Computer Upgrade Recommendations

[SpartaChris]

Crucial is a higher quality memory that was designed mostly for gamers. They have a technology that makes it operate at faster speeds than your typical ram.

Oh really.....and you know this how?
They do trend toward fast/good parts, but I've not heard they have any unique technology from my JEDEC committee member....

Not to nit pick, but let's keep to facts and not hype....

I didn't say they had a "unique" technology, just that they have "a technology." I just know what the benchmarks read, or at least used to. Haven't kept up in a while.

So what about that is factually inaccurate?

 

[powderburner]

I can't help you with what parts to replace (mother boards, father boards, extra RAM, whozits and doodads, etc) but I **CAN** tell you, with painful experience to back it up, to do whatever you have to in order to
avoid Vista

 

[11bravo]

I can't help you with what parts to replace (mother boards, father boards, extra RAM, whozits and doodads, etc) but I **CAN** tell you, with painful experience to back it up, to do whatever you have to in order to
avoid Vista

I don't know whether to laugh at you :lol: or cry with you :cry:.

As to the original question,
I hate it when you ask one question, like "what should I do to upgrade my current machine" and get answers like "buy a new machine", but...
Buy a new machine.
Just a quick look at the Best Buy site and I found this-
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8773222&type=product&id=1203815923428

Perfect machine?
No, but should do what you want nicely.
And if you need better graphics, it has 2 PCI-E slots.
Sorry to answer you question in a non-answer your question kind of way, but I do think you'd be better off this way.
Except for the Vista.

 

[DaveCombs]

Crucial is a higher quality memory that was designed mostly for gamers.

I've bought from Crucial more than once for price as well as the lifetime warranty.

 

[Bigander]

Like others said, upgrade the ram. The other computer (the better one) just had the 1 gb of ram fail on it. Compared to 70+ at other places, i got 2gb from crucial for 50. Should be here tomorrow! Then i'll have more ram to kill(i don't think autodesk invented(no pun intended) Inventor to run on 1 gig of ram, can be slow just drawing a rectangle:surprised:

 

[Peartree]

Like others said, upgrade the ram. The other computer (the better one) just had the 1 gb of ram fail on it. Compared to 70+ at other places, i got 2gb from crucial for 50. Should be here tomorrow! Then i'll have more ram to kill(i don't think autodesk invented(no pun intended) Inventor to run on 1 gig of ram, can be slow just drawing a rectangle:surprised:

Bigander, we wouldn't use less than 1Gb on Autodesk products three or four revisions ago.

 

[pmlkid]

Take a look at zip zoom fly or newegg as of now i see that zipzoomfly has very nice sale on ram :joyman:

 

[FredA]

[II didn't say they had a "unique" technology, just that they have "a technology." I just know what the benchmarks read, or at least used to. Haven't kept up in a while.

So what about that is factually inaccurate?
][/I]

OK -- maybe not factually inaccurate -- how about fact free.
Every DRAM has "a technology."

High tech moves fast -- if you've not "kept up in a while" why are you giving advice like you are in the know?

 

[Saks_Russel]

These days (and days past) upgrading a computer has been a joke. The CPU format changes, the chip sets won't support the latest CPUs and the busses change. Buying a new computer is frequently the best option. The older computer makes a nice workbench machine for running Rocsim and other bits of software that doesn't need blistering speed. I have a few older boxes (mostly Macs) on light duty. It works out great and I get a nice new computer on the desk to extract the most out of Photoshop.

Upgrade #1: Always max the RAM. It's the cheapest performance boost.

I like https://www.ramseeker.com. The site has price comparisons from several different RAM sellers. Crucial is good stuff, but overpriced as far as I'm concerned. I've never had any problems with generic memory. There are not too many manufacturers of RAM chips. The chips have gotten so cheap that most "fabs" move from the latest and greatest on to more profitable IC's. It's been a problem with many analog IC's not being produced anymore due to capacity. Crucial tests and sorts in house for best performance which is why they charge a premium.

KB

 

[JRThro]

I can't help you with what parts to replace (mother boards, father boards, extra RAM, whozits and doodads, etc) but I **CAN** tell you, with painful experience to back it up, to do whatever you have to in order to
avoid Vista

I sure don't understand why people hate Vista so much. Other than occasionally having to click a permission button to run something, it works fine for me.

 

[SpartaChris]

High tech moves fast -- if you've not "kept up in a while" why are you giving advice like you are in the know?

OK man, you're absolutely right, I know absolutely nothing about the subject.

Edit- He's not talking about a *new* technology, he's talking about an older technology, to which I'm quite familiar. Feel free to check the older benchmarks yourself, but IIRC, Crucial always outperformed it's competition.

 

[poke44]

Vista is a giant pile of poop. That is why they keep extending the XP sales timeline and support. Going from win98 or Milenium to XP was a big jump as well but there was a value for the jump... Vista does not give any value back for the jump and sometimes is even slower at applications. It uses way to much of the system to run the basic desktop.

It is also not compatible with even some software written for XP out there in the business world makes it even worse in terms of people migrating to it. There are processes out there in factories still running on 486 machines or even worse due to the fact it would cost too much money to make the software do what they need... back in 2002 or so i even saw one time a process that was still on an old TI computer with the program on a cassette... was kinda funny when the cassette quit working and they had to send the engineers out into the Dallas metroplex to find a replacement at all the junk stores.

Anyhow as someone said earlier crucial checks all the ram they sell and has a lifetime warranty. I have sent back a stick that was 6 years old in a friends machine and they replaced it no questions. The sell the ram thats not top quality as the value select type which is still in most cases better than generic type ram.

 

[paparoof]

I'm really tired of all the dumping on Vista. This happens every time they release a new OS.

Vista does require a ton more resources than XP for sure. That doesn't mean the OS is broken or faulty. The only problems I've had with Vista were when I tried to get it to run on sub-par machines (like this one I'm typing on right now) and I have a distinct feeling that's the cause of the majority of complaints about it. The vast majority of complaints I've seen about Vista are not even first hand - they're relating a story they heard or read about from someone else. My sister's new dual-core gateway laptop runs Vista like a champ. I'm running on it several machines (at home and at work) and when I give it appropriate resources, it runs great.

True, Vista doesn't add a ton of obvious functionality over XP. The real improvements are under the hood (and they require a ton of resources). The eye-candy is freaking beautiful (and it requires a ton of resources). There are a lot of good security improvements (that require a ton of resources). The Resource Monitor is a godsend for troubleshooting.

Also true - there's nothing new in Vista that we couldn't have by downloading a few free utilities and installing them on an XP box (or Mac OS, or Linux). But remember, Microsoft is primarily a marketing company, not a development company. What they are good at is taking other companies great ideas and packaging them very nicely. And thank God for that. It's Microsoft's marketing geniuses that made home-computing and the Internet less intimidating to the non-technical masses which is the real reason for the explosion of the Internet over the last 10-15 years, which is the reason why I have a job that I actually enjoy.

Vista is not poo. It's just the new Microsoft OS. Get used to it or switch to Linux.

 

[KermieD]

PCI video card that, while not top of the line anymore, will smoke your onboard video...$52.99 shipped:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130289

 

[cjl]

If you're willing to spend in the $50 range, this should be faster than above, and is $60 before a $20 rebate:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131082