Are there any computer gurus in here?

I'm looking to upgrade the performance of my computer. I've done some research and to be honest with all the info out there it gets kind of confusing. I've asked for help on other forums and well sometimes the help is just the same...lol. Anyways would going to windows 7 64bit help my performance any as I have 2, 2 gig sticks of RAM and that way I would get the full 4gigs? I'll post my specs if anybody here is interested in helping. Thanks.

Yes, a 32bit O/S (I assume that's what you have now) limits you to 3GB.

are you after a new system? are you looking at upgrading? are you looking to maximise your current performance?

a 32bit OS only allows your computer to utilise 3gb memory (combined with GPU VRAM). a 64bit OS will allow you to utilise as much memory as you like.

post your specs mate

Well I've got stock cooling so I'm looking to upgrade. My budget is 1,000 Canadian dollars.



Intel Core2 DuoE6550 @2.33Ghz Win XP 32

I've got 2, 2 gig sticks of ram but I can't remember what freq.

GeForceGTS 250 1Gig. DDR3 PCIE 16pin.

610Watt 12V PC power and cooling Silencer PSU.

Asus P5Q PRO Turbo MoBo.

1000ca will get you a full blown quad/hex core system with a brand new DX11 generation GPU. upgrading older systems isnt generally the best idea for a number of reasons:

a) youll be spending money on old technology which will date even quicker
b) newer tech is quicker, more reliable, cheaper to run etc
c) newer technology tends to be cheaper due to it being mainstream

and so forth.

1000ca is a solid budget for a new system. the question is, is that what youre prepared to do? the c2d and gts250 are a good 3/4 years old now so id suggest getting a new system if you have that much dollar to spend

Would you suggest going with an AMD or Intel system?

Intel offer better performance but for a price. overall, AMD offer a better price:performance ratio.

with your budget id stick with an AMD phenom ii x6. ive just put together 2 systems for 2 different guys on here as its the best CPU you can get for your money. 2.8ghz hex core for £120 or less.

MikaRaymond wrote:ive just put together 2 systems for 2 different guys on here as its the best CPU you can get for your money.

When they work

M Carey wrote:

MikaRaymond wrote:ive just put together 2 systems for 2 different guys on here as its the best CPU you can get for your money.

When they work

not my fault you have sausage fingers

Not my fault I was sold an overheating cpu Anyway it all turned out ok & I'm happy with my system now =)

M Carey wrote:

MikaRaymond wrote:ive just put together 2 systems for 2 different guys on here as its the best CPU you can get for your money.

When they work

and i'm the other guy with the AMD chip. I'm very happy with it, I paid 134euro for my chip.

Cool. Thanks for the info fellas!

Would you recomment a SS hard drive or something like 500G with 10000rpm?

For pure speed, an SSD will blow away a 10K spindle. Best price/performance is to use an SSD as a boot drive (min 60G for Win7) and larger HD's for storage of data and programs. The downside is you have to be quite careful managing where stuff installs to.

+1

on another note, SSDs are currently priced at more than £1 per GB. however the upside is the longer time goes on the vcheaper theyll become - theyve started becoming more mainstream in the past 12 months. id imagine you could pick up a tidy 120GB corsair or OCZ drive for less than £100 after xmas.

in todays world, i wouldnt recommend one just yet. picking up a conventional 1tb 7200rpm drive offers more than enough performance for most people. you dont really "need" an SSD unless youre stupid, have too much money to blow (or both )

with HDDs, you can do something called short-stroking, whereby you partition the drive to an extent where the C:/ (boot) parition is on the outside of the disk, meaning the spindle will read the data quicker than the D:/ drive, which will be located more to the middle of the disk.

What would you recommend for a mobo? Size isn't too much of an issue as I have a cooler master HAF full size tower.

that depends entirely on the chipset you use. ATX is the most common used form factor due to the price and the expansion slots you get. i run a mATX board because it was cheaper than its big brother, but it only has 4 expansion slots rather than 6 (not like i need the extra ones).

i can give you a quick rundown of the best system you can get for your budget if you like?

Yeah that would be awesome.

quick question - what resolution is your monitor?

1920x1080@ 60hz

Intel Core i7 2600K
Asus P8Z68-M PRO
4x2GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz DDR3 Cas8
Nvidia GTX570 (GPUs are a tough one atm. both Nvidia and AMD are about to release their new gen cards early 2012)
Corasir 650w PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Coolermaster HAF-X (already own)
Optical drive etc

id really hold on until early 2012 before upgrading.

nvidia, intel amd AMD are about to release their new line of CPUs and GPUs (early 2012) which will mean you can either purchase the above system for a cheaper price or get the brand new gear which will perform slightly better. whether the price : performance will be justifyable is completely up to you. however the above is the best system you can get for your price in todays market.

im personally holding on until the new line of nvidia GPUs. i kinda want to upgrade my GPU (currently running a gtx285 - which is fine for the games i run) but i believe ill need more power for BF3.

again, if you decide to buy now then the above system is the best. however if you can wait (till Q1 2012) then do. itll give you much more options

Thanks Mika! I think I'm going to go for it!!

well i would recommend holding out for a bit longer but thats your call

Well after doing a bit of research AMD is going to release their bulldozer chips which are supposed to come out in the next month or two. From what I've read they will compete with the i7s but lots are speculating that the i7 will still out perform. If I were to wait for Intels new chip would it cost the same as a i7 does now or more? I've read a bit about intels Ivy bridge but I don't really know what that means. lol.

this is what im saying - nvidia, ATI, intel and AMD (ATI and AMD are now the same company) are releasing brand new GPUs and CPUs all round by the end of 2011 / start of 2012. it would be silly if you were to start purchasing a new system right now. but for those who do, youre still getting a fantastic setup.

you never really know what's gonna outperform what until the actual release. there are too many fake charts and bullsh*tting comments from fanboys thats its not even worth bothering reading into until theyre released. id hold out for another couple of months (which isnt long, im sure you can cope ) until you have solid reviews and benchmarks to compare.