Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
05-20-2010, 06:57 AM   #1
Veteran Member
raider's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,989
Some help in upgrading PC

Now that i have got my Dell 2209WA sorted out, i could use some advice on how to improve the performance of my current box. I wanted to use as little funds as possible because ultimately i am eyeing to get a K-x for my wife as well as a UWA for myself

I have been googling alot and i think the "best bang for the buck" processor right now that is suitable for my mobo is either the Intel Dual Core E6500 and the Intel Core 2 Duo E7500. Both run at 2.93 GHz and both share the same type of core, with the exception that the E6500 has 2MB cache vs 3MB of the E7500.

I am not terribly fussy with the speed difference. The E6500 is abt A$85 here and the E7500 abt A$135. I am prepared to go with the E6500.

Now comes to the ram part. My mobo has only 2 ram slots. There is a 1GB PC-6400 ram running in single channel mode at the moment. I am looking to boost it up to 2GB (at least) or perhaps 4GB but i have been reading that all these amount of ram doesn't make windows run faster unless the apps are memory intensive type (which i think the PSE is not that bad...)

A friend is kind enuf to give me 2 of his 1GB PC-5300 corsair ram.

The question i have is this - If I get the E6500, the FSB is 1066Mhz. Would the PC-5300 ram run at a bottle neck in this setup or i should really be using PC-6400 ram?

05-20-2010, 07:10 AM   #2
Inactive Account




Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Brisbane, QLD, AUS
Posts: 3,261
Do you have a budget for the entire PC?
05-20-2010, 07:19 AM   #3
Veteran Member
raider's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,989
Original Poster
About A$250 budget i would say for the ram + CPU.

Dont want to sound cheap...but i would like to upgrade other stuff as well. My KB is falling apart and so is my mouse after 4 yrs. Would want to change to the logitech illuminated kB + a logitech MX1100 mouse.

With $250 i can get an E6500 (A$85) + 4GB PC-6400 ($118).
05-20-2010, 08:34 AM   #4
Pentaxian
reeftool's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Upstate New York
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 9,543
I am planning a major upgrade this year also. AT current prices, motherboard,4g of memory, and a quad core AMD processor is around $300. I am NOT pricing the cheapest stuff either. Why not go all the way? That way you will be set for a while.

05-20-2010, 09:20 AM   #5
Inactive Account




Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Brisbane, QLD, AUS
Posts: 3,261
QuoteOriginally posted by reeftool Quote
..is around $300...
No offence, but I don't know how helpful you Americans'll be with pricing quotes. Our dollars are close, but that doesn't stop the price hikes.

Unfortunately, RAM (and other solid-state memory) prices are through the roof for...some reason ("Collusion? Never heard of it...")

Want to find out a decent starter build for a PC? Grab a copy of Atomic MPC and PC Powerplay at a newsagent near you. Every issue, they list a range of hardware to suit various budgets for a PC builder. They're normally for gaming rigs, but since gaming's about the most intense thing you can do with a consumer PC, they're a good place to start.
05-20-2010, 11:33 AM   #6
Senior Member




Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: DC Metro, USA
Posts: 212
You mean PC2-5300 (667 mhz) right? It won't be a bottleneck, just don't sync the mobo FSB w/ the memory speed (your motherboard BIOS shouldn't run a sync by default unless you set it manually). If you want to sync, use PC2-8500 (1066mhz) memory.

I don't recommend spending a penny on your current infrastructure however, because the newer platform is far superior. I'm not talking about spending hundreds of dollars, even the cheapest i3 530 will do, but you do need to get a new mobo, etc.

i3 530 performance

It's only $99 in the US. Of course I don't know how much it costs in Australia, so you can be the better judge here, but if you can, hold off to get a bigger budget and upgrade to the new architecture.

Shawn
05-20-2010, 11:41 AM   #7
Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter
Wheatfield's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: The wheatfields of Canada
Posts: 15,903
One thing to look at is how many hard drives you have in the box. If you only have one, then adding a second drive and assigning it as Photoshop's swap drive will give you quite a speed boost when you run out of RAM.
Windows and Photoshop should not be looking to the same drive for swap.

05-20-2010, 04:39 PM   #8
Veteran Member
raider's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,989
Original Poster
Thanks for all the helpful tips.

As for the photoshop elements tweaking, i have already done what i can: i set the scratch disk to another physical drive (I have 4 drives in the box - 1 160G sata, 2x250G ide, 1x320G ide). I set the cache thingy to a value of 8 (from a default of 6) and set the memory limit to 75%. I did notice a good speed boost with PSE but still a bit slower than what i would like.

The mobo that comes with my 2++ year compaq box has no bios settings for clock multipliers, etc. it is afterall a cheap pc when i get it last time.

Could someone please enlighten me in regards to matching CPU and DRAM speed? I gathered that the E6500 (2.93GHz) has a multipler of 11, that means the bus speed is 2930/11 = 266MHz?

That means if I am using a DDR2 ram, i need at least a DDR2-533 (since DDR2 is double pump). If I use DDR2-533, i would be getting a 1:1 match. If I use a DDR2-800 (PC2-6400 ram), I will be getting a CPU : DRAM ratio of 266:400 => 2:3, which is far better than the 1:1 ratio when using DDR2-533.

Is this calcs correct or fundamentally flawed?
05-20-2010, 05:40 PM   #9
Veteran Member
wlachan's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
Photos: Albums
Posts: 2,625
The bus speed of the cpu and ram operate independently. Just let the motherboard auto detect in BIOS. The problem I can see is that your mobo might not support the new CPU you will be buying. You have to check with Compaq or google for answer. And if it won't, you might buy the cheapest mobo as alternative (you will have to deal with Windows license issue though).

Assuming you are using 32bit Windows, you might just add a single piece of PC2-6400 2GB so that you will have 3GB total. 32bit Windows can handle 3.25GB RAM but you will be wasting 0.75GB by going 4GB. Since you are on budget, I'd say 3GB total will be fine. Also, E6500 will be okay. I am still running E4600 with 4GB W7 64bit w/o problem. In fact, you might just add 2GB ram and see if it's fast enough for you b4 buying a new cpu. Often the lack of ram is what causes slow PC performance. What CPU & OS you have btw?
05-20-2010, 06:22 PM   #10
Veteran Member
raider's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,989
Original Poster
I am now running windows 7 32bit on an old celeron dual core E1200 @ 1.6Ghz with 1GB PC-6400 ram.

I confirmed that the mobo can support the E6500 cpu and it is able to support CPU running on 800/1066/1333 FSB.

The idea of just dropping in a 2GB PC-6400 ram to make a total of 3GB is very appealing to me and in fact crosses my mind more than once. The only thing is that i kept reading that we should always use dual-channel ram instead of a single channel one as the bandwidth is doubled with dual channel.

If I do it this way, would 3GB single channel be just as good as 4GB dual channel (considering the fact that i will prolly only get abt 3.25GB useable ram since i have no intention of going win7 64-bit)?
05-20-2010, 07:05 PM   #11
Veteran Member
wlachan's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
Photos: Albums
Posts: 2,625
The actual performance boost from single channel to dual channel is about 20% from what I remember, way less than most people imagined. You will gain more by putting that money into a faster cpu unless you will go 64bit in the near future. Also, unless buying the 2GB in pair is cheaper than buying separately, why not try one and see first. The only catch is that if your pc uses those ram as video memory, going 4GB will make sense. Then again, you will have to make sure your mobo can take 2x2GB because some older systems were designed for 2x1GB or 1+2GB.

Last edited by wlachan; 05-20-2010 at 07:11 PM.
05-20-2010, 07:23 PM   #12
Veteran Member
raider's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Perth, Australia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,989
Original Poster
Yes. what u said makes a lot of sense. In fact i was going to try to drop a 2GB PC-6400 ram in first to see how the performance is like. I think 3GB with PSE will be better. Will go to the comp shop tomorrow to get the ram and stuff.
05-20-2010, 11:14 PM   #13
Inactive Account




Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Brisbane, QLD, AUS
Posts: 3,261
QuoteOriginally posted by raider Quote
I am now running windows 7 32bit...
Oh, dear me.

QuoteQuote:
(considering the fact that i will prolly only get abt 3.25GB useable ram since i have no intention of going win7 64-bit)?
Why? Mother of mercy- what the hell made you do that? Some shagstain at Harvey Norman? Celeron E1200 runs a 64-bit instruction set.

You WILL get it eventually. Considering that the maximum amount of RAM a 32-bit OS is able to use - 4Gb - is probably going to become the minimum amount amount necessary to run a lot of programs very soon, Windows 7 was already obsolete before they released it. It's criminal Microsoft even released a 32-bit version; they probably only did so to make up for woeful Vista sales.

This is going to be a bit more complex than I imagined.
05-20-2010, 11:24 PM   #14
Veteran Member
wlachan's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
Photos: Albums
Posts: 2,625
What the hxll you talking? OS is just a vehicle to drive the applications one needs to use. If it works, be it OSX, XP, Vista, 7, Linux or whatever. So long as they get your work done, what's the problem then?
05-20-2010, 11:42 PM   #15
Veteran Member
JohnBee's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Newrfoundland
Photos: Albums
Posts: 4,667
QuoteOriginally posted by raider Quote
The question i have is this - If I get the E6500, the FSB is 1066Mhz. Would the PC-5300 ram run at a bottle neck in this setup or i should really be using PC-6400 ram?
Based on persona experience, I'd say it certainly isn't easy to carry out upgrades with any degree of certainty in situations like these.

A few questions do come to mind though: Have you considered the implications of the higher power demands on your stock PSU? is the board compatible with 4GB+ or memory? is the OS needed to make use 4GB of ram compatible with the board?

I guess I'm pointing to questions like these... and the implications they may carry in the event that things don't pan out as planned.

Based on my own experience, the most approach to a core upgrade is to replace the four primary components. "PSU/Motherboard/CPU and RAM". This way you can research and establish with a level of certainty with the components you choose.

Also, many dells have proprietary case designs and dimensions(custom motherboard mounts, exhaust fans & shrouds, CPU and PSU clearance etc etc). So if you haven't already considered this, you may want to read-up on the clearance side of things(CPU cooler etc) to try and determine if the upgrade parts are going to fit.

And don't overlook the power draw on the new CPU. Most stock power supplies are rated for the CPU's they ship with and so when you place a higher end chip into the system they don't run well(unstable) or simply burn-out shortly after. This can be especially true if you're upgrading from a single core to a multi-core processor.

Hope this helps.
JB
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
core, ram, run
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
K-x, worth upgrading to? Pif Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 7 01-28-2010 02:01 AM
Upgrading that 18-55. chlen Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 15 12-08-2008 02:55 PM
What to do first when upgrading? kthung Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 13 12-02-2008 10:31 AM
why i'll be upgrading to k200d at the least.. OniFactor Pentax News and Rumors 11 02-06-2008 05:20 PM
upgrading already.... distorted_vision Pentax DSLR Discussion 3 12-04-2007 07:10 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:26 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top