How can I improve my system?

[Exid]

So in late september this past year, I was stopped and waiting at a red light and ended up getting hit and my 08 Honda Accord totaled by a 17 year old kid driving his moms Lexus RX300 while running from 2 cops doing about 65mph. So im gonna be getting a settlement check sometime soon, and the going rate in TX is 3-5x your medical bills in pain and suffering. So far weve spent around $3000 in medical bills so im expecting somewhat of a fat check. So ill have a nice budget so improve my pc with. Also if anyone has been in any similar situations to what I described above and might have any idea on what might happen, please pm me Id really appreciate any advice.

I have the IBuyPower Gamer 901-CL3 desktop pc. So far it is still has all stock parts except the sound card which I upgraded. Here are the specs:

Processor & Memory:
Intel® Core? 2 Duo Processor E8400 (3.0GHz)
6MB L2 Cache
1333MHz Front Side Bus
4GB DDR2-800 memory (2GB x 2); max capacity 4GB

Motherboard:
ASUS P5KPL-VM Mainboard

Drives:
320GB (7,200 RPM) SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive
20x max DVD±RW drive with Double Layer

Graphics:
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8500 GT graphics card

Communications:
Gigabit Ethernet LAN

Audio:
Razer Barracuda AC-1 pci sound card


What do you guys recommend me replacing when I get my settlement check to improve my pc? I know I need a new graphics card, what is a good top of the line pci-e card? Also, should I replace the motherboard? I am kind of bummed that it is maxed out at 4g ram, it only has 2 slots with a capacity of 2g per slot. Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[JPB]

Motherboard = Gigabyte P45 UD3R
Video Card = 55nm GTX280
Hard Drives = 2 x 640 Western Digital Black

I would also pick up a new case and a new power supply ( something from PC Power and Cooling or Corsair )

 

[JackMDS]

Hmm. What do you need to improve the PC for?

I mean if you are running Virtual PC on top of this one with 3 virtual servers each one doing none stop heavy business SQL Data crunching you might be lacking power.

Otherwise what do you feel is not working functional well on the current computer?

 

[Exid]

It seems like its getting kind of sluggish lately, and it seems like my video card is lacking power. Also I wouldnt mind being able to upgrade my ram, seems like 4 gigs is a little outdated now.

 

[Denithor]

4GB is certainly not outdated, if you aren't running Vista64 you won't be able to use more than 3.25GB anyway. And even under a 64-bit OS very few apps will push you above 4GB at once.

Video card, yes, definitely an upgrade in order. If you buy today, go for a GTX 280. If you wait a couple of months the GTX 295 will be released. But these are really only for high-resolution gaming, if you aren't into gaming and/or don't run at least 1920x1200 resolution they are a waste of cash. I recommend a 24" or larger LCD if you plan to get one of these cards.

Nothing else in your system is really old or outdated. The only other thing you could do that would make a serious difference in performance would be upgrading to an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. Kinda pricey at $520 but worth it if money's not tight (gives a much more responsive feel to Windows, apps load faster, etc).

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Exid
It seems like its getting kind of sluggish lately, and it seems like my video card is lacking power. Also I wouldnt mind being able to upgrade my ram, seems like 4 gigs is a little outdated now.

Sluggish doing what? Be specific...which programs, how many are open at the same time, etc.

 

[Exid]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: Exid
It seems like its getting kind of sluggish lately, and it seems like my video card is lacking power. Also I wouldnt mind being able to upgrade my ram, seems like 4 gigs is a little outdated now.

Sluggish doing what? Be specific...which programs, how many are open at the same time, etc.

Like when I turn it on, I have to wait a good 30 seconds or so for everything to load. And I dont mean 30 seconds from pushing the button to when its ready. I mean after it boots up and I type in my password, I have to wait 30 seconds while staring at the desktop for everything to load. Then when I try to open my Opera browser, it takes another 15-20 seconds for that to open. Also its been freezing up somewhat frequently when ive got a lot of windows open. Usually there will be like 4, maybe 5 things open at once. But its almost always the browser that freezes up, then it will ask me if I want to close the browser or try to find a solution to 'the problem.'

It wasnt doing this when I got the computer brand new. I have defrag set to run automatically once a week, ive removed all adware from it with Adaware, and neither of my anti-viruses ever come up with any infections. I also recently did a disk cleanup which seems like it helped a little bit but not much. Oh and I am running vista64 bit.

 

[Slugbait]

Yeah, sounds like a combo of too many processes loading at boot, and something that anti-virus and AdAware won't see.

First, check msconfig for all the processes that startup at boot. Uncheck any you don't need...for example, Adobe Reader likes loading up reader_sl.exe, which you probably don't need. You also might find something you never intentionally installed, which leads us to...

Second, run full scans with Defender and SpyBot. Some spyware has been known to crash Opera.

Note that if you use the Messenger Plus! add-on program, and you elected to "support the author" during install, you now have LOP installed...do NOT let spyware programs remove LOP for this scenario, or you'll end up flattening your machine. Re-run the Plus install routine to uninstall LOP.

Otherwise, yeah: a new video card, and a power supply for it, is all that machine really needs.

 

[DSF]

MalwareBytes and SuperAntiSpyware are two other good ones. It doesn't sound like a hardware problem.

 

[zerocool84]

If you're going to be in some serious $$$ then get a EVGA or BFG 280 and then step up when the refreshes come out.

 

[jae]

Do you even game on this machine? If so what game at what resolution? If not all you need to do is fresh install of Vista, then configure it correctly.

 

[JackMDS]

OP ,and any one else that is so busy with spending money on hawdware and have No clue what the computer is actually doing.

Get these two free Utilities (StartUp & Process Explorer), and check what your computer is doing upfront.

http://www.ezlan.net/infestation#startup

Then get this one (TCP View) and check what it is doing behind you back.

http://technet.microsoft.com/e...nternals/bb897437.aspx

P.S. these utility are free and do not need even to get installed, just run the Exe files it does not take more then few seconds.

 

[Wnh5001]

dang ur comp's sounds like it needs a reformat or something, and some serious stripping of unneeded software.