General Windows multitasking, cpu speed & ram

[Gigantopithecus]

I currently have a Winchester 3000+ @ 1.8ghz and 1gb (2x512mb) of Mushkin pc 3200 2-3-2-5 ram, and even with multiple instances of XL, Word, Firefox open, Windows is pretty snappy. However, adding an instance or two of Photoshop, SPSS (a statistics software), or Ableton (audio software) starts to bog XP (pro) down a bit, and it is nearly impossible for me to burn a CD and do anything else simultaneously.

I'd really like to be able to have Windows function normally while burning a CD or DVD, and be able to have XL, Word, Firefox, Photoshop & SPSS all running smoothly at the same time.

The question is, would it be more advantageous to upgrade the cpu or upgrade the ram? At the moment, I have about $300 to spend (plus whatever I could get from selling the old parts).

Also, I should note I almost always have winamp running (including when Ableton's running) - would purchasing a soundcard be a good idea? (I assume that even though winamp is a low cpu utilizer, having a soundcard would eliminate its cpu utilization entirely.)

Thanks for your advice!

 

[DaveSimmons]

soundcard: a small difference

RAM: it depends, use CTRL-ALT-DEL and look at memory use. but if CPU use is high enough it won't help much.

A64 X2: sounds like you're a good candidate for it, unlike many people paying extra just for "future proofing."

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Gigantopithecus

Also, I should note I almost always have winamp running (including when Ableton's running) - would purchasing a soundcard be a good idea? (I assume that even though winamp is a low cpu utilizer, having a soundcard would eliminate its cpu utilization entirely.)

Thanks for your advice!

I don't think soundcards have mp3 decoding hardware on them, so a soundcard should do very little to the CPU utilized by winamp.

As for the rest of your question, I'd use System Monitor (mine is in Start --> Accessories --> Administrative Tools --> Performance) to log CPU and RAM usage and go do some of the things that bog your system. Then you can know 100% what is causing your issues, and you won't accidentally waste money on buying the wrong thing.

Right click in the window below where it says color/scale/etc... and 'add counter' Choose %CPU from processor and choose Available MB from memory and % usage of paging file (this is virtual memory/ hard disk space used). You can have it output to a file even so you can analyze the data better than just looking at this display.

From here it's easy to see what your issue is. If you're frequently hitting 100% CPU usage, your CPU is an issue, and an x2 3800+ would be the best choice. If you're RAM is getting full and paging file usage is high, then RAM is your solution.

Before monitoring, you should set the paging file so that it has a min and max size the same, so that the computer doesn't resize it while monitoring, as this will throw the %s off (and there isn't a way that I know of to look at absolute paging file size). Also, disable any programs like SETI@Home or Folding@Home and the like (distributed computing stuff) that will force processor usage to 100% all the time by using only the extra cycles.