[philbaum]

Hi,

I am currently using photoshop elements 7 on my celeron dua core box with 1GB of ram. After cataloging some 4000 photos, i can feel that it is really slowing down a fair bit and I cannot stop wondering what would be the recommended PC specification for PSE.

Do I need a super duper latest PC to run PSE well or is it wise for me to upgrade the processor to a faster one or perhaps just up the ram to 4GB or something.

Feedback appreciated.

Thanks
raider

I don't have the answer to your question, but i suggest you might take it to a computer repair shop to have them evaluate it as well. Some quite knowledgeable people who seem to address this question a lot.

Especially if you have to add compatible RAM memory, go to such a repair shop. Why? I've upgraded memory in two laptops in recent years. In both cases, the repair shops had problems with compatible memory chips even though they were rated the same, sometimes the manufacturers were different and that was enough to cause a problem. Upgrading memory on my own would have taken forever to sort out these problems.

best wishes,

[photolady95]

Computers don't just slow down because you have many photos/pictures on them. There is always another reason. So, I too recommend you take this to a computer shop especially if you're not computer savy.

[raider]

Apologies. I should have given the complete info.

The box is a HP Compaq SR5520AN machine with
800MHz FSB, 1GB PC2-6400MB/sec 240 pin DDR2 SDRAM, Socket 775 Celeron E1200 1.6GHz Dua Core CPU, MSI MS-7525 motherboard, integrated GMA3100 display chipset.

I know i can just swap the processor for an intel E7500 775pin processor but i am not sure if this will make PSE run any faster. I think I will listen to your recommendation to go get a 2GB ram first and see if PSE runs well enuf.

[photolady95]

Have you checked your computer for spyware/malware and other nasties? Have or do you empty your caches? Spyware/malware can slow a computer down faster than you can say "stop it." I suggest you check these things out as well.

Remember, the memory that is in that computer probably isn't top of the line memory and if you mix it with top of the line you might have problems after. That's why Phil and I suggested you take it to a computer shop. They can match the ram and get some that is compatible with your system.

According to HP that computer supports dual channel memory. I'll be surprised if you attempt to do this yourself and you find only one stick of memory in there. It's probably two 512mb sticks. Here's the specs on the motherboard from HP:

Dual channel memory architecture
Two 240-pin DDR2 DIMM sockets
Supported DIMM types:
PC2-5300 (667 MHz)
PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
Supports 2GB DDR2 DIMMs
Supports up to 4 GB* on 32 bit PCs

[raider]

Thanks Photolady for your advice. I will bring it to a computer shop.

[photolady95]

You're welcome Raider. Glad to be of help.

Let us know how it goes after the trip to the shop.