right flatmates neice has a packard bell pc running a 3ghz pentium D chip,paltry 200 whatever mb RAM and onboard graphics.
my athlon xp 2800 with 512mb ram and a low spec radion graphics card whips its ass TBH.
so whats the best/cheapest way to speed it up.
thinking if i add a cheap graphics card,cheap as in -£30 and a stick of 512mb ram this should help?
just looking to speed up general window tasks and make it smoother playing the likes of sims 2 and ultrastar.
it seems generally slow to me so multitasking will make it crawl i suspect.
oh the chip reports as 64bit but its runnig 32 bit xp.
any benifit in me obtaining a 64 bit version over the legit 32 bit version on the system?

I would say some extra mem would help for sure - has she already got a 256 stick in there?

As for a low spec card - is she still on AGP or PCI-E now?

specs here

Form Factor: µATX 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm
CPU Support
Socket LGA775
Support Intel Pentium Hyper-Threading technology with FMB Performance 2004 support
Support for an Intel Pentium 4 processor in a LGA775 socket with an 800 MHz system bus, 2.8 GHz to 3.8 GHz or higher.
Support for an Intel Celeron processor in a LGA775 socket with a 533 MHz system bus, 2.8 GHz or higher.
System Memory
Supports 2 memory slots.
Supports a maximum memory size of 2 GB (using 2 x 1 GB memory modules)
400/333/266 MHz
Support only 2.5 V DIMM DDRAM configurations
Unbuffered type support
Chipset
North Bridge: Core Logic 661FX
South Bridge: Sis 964 MuTIOL Media I/O
Integrated Video
Realtek ALC655 Audio System
Ethernet Controller: Realtek RTL8100(L) PCI/mini-PCI
I/O Controller: WINBOND W83627EHF I/O controller
Storage
2x ultra 133 IDE
2x Serial ATA with Raid 0 and Raid 1 configuration


just 1 stick of ram just now

As Stu says, you need to find out if it's PCI-E or AGP for the gfx, and what size the single stick of memory is in there. Best would be sticking a standalone gfx card and the same memory again in there to run dual-channel, but if it's only 256mb anyway, you may as well remove that, sell it, and buy a single Gig's worth. (or 2x 512mb if you can find it cheap)

64bit is not very supported yet. You'll probably have more problems with drivers and apps not working than you did have speed problems under 32bit.

from a scout on the PB site shows the imedia range is AGP x8

ATI Radeon 9800pro and flash it to 9800xt. That should be a decent upgrade.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATI-Radeon-98...ryZ27387QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

i run the SE version of that card,can i flash that? :chin:

I yes, I remember looking at that flashing process with Rob when I was looking to update my ATI card - instead, I just plumped for, and paid extra no doubt, for the X850XT PE

There are some guides about it - have a look on Google, process seems easy enough to do.

Definitely worth removing that 256Mb stick, and banging in a gig - the difference will be pronounced.

or seeing if my 512mb is compatible with hers :chin:

Run that CPUZ program I put up the other day [part of Chas' thread] and it will tell you all you need to know about her system, and yours, including memory...

need to wait till she has BB.took it through today after fitting the 2nd HD and she was going ot go on msn.
didnt know you needed to be online to use it

i asked her if she thought the msn fairys carried the convos lol

edit:she also went very red when i told her i had been reading her chat logs :devil:

custard said:

edit:she also went very red when i told her i had been reading her chat logs :devil:

Click to expand...

T-shirt for you..

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/31fb/


p.s. anything juicy?

nothing in the couple i read but going by how she went red the second i mentioned it i think i should have kept reading :bang:

Does she "put out" :devil:

pinin__prestatyn said:

Does she "put out" :devil:

Click to expand...

at 15 i hope not!

i do enjoy winding her up :devil: her last boyfriend had lost a couple of fingers as a youngster so i nicknamed him kitkat(only to her)
took her 2 months to work it out