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QUESTION........Which is (i.e. FEELS) faster.........

redgtxdi

redgtxdi

Diamond Member
This isn't just a stupid question I thought up, it's actually something I'm using to determine what to give my old man..........

Here's the question in advance with some explanation below.......

WHAT FEELS FASTER.......A FASTER PROCESSOR W/ MEDIOCRE VIDEO CARD OR A MEDIOCRE PROCESSOR W/ FASTER VIDEO CARD???????


Lookin' for something to get my old man out of the Pentium 2 age....

I have my old Duron800 system that's up & running very well. Runs XP Pro fine and since I upgraded the BIOS twice can even shutdown properly on its own.....(LOL)! I could pull the TNT2 32mb out of this thing & put an ATI 8500 I have in it.......or maybe up it to a 9600??

OR..........

I could build a Duron 1.6 (I love the Duron 1.6 for its 133FSB and overclockability) and just stick a mediocre (i.e. $20) video card in it.

I'd go even higher, but my dad would have absolutely NO use for a P4 or Athlon system. He just ain't doin anything that intense, but these days the setup like my Duron800 w/ the TNT2 in it, still can lag a tad in some of these super complex Flash or Java scripts that run on websites. It's getting to where there's a new "bottom tier" level just to run some of the web pages.

Anyway, I've babbled enough........go ahead & spill opinions.......TIA!
 
Well of course a faster CPU will give you better overall experience, since you don't game at all.
Even if you game, the difference between a $20 video card and a Radeon 9600 is neligible if you have a slow CPU
 
If I were you I would give him the machine with the tnt 2 32mb card in it, if he is dealing with pentium 2 equipment he probably doesn't need anything fancy now. ( Do the pentium 2 boards even have agp?......I can't remember)
 
Other than a few minor quality issues, a video card is meaningless for people like your old man. Thus spending money on a video card is a complete waste of money. I'd definately say the CPU is far more important (plus it will just make the computer seem to last far longer).

I'd personally recommend that your old man get a $400-$450 computer (price including monitor, 512 MB, and everything he'll need for the next 10 years).
 
Thanks guys. Ya, I think I probably should just give him the Duron as-is.

Only other thing I might do is pull the 20GB 5,400rpm drive out and put a 20GB 7,200rpm drive in that I have. That can help open some programs/apps a little faster than normal.

Any opinions on that??

Thanks again! 🙂
 
You should put your page file on a different partition other then the system partition or on another hard drive completely, It always helps me in the long run as far as hard drives go.
 
Stick the cheapest vid card you can find in there, he is unlikely to ever use it. 1GB of RAM (real cheap right now) and a decent harddrive in addition to your duron 1.6 would make his computing experience *feel* faster.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.........

I get what you're saying about putting the page file on a different partition, but I'm still not a fan of multiple partitions. What kind of difference are we talking about by putting the page file on a different partition?? (I assume you mean "used" files?? i.e. any docs saved with extensions??) TIA

And as for the ram, this thing actually takes PC133 which isn't quite as easy as DDR to come by right now and it's got 256 in it at the moment & runs fine. I've never noticed a significant enough improvement in going over the "sweet spot" in RAM, but that's just me. I've got systems running XP Pro w/ 256mb or DDR and 512mb and 1gb of DDR and to be completely honest, I can barely see a difference between the 256 and 1g systems. But, I don't discount your advice. I know some (especially gamers) swear by *always* more RAM. Will definitely consider bumping it to 512mb.!!
 
If you're willing to spend a little cash, and guestimating by the normal price a duron 1.6+mobo goes for from frys, you can pick up a S754 Sempron 2600+, a ECS SIS760 MB with IG, and a 512MB stick of cheap DDR 400 for about $157 @ newegg. This way, you could at least upgrade his processor later on to something with 64-bit in case he'd want to use longhorn.
 
Originally posted by: redgtxdi
Thanks for the suggestions.........

I get what you're saying about putting the page file on a different partition, but I'm still not a fan of multiple partitions. What kind of difference are we talking about by putting the page file on a different partition?? (I assume you mean "used" files?? i.e. any docs saved with extensions??) TIA
Click to expand...

Don't do this. It's a common n00b-tweak that degrades performance because of the extra seeks required to actually get to the pagefile. If people actually understood that they should leave the swapfile be, then we'd live in a better world.
 
FWIW, in the past I went from an integrated graphics (SiS crap) to a TNT2, then to a Radeon SDR. Each time I saw a noticeable increase in 2D performance (in other words, the UI was drawn faster). Of course, a faster processor helps, but using just the oldest and cheapest video card you can find might not be a good idea either. This isn't to say that you should get a high end gaming card if he's not going to do that, but sticking with a Radeon or Geforce something would be advisable IMHO.
 
Originally posted by: Phil
Originally posted by: redgtxdi
Thanks for the suggestions.........

I get what you're saying about putting the page file on a different partition, but I'm still not a fan of multiple partitions. What kind of difference are we talking about by putting the page file on a different partition?? (I assume you mean "used" files?? i.e. any docs saved with extensions??) TIA
Click to expand...

Don't do this. It's a common n00b-tweak that degrades performance because of the extra seeks required to actually get to the pagefile. If people actually understood that they should leave the swapfile be, then we'd live in a better world.
Click to expand...

That's inaccurate, by keeping the pagfile on another partition it speeds up the hard drive time significantly, in dual processor environments it free up significant processor time aswell. Every time you have an application that likes to use ram it will be accessing the page file if the page file is being accessed while you are running multiple applications then your hard drive time will decrease significantly. I think what you are referring to is increasing the size of the page file. Location and size are two completely different things that affect the machine differently.
 
Thanks for the idea, actually I'm just dealin' with parts layin' around the house.......(I run a small version of Fry's at home per my wife LOL!).......so I could build him all kinds of systems, just tryin' to get rid of some earlier model technology on the old man since he doesn't really need it. 😉

The mobo in the Duron800 system is actually a Gigabyte & it's now flashed to accept Qbios and actually boots quite fast now and works really well. It's a GA7ZX and has the Creative soundblaster onboard audio so it sounds really good & with the TNT2 32mb it works well enough for browsing, you just can't ask it to get too resource overloaded or it gets stumbly in the video dept. Otherwise it'd be just fine.

Plus, I'll get rid of a case that doesn't have front USB & since I bought the old man a CF card reader a year ago, he can still stick it in the back. (I buy him a digital camera & for one year it sits in the box while he continues to use his 35mm. Talk about fightin' an uphill battle!!) :laugh:
 
In that case redgtxdi, I would take the faster processor over the better video card, as long as the drivers were good enough so i didn't see a noticeable lag like when scrolling and such.
 
Thanks Casper, for the bump........although I think I'm just gonna go with the Duron800 setup as-is and probably even just leave the current slower 20gb drive in there since it's all working fine anyway.

If I reeeeeeally have time to burn, I'll play w/ some components later & see what a real-world test would look like.....(at least for the daily stuff I do)......so that I could give an honest-to-goodness review of what happens when you put up 2 setups like this head to head & how they both feel.

Thanks again gang! 🙂
 
The 800 will be fine. If you can up the ram to 512 that would be sweet. As for the 20 gig, that should be fine too. Put the cheapest vid card you have into it.

Instead for a new case, consider a simple usb extention cable. Or you can get a multifunction box that installs into free bay and bring the usb connection out there.

 
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