How much faster?

jobz · 10-28-2009, 06:06 AM

Main uses are programming - visual studio, sql server, vmware, and occasional gaming (AoE).

I know the machine is a dinosaur, but it has given me trouble-fee use for many years. I hate to throw away a perfectly good machine, but I have been noticing more and more, that compilation time is not getting any shorter or it takes ages to rar a big file. There is no point adding more ram, mb supports only DDR!

So I want to ask is how much faster a new machine, such as AMD Athlon II X3 / X4 or Intel i5 w/ 4GB ram, will cut compilation time?

Thanks

Blain · 10-28-2009, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: jobz
I hate to throw away a perfectly good machine

Did your mum tell say you can only have one PC in the house?

Why throw it away? Reload Windows and repurpose the machine.

somethingsketchy · 10-28-2009, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: jobz
Main uses are programming - visual studio, sql server, vmware, and occasional gaming (AoE).

So I want to ask is how much faster a new machine, such as AMD Athlon II X3 / X4 or Intel i5 w/ 4GB ram, will cut compilation time?

Thanks

Well considering you're making a big jump from DDR memory to at least DDR2/DDR3 (with the i5 socket), you are going to see a big jump in performance. With VMware, you can now run several VMs at once (depends on what your VMs are and how much memory you give them) and with WinRAR you can get the biggest benefit from having a multi-core processor. Even the Athlon II x3 will give you a very good boost in performance over your "dinosaur" of a PC.

While I can't speak for the programming side of things (I have limited experience with Visual Studio and a few programming languages) I would imagine compilation times would be cut significantly, for those who write a massive amount of code or a lot of objects in an OO language.

Just a thought.

0roo0roo · 10-28-2009, 11:31 AM

its so much faster. and smoother. single core operation is just crippling. you don't know it but you've altered your computing behavior around single cores inability to multitask much.

jobz · 10-28-2009, 03:55 PM

Thanks for the replies. I guess having used the same machine for so long you get used to how fast or slow it performs. Funny thing is xp feels snappy to me like what everyone is saying about win7 compared to vista, as long as I am not running any demanding apps.

Blain, did your paps tell you not to take words so literally, what a dick.

BD231 · 10-28-2009, 09:43 PM

I had an athlon xp 2500+ @ 2133mhz and 2gbs of ddr 3200 for about six years with a 9800pro. I just replaced it this year with Phenom II x3 720, 4gb's of DDR3 1600 and a radeon 4850.

It's currently running @ 3.73ghz with no problems and the differnce is night and day. It can take almost two hours to convert a dvd to AVI on the athlon xp, the phenom II cut my time down to thirty minutes or less.

SUPER cheap upgrade for an amazing performance increase; I can't believe it was available all this time.

betasub · 11-02-2009, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jobz

Blain, did your paps tell you not to take words so literally, what a dick.

How else is he expected to take them? Emoticons might help if you want to express text "non-literally".

As for "How much faster?", it's hard to give a precise answer to a vague question. Is "a lot" any help?