Help upgrading desktop spec

Ben: said:
Hmm well it seems the best way forward is a new tower...
£45 for Dell 2gb ram to suit my current setup.

Maybe a new tower with windows7 64bit, 4gb atleast, fast hdd, good graphic card and nice processor. As mentioned, it would be better than 'wasting' money on small upgrades when for a few hundred I could have a great system.

So....any recommendations for tower setups? :P
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You would be able to get the ram cheaper from a different site, Dell tend to overprice parts.

PC tower depends on how much you want to spend, Dell PC's start from about £300 http://www.dell.com/uk/p/desktop-deals, although the cheapest model there doesn't have the latest processor.

I would personally go for:
i3/i5 processor (i7 if you want to splash out)
4GB Ram
Large HD - 500GB +
Windows 7 64bit
Reasonable Graphics card. ATI or Nvidia.
 
someguy201 said:
You would be able to get the ram cheaper from a different site, Dell tend to overprice parts.

PC tower depends on how much you want to spend, Dell PC's start from about £300 http://www.dell.com/uk/p/desktop-deals, although the cheapest model there doesn't have the latest processor.

I would personally go for:
i3/i5 processor (i7 if you want to splash out)
4GB Ram
Large HD - 500GB +
Windows 7 64bit
Reasonable Graphics card. ATI or Nvidia.
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I wouldn't necessarily go for another Dell. Seems like you pay top money for only average spec. Thinking maybe a dedicated company for performance builds, overclockers or someone?
 
neil_g said:
how? youre running off of the new copy so shouldnt touch the old one in the windows.old folder. yeah okay its untidy but it shouldnt be a problem.
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But is it actually booting from the new installation, running msconfig and selecting the boot tab will probably bring up 2 OS in the boot sector, delete the correct one.
 
From personal experience you should have a smooth and slick machine with those specs.
I would look into your software first before splashing cash left right and centre.

The reason I say that is my machine has the following specs which are very similar to yours -

Core 2 duo at 2.2Ghz
2GB DDR2 667mhz ram
160GB 7200 SATA hard drive
ATI HD4670 1Gb graphics

My system runs PS CS4 flawlessly on a 20" monitor.
 
Just deleted windows.old ....
HUGE amount of files deleted and hdd space cleaned up!!
 
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stupar said:
From personal experience you should have a smooth and slick machine with those specs.
I would look into your software first before splashing cash left right and centre.

The reason I say that is my machine has the following specs which are very similar to yours -

Core 2 duo at 2.2Ghz
2GB DDR2 667mhz ram
160GB 7200 SATA hard drive
ATI HD4670 1Gb graphics

My system runs PS CS4 flawlessly on a 20" monitor.
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Interesting you say that, gives me some confidence that my specs 'should' be up to the job. I'll keep looking into it.
 
If you don't have PS, download the trial and see how it runs. You have lightroom installed don't you? How does that run? While I'm always excited to buy new things, no need to upgrade if you can run everything fine.

Windows.Old does usually contain a lot of files, seems silly that it's kept by default. Did you use disc cleanup to get rid of it?
 
someguy201 said:
If you don't have PS, download the trial and see how it runs. You have lightroom installed don't you? How does that run? While I'm always excited to buy new things, no need to upgrade if you can run everything fine.

Windows.Old does usually contain a lot of files, seems silly that it's kept by default. Did you use disc cleanup to get rid of it?
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I have a Lightroom trail. Which runs...'ok' could defiantly run smoother.
I just went to Computer, OS, windows.old, delete.
I'll run a disk cleanup now.
 
someguy201 said:
I didn't say it stays if you format the partition. I said when you choose to install like that without reformating the drive, Windows does format the space it needs before installing, but it keeps a copy of Windows in the Windows.old folder. It doesn't keep any other data on the disc outside of the .old folder.
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Absolutely correct!
 
someguy201 said:
I didn't say it stays if you format the partition. I said when you choose to install like that without reformating the drive, Windows does format the space it needs before installing,
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Unless you format the drive, all the install will do is just write the data to the drive, just as any other program will do. There is no concept of "format the space it needs" as this is handled automatically by the filesystem. You can't use "without reformating the drive" and "format the space it needs" in the same sentence and remain credible ;) :D
 
arad85 said:
Unless you format the drive, all the install will do is just write the data to the drive, just as any other program will do. There is no concept of "format the space it needs" as this is handled automatically by the filesystem. You can't use "without reformating the drive" and "format the space it needs" in the same sentence and remain credible ;) :D
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The word "Format" is rearranging data on the drive - which is what happens when you write something to the drive. Windows doesn't reformat the entire drive in the sense that it wipes everything, but when Data gets written to a drive, it is formatting that section of the drive - that's exactly whats happening.

Care to add any other insults, or am I just not credible?

Before this develops into a petty argument, quite frankly I don't care. You knew perfectly well what I meant, and as it happened when Windows installs, it rearranges the data on the hard drive (formats), whilst not wiping the entire hard drive.
 
someguy201 said:
The word "Format" is rearranging data on the drive - which is what happens when you write something to the drive.
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Actually, format in computerese has a specific meaning, and it isn't "rearranging data on the drive". A format resets the structures defining the disk back to an initial state so it looks like an empty drive. A low level format will also write to and read from each block on the drive to check it is good. If it isn't a bad block table is maintained to say where to avoid writing to that drive. this is why it's always good practice to do a low level format of a drive in the first instance - even if it does take a long time.

someguy201 said:
Windows doesn't reformat the entire drive in the sense that it wipes everything, but when Data gets written to a drive, it is formatting that section of the drive - that's exactly whats happening.
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When something gets written to the drive, it isn't wiped, it just gets overwritten. There isn't a two pass process of clearing then writing - no concept of preparing the area to be written in any way - it just gets written overwriting what was there before.

someguy201 said:
Care to add any other insults, or am I just not credible?
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Miss the smileys by any chance :thinking: ;)

someguy201 said:
Before this develops into a petty argument, quite frankly I don't care. You knew perfectly well what I meant, and as it happened when Windows installs, it rearranges the data on the hard drive (formats), whilst not wiping the entire hard drive.
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No, I didn't know what you meant - I wouldn't have replied if I did! In fact, you said "it formats the partition" which is a specific action and would wipe all the data on the drive.

And you may not care, but I don't want anyone going away from this thread with the idea that formatting (in whatever way is meant) doesn't destroy the data on the whole drive.
 
Before this develops into a petty argument.
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:thinking:

I have no intention of further arguing about what Windows does when it reinstalls on default settings - getting into an argument about it is what I don't care about. I'm aware of how it works, I just probably haven't expressed what I meant very clearly, but it doesn't matter.

I don't think anyone would read what I said and think that reformatting the HD doesn't wipe their data, as obviously it does and thats not what I meant.

Miss the smileys by any chance
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It's an internet forum, it's very hard to claim anyone is credible. As soon as someone says "You can't remain credible..." it's time to leave the discussion. I realize it wasn't a wholehearted attack on me personally, but usually past that point it develops into a pointless argument with the occasional bits of fact.

Shall we get back to the topic rather than hijacking this thread? My only aim in replying here was to help the OP. If I wanted to get into an argument, or big up my ego, there are much more interesting ways of doing that.
 
Get a decent cpu cooler and fan.

Then overclock that cpu :D:D:D:D.

I personally dont think you need to waste money on a new desktop just get a new os and some more ram. More than adequate for your needs.
 
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