Computer Performance Advice

[BoxingGeeks]

Maybe i missed this... but what OS are you running on?

32bit or 64bit?
Looking at your board.. you should be able to upgrade it to 8GB but you will need the 64bit OS to use it.


Physical Memory Limits: Windows Vista
Source Link

The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows Vista.


Windows Vista
Limit in 32-bit Windows 4 GB
Limit in 64-bit Windows 128 GB

[jak3676]

I'd suspect the retailer said 4GB max because that's all the any of the 32-bit OS's will run with. I see similar stuff from Dell and HP all the time. The retailer may well have put parts in the system that didn't have 64-bit drivers (at least they may not have been available when it was originally released). But that doesn't mean that you can't get 64-bit support and run with 8GB of RAM.

You can probably upgrade to Win7 (64-bit) and then move to 8GB of RAM pretty easily. If you still have any drivers that you got from the retailer - those could be a problem. You may need to make sure that you can determine the original manufacturer for all your parts and make sure you can get drivers from them. I never like drivers from the retailers anyway. But figuring out who made your components may take a few minutes of work.

For example - "ATX NV C2Q 775 PCIe nVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra" doesn't tell you the brand name. ATX is the form factor, NV may be something, but probably just stands for NVidia. C2Q 775 just tell you the CPU specs and pin out. PCIe nVIDIA 650i Ultra tell you the specs on the motherboard. Wost case you can just go to Nvidia's web site and download nForce 650i drivers from there - but if you knew the original manufacturer they may recommend something a little different.

[Bovidae]

Looking at a few old listings on Newegg of deactivated items ( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=nForce+650i+Ultra&as_epq=&as_oq= &as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch =www.newegg.com&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any& cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images )

it looks like the hardware should support 8gb of ram, and as previously mentioned, the manufacturer propably put the 4gb limit due to OS constraints. Also, looking at the tech specs for that chipset ( http://www.nvidia.com/page/nforce_600i_tech_specs.html ) be sure to use DDR2-800, don't buy anything fancy here.

That said, DDR@-800 is cheap, Windows 7 is even cheaper.

Also, to emphasize previous points, full HDDs don't play nice, I'd consider another HDD for my WoW, a small SSD would be nice and would return some space back to your porn errr family phote storage.

Moving down the list, your 8800GTS 640mb DOES NOT have the G92 processor, it just missed that boat. An upgrade to even a 260 would be monumental.

Even further down that list are your mobo and processor; while great 2 years ago, they are hardly cutting edge anymore. You should be able to squeeze more frequency out of your overclock, or possibly drop in a Q9550 But if you are nodding your head down this entire list, and you can justify the cost thus far, might want to start thinking i7...

[jak3676]

This is pretty much the exact boat I was in upgrade wise. 8GB of DDR2 800MHz ram will run you just under $100 on newegg. A cheap 32GB SSD is about $125, but you can find cheap 64GB drives for close to $175. A C2Q 9550 on newegg is about $200 and a GTX 260 or 4870 (1GB) version will run you about $150-175.

As mentioned above, you should never let hard drives get more than 75% full. They start taking some big performance hits past that point. I'd start by freeing up some hard drive space whereever you can. If that means you have to get an additional hard drive - may as well get an SSD. The SSD may not be the cheapest upgrade, but it can follow you to a new PC at some point in the future. In terms of "bang for your buck" it's probably as big an upgrade as more RAM.

If you haven't already - I'd strongly recommend checking out Win7 (64-bit). You can get the realase condidate for free and that will last you until March until you actually have to buy a real copy. If you need to stick to "free" upgrades for now, then I'd start by cleaning up hard drives and picking up Win7 (64-bit).

I'd put 8GB of RAM (4x 2GB sticks) next on your to do list, but really it's right up there with a SSD. It's fairly cheap and will probably provide the biggest bang for your buck with what you have right now. If you just do the SSD and more RAM, you'll probably be good to go. At least that should cut out the bad lag spikes.

You probably don't really need a new GPU. But more video memory can always help. Still you can compensate for video issues by just turning down the video effects a little bit. If you do spend some money on a new GPU at least you'll be able to transplant in a new PC down the road. I'd say this is a personal preference really.

I'm not sure I'd mess with a 9550, unless you can find a cheap on one craigslist/ebay. It's a clear upgrade from your Q6600, but it's not that much of one. If/When you eventually upgrade to a new machine it won't be able to follow you either.

If you're getting to the point up upgrading your CPU and motherboard, then it really is time to look at a whole new i7 system. You can get a good one for about $750 - but that's a fair bit more than just doing a few cheap and simple upgrades and living with your current system for another year or two.

[cybernerv]

could be a number of things for bad performance, but I did not see(just skimmed) anyone say anything about your power supply. what power supply are you using(again I just skimmed the posts) and is it enough to power that system with the monitors? Just something you can look into, a simple solution could of been replacing the power supply with a better build quality and more stable psu. unless you are dead-set on building a new computer we can help with that as well

[Perrigrin]

Thanks a bunch so far guys.

I think I'll go the route of - getting a SSD (when the new Intel becomes avail) - Upgrading to Win7 (got a free volume license) - Taking my chances on the spec and slapping in 8 GB of cheap memory.

I might go for a new graphics card, depending on the $$ to spend on it, I might just rather get a new box entirely.

Anything with the mobo or processor I would just upgrade the whole thing I think - Unless I find a cheap processor that fit the mobo - That would be the 9550?

[Owltoid]

BTW, these threads should be in the hardware section of the forum.

[jak3676]

Yes a 9550 would be the "cheap" CPU upgrade you want. If someone gave you a 9400, that may work too, but it's and even smaller upgrade than the 9550. If by chance you stumble into a 9650 for a good price, that's better than the 9550, but it's generally like 2x as expensive. If you're going to pay retail for a 9650, then you should really look at a new i7.

Before you do any upgrades to the CPU you will need to make sure you motherboard supports them. I bought my current PC when the core 2 duo's just came out. It still has the 1066MHz front side bus. So it will take the Q6600 just fine, but for all the newer C2Q's it underclocks them quite a bit. The newer ones are built to have a 1333MHz FSB. I can run them, they just don't run at full speed. I can overclock my motherboard to help out, but I'm barely stable at what should be stock speeds for the CPU. (Maybe if I played with it a bit more it should help - I don't think my memory can handle being OC'd).

[Barelan]

I would try to investigate the problem first.

1) Is the CPU maxed
2) Is the swapfile used a lot
3) Is the disk queue high
etc.

That way, you can make a better decision.

If all off these seem OK then its probably the graphics card (which is more difficult to measure)

[outdrsyguy1]

I've got a similar setup and have freezes and painful stuttering lag in Dal and Tournament (5 clients 1 pc).
280 gtx graphics, quad 2.8ghz cpu, 4 gig ram, xp 32 bit., 750 gig HD (standard type, not sure model)

I'm guessing it's a RAM issue so i ordered VISTA 64 w/ free upgrade to Win 7 and 4 more gigs of ram to bring me to 8 gigs total. I held off on the SSD for now and I'll let you know how it runs with a standard hard drive and this setup by the end of the weekend.

Wintergrasp always freezes one of my clients atleast once per battle.

If it's better but not good enough i'll try the SSD i think. I'm not sure I want to spend $$ on those 4 gig ram sticks at this point (i only have 4 ram slots on mobo).