help needed to buy a pc

TakeThis

80 GB(around 70 usable) is not that small. Though we don't know the configuration, nor that status of the HDD.

Guessing a Packard Bell Imedia 3064 with an AGP 8x port. Don't know if there is any kind of card in there.

robmar0se

peacellily wrote: »

constantly running out of space, photoshop takes an age to load, as well as other eseential programmes I use.

It not so much the speed the problem its the space, my virus programme is avast

the pc tune up is avg tune up 11, before I installed that it was 10 times worse !

The pronlem with this site is that you will get many differing opinions which in the end can be confusing - I guess you need to make up your own mind which way you want to jump: do up the old PB, or new.

Do up: My guess is that your PC maybe upto 8-9 years old - its potential life maybe limited - The Athlon 3000 (2.17GHz) processor is single core and probably runs quite hot; you or someone has already lifted the RAM to 1.5gb (max 2gb) - question has virtual memory been changed? - hdd is too small I think if it is PB ixtreme they came with a 120gb hdd? - if you do a lot of photography, is too small (have you got 15% free?). I notice that you are using photoshop and video work - these are notoriously resource hungry. Clearly you need more space for storing stuff - hard drives are expensive at the mo due to the floods in Thailand.

New: For Photoshop/Video processing, you need as powerful processor as you can afford, as much RAM as poss (reasonably cheap these days), and a large hdd - I would also suggest a 64 bit version of windows, as for video work, you would not want to be restricted to a max of 4gb of RAM going forward.

My opinion doesn't matter, but I think I would go for new, and look around for the best spec I could find, don't rush into it, but in the meanwhile just clean-up/optimise the existing system and make sure your virtual memory and hdd are as they should be; but don't spend any more on it (however, an external hdd is of course always transferable to a new system)

TakeThis

Serious about photography/video? What about a monitor? An IPS panel? Start saving your pennies and wait for a bargain. You don't need to spend that much. Even an inexpensive modern processor coupled with Intel HD Graphics will do the job.
The model in Steve's post running your old OEM copy of Windows XP 64bit SP2, in conjunction with an IPS panel will still set you back £350.
Perhaps you can move up to 7 64bit when you children are students.
You can also pick up an 'as new' refurb with Windows 7 64bit from £200 to £250.



Let closed help you with a 'trim down' and begin saving.

Toxteth_OGrady

muckipupz wrote: »

wouldnt that be a bit like buying a new engine for a banger. the poster has a small hard drive if i have followed and understood correctly

No, it's more akin to buying a roof rack or small trailer to increase storage space, which can be done irrespective of the engine condition but it won't help the car go faster.

If the engine is running badly/mis-firing it could also be serviced/tuned to improve performance before considering a new car or replacement engine.

:cool:

TOG

peacellily

closed wrote: »

lack of space can be resolved by buying a new internal or external usb hard disk, both far cheaper than a new machine, and/or clearing out any dead wood with ccleaner and windirstat, and using all partitions if your hard disk is split into 2. how big is the hard disk, and how much is free, and what is using all the space up?

speed - post a hijackthis log, and commit charge, instructions here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

cheers for this, will give it a try.

Although I have done this in a similar fashion almost on a weekly basis to keep the machine ticking over.

peacellily

robmar0se wrote: »

The pronlem with this site is that you will get many differing opinions which in the end can be confusing - I guess you need to make up your own mind which way you want to jump: do up the old PB, or new.

Do up: My guess is that your PC maybe upto 8-9 years old - its potential life maybe limited - The Athlon 3000 (2.17GHz) processor is single core and probably runs quite hot; you or someone has already lifted the RAM to 1.5gb (max 2gb) - question has virtual memory been changed? - hdd is too small I think if it is PB ixtreme they came with a 120gb hdd? - if you do a lot of photography, is too small (have you got 15% free?). I notice that you are using photoshop and video work - these are notoriously resource hungry. Clearly you need more space for storing stuff - hard drives are expensive at the mo due to the floods in Thailand.

New: For Photoshop/Video processing, you need as powerful processor as you can afford, as much RAM as poss (reasonably cheap these days), and a large hdd - I would also suggest a 64 bit version of windows, as for video work, you would not want to be restricted to a max of 4gb of RAM going forward.

My opinion doesn't matter, but I think I would go for new, and look around for the best spec I could find, don't rush into it, but in the meanwhile just clean-up/optimise the existing system and make sure your virtual memory and hdd are as they should be; but don't spend any more on it (however, an external hdd is of course always transferable to a new system)

You may well be right I said 6 year off the top of my head may well be older, cant seem to find any way of dating it.

I bought the machine from pc world, when I told them what I wanted it for I believe extra memory was added at point of purchace.

Trust me your opionion does matter & I have taken on board everything you have said, along with the others. I can indeed wait but I dont know for how much longer before I throw the dam thing out of the window lol.

Please keep those opinions coming & links please to pcs so I can price check & digest all this information !!

SteveJH200

According to some reviews on Google, I would say your computer is about 2003. It's probably not worth spending any serious money on but a clean up and tweak may acheive some surprising results. Two of my favourite computers date from 2004 (or at least the motherboards do) and the performance is very respectable indeed.

steve1980

Have you looked at www.awd-it.co.uk? I got my PC from there, paid £190.00 then purchased a 2gb graphics card from Amazon for £32.00

smos585

Reading this post, one thing sticks out to me, that is your using photoshop and your photograpy/video thingy. Photoshop (version ?) is incredably hungry in terms of CPU needs and RAM, generally I would take the min system reqs and multiply by 4, to get decent performance - my son uses photosop for work on a MAC and has 16gb ram to get a decent response.

So, if you're serious, your Athlon 3000 (which as a previous poster says, was launched way back in 2003), has been a faithful servant, but should perhaps be passed onto pastures new, as I don't think it will be up for it for too long - anyway I wouldn't bet on it if I was a betting man.

PS how long does it take for yr system to boot up? XP systems can boot up in under 60 secs, 70-90 is average.

best wishes,

peacellily

doesnt really take that long to boot up as I cut out lots of crap the last few weeks, it does take over a minute now which is better than before.

My better half worked out that 6 years is way off according to his caluclation is more like 8 if not more.

So please folks keep those suggestions coming as a new one is on the cards now for sure especially finding out its age.