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Upgrade help

D

DirtyB

Gawd
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Messages
830
My computer is feeling a little old and sluggish. My FPS is pretty bad in most new games now and load times are lacking. I use my comp for games/music/movies/web.

I'd like to hold off and not rebuild my computer until next summer. However, I'm wondering if you guys think I have a bottleneck somewhere, I'm guessing if I do it would be the HDD. I'd rather not upgrade anything until I can do everything at once next summer but if I have a bottleneck I wouldn't be opposed to replacing it now as long as it would still be optimal for a new build in a year.

OS: Win Xp pro
Case/PSU:Antec Sonata II w/450 Watt power supply
Board: ASUS P5KPL-VM LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
HDD: maxtor diamondmax 10 200gb SATA (5 years old)
GPU: Geforce 9600GT
CPU: Core 2 duo E4600 @2.40Ghz
Monitor: 5 year old AGeovo 19" LCD F-419 @1280x1024
Memory: 2gigs

Thanks for your time!
 
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Well luckily for you, a HDD upgrade isn't that much:
$55 - Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

But it won't increase your FPS in games but will make the system a bit snappier and faster to load.

Besides that, with the exception of the monitor and possibly even the case, every one of those parts will have to be replaced more or less. Especially the Smartpower PSU that came with that Sonata II:
The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps (Fuhjyyu caps) that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU. Those are usually the first signs of those particular PSU lines dying. So if you do hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise, that's enough grounds to replace the PSU.
 
Three questions for you:

1. How much memory do you have?

2. On that note, how much memory is consumed by your PC after a fresh boot(press Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the Task Manager, and select the Performance tab and tell us the PF Usage)?

3. If you turn-down the graphical quality settings in newer games, does the game still play sluggish?

If you answer these three questions, I think we can track down the bottleneck for slow framerates. But I'm in agreement with Danny on the hard drive - it's cheap and will improve your load times.

EDIT: I'm also amazed that your Smartpower II 450w is still working. Mine died two years ago.
 
1. 2 gigs- Corsair XMS DDR2
2. 1400 MB when WoW+skype+Chrome is open
-450MB after boot with nothing open
3. Improves but still slightly sluggish.

I was actually thinking of picking up a Samsung spinpoint F3, I've seen them everywhere for $60 shipped, I've heard great things about it and don't think I'm ready to spend the money on a decent sized SSD. Would you recommend that WD over the spinpoint? I thought when I looked at specs the newer disk drives didn't seem any faster than my diamond-max(maybe I'm wrong?). I'll go ahead and grab Win7 if I'm going to get a new HDD.

Yeah my PSU is now over 5 years old and still going strong! I'll look into finding a slick deal on a new PSU. Will I have any problems running a newer PSU inside my sonata or should I look at a newer case as well? Considering I want to upgrade next summer what should I look for? 650watts+ from a brand name?
 
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DirtyB said:
I was actually thinking of picking up a Samsung spinpoint F3, I've seen them everywhere for $60 shipped, I've heard great things about it and don't think I'm ready to spend the money on a decent sized SSD. Would you recommend that WD over the spinpoint? I thought when I looked at specs the newer disk drives didn't seem any faster than my diamond-max(maybe I'm wrong?). I'll go ahead and grab Win7 if I'm going to get a new HDD.

Yeah my PSU is now over 5 years old and still going strong! I'll look into finding a slick deal on a new PSU. Will I have any problems running a newer PSU inside my sonata or should I look at a newer case as well? Considering I want to upgrade next summer what should I look for? 650watts+ from a brand name?
Click to expand...

Nah, I would go for the Samsung F3 myself. Yeah there are a host of other specs changes that aren't noted in most specs sheets. Like platter density, # of platters, platter design, etc, etc.

The Sonata II fits any normal ATX PSU just fine. There are very few PSU companies nowadays where you can buy a PSU from them that aren't crap. So basically, brand name isn't everything. You have to judge the PSU on PSU by PSU basis. But generally, if you buy a Seasonic PSU, you'll be fine.
 
Yeah, if you play WOW, then you are likely CPU and hard drive limited. You can try overclocking your CPU, and replacing your hard drive, and that combination may help.

You don't seem to be memory-limited, nor do you have too much crap installed.
 
Awesome you guys have been a great help you confirmed my suspicions, I'll probably pickup a
F3 and grab a new PSU when I see a good one on sale.

When I get a new HDD should I go ahead and just install XP pro on it... I'll probably go with that dumb upgrade program so I'll need XP installed on the HD to switch to Win7 later. If I do go with Win7... 64bit?
 
DirtyB said:
Awesome you guys have been a great help you confirmed my suspicions, I'll probably pickup a
F3 and grab a new PSU when I see a good one on sale.

When I get a new HDD should I go ahead and just install XP pro on it... I'll probably go with that dumb upgrade program so I'll need XP installed on the HD to switch to Win7 later. If I do go with Win7... 64bit?
Click to expand...

Actually, Win 7 Upgrade can be installed on a clean, unformatted hard drive - if you know how to do this correctly. The setup program, which is accessable by booting into the upgrade DVD, does not verify upgrade eligibility, so you can install Win 7 the first time as a 30-day trial version (no product key is needed for this). Then, after the trial version is up and running, you cannot activate this setup since there is no verifiable product key. To fix this, run the Upgrade setup from the DVD again - this time while still in Windows (and this time, you will need to enter the product key).

Or, if you're upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7, there is no in-place upgrade path anyway; the entire Windows XP install must be wiped before Windows 7 can install unless you're creating a dual-boot system. As such, such an upgrade requires a clean install.

All retail versions of Windows 7, including the upgrade versions and the 3-PC Family Pack, include both 32-bit and 64-bit setup DVDs.
 
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I know the retail versions come with both but I was going to get the student upgrade version because it's only $70. It wants me to choose 32bit or 64bit so I'm assuming it doesn't come with both versions.
 
DirtyB said:
I know the retail versions come with both but I was going to get the student upgrade version because it's only $70. It wants me to choose 32bit or 64bit so I'm assuming it doesn't come with both versions.
Click to expand...

In that case, go 64bit.
 
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