Not enough power?

[turbopants]

I have a home built mid tower PC. It's use is for gaming, HD video editing and web development. I have lagging issues when running rFactor (HD racing game). And when doing large scale HD videos (5GB+) the PC chokes badly. I can't even publish my project files from Adobe Permier Elements, it says low on system memory. I've went to the extent of removing all AV software and cleaning up Windows but get the same results. Here's the problem child's specs:

ASUS M2N68-AM Motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 64 3.1 6000+ GHz dual core
GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GPU
4GB PC8000 DDR2 RAM
550W Power Supply
Main HDD 300GB IDE (no partitions)
2nd HDD 1 TB 7200 SATA2
XP SP3

After searching I think the 550W PS isn't enough power for the GPU and 2 HDD setup. I think the GPU and CPU are pretty decent based on reviews but AM2 socket is becoming old school already. And my board is lacking SATA ports if I expand so I'm debating on a new CPU/MB package. I was hoping for some input on whether the power supply should be swapped out first but this won't speed up video editing so a new build entirely may be in order. Should I retire this system for a new build or can this one be made up to par? Thanks in advance!

 

[clarkjd]

You only have 4GB of ram and you are trying to load 5GB videos...Of course you are lagging! That's why you are low on system memory. This is NOT a PSU issue, you just need more RAM. (8GB at least)

 

[Outlander_04]

I agree totally with clarkjd , but the situation is even worse than he describes it .

Yoou have [ I bet ] a 32 bit version of windows XP that can only "see" about 3.2 gig of RAM NO MATTER HOW MUCH IS INSTALLED and that includes the memory in the graphics card so Windows is only able to 2.8 gig .


Try increasing the size of the page file to twice the size of your largest file . Say 10 gb
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sysdm_advancd_perform_change_vmpagefile.mspx?mfr=true

That might stop the warnings , but it wont speed things up .
The only fix for that is a 64 bit OS and another 4 gig of RAM

 

[turbopants]

The errors I'm getting are coming from Adobe directly, not a Windows warning. Which is a first, so the page file size won't solve much. It's the computer. I have 32-bit XP so I realize my only good solution is to get Windows 7 and be done with it so I can use all my RAM and add more. Only downfall is some of my really old programs won't run on 7, even in compatibility mode. Take the bad with the good I guess.

 

[turbopants]

Best answer selected by turbopants.

 

[Outlander_04]

The errors I'm getting are coming from Adobe directly, not a Windows warning. Which is a first, so the page file size won't solve much. It's the computer. I have 32-bit XP so I realize my only good solution is to get Windows 7 and be done with it so I can use all my RAM and add more. Only downfall is some of my really old programs won't run on 7, even in compatibility mode. Take the bad with the good I guess.

The answer to that problem is to use Win 7 Pro 64 bit which should run all win XP programs