draw will benefit the most from having 1GB
or more. A faster CPU can help to boost performance a little but the RAM
is more important right now. There are faster 2D video cards but
they are unlikely to boost performance much as well. Most of today's
more expensive video cards boost 3D performance unless you
look at workstation type ones or ones made by Matrox (i.e. P650, etc).

We are a dealer and you are welcome to contact us for more info.

---
Kevin Chalker, Owner KC COMPUTERS
E-mail: kc@kc-computers.com Web: www.kc-computers.com
Internet dealer since 1991!!! See WWW.RESELLERRATINGS.COM!!!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Great advice everyone, I really appreciate it. I think I will look into
swapping my 512 RAM card for a 1 GB and see if it's worth getting two of
them. That might hold me until it's time to get a new machine. I hate to put
too much into it. I am hoping that in a year, I will get a new workstation
anyway.

Thanks so much!

Ava