Should I upgrade my RAM and video card?

[Andvari]

I posted this on Neowin, which I joined like 2 days ago and then it hit me, why not post this on anandtech where I've frequented for over 5 years. So here you guys go.

I'm looking for a minor upgrade to my old computer. No real reason other than I have some money to blow heh. For games, I only play WoW and Team Fortress 2, both of which run pretty well as it is. I'd be happier if Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom ran faster though. Here's what I've got, all from 2003ish:

ASUS P4P800 Deluxe
Antec TruePower 430W Power Supply
Pentium 4 2.8c GHz 800MHz FSB 478P/512K
1GB (2x512) Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL
ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256MB
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
Western Digital 120GB 7200rpm 8MB Cache
NEC 8X Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW 2510A
Windows XP Pro w/ SP2

Would this be a good RAM upgrade? http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145575 It's got to be 184pin DDR memory, at max DDR 400, according to my mobo manual. A more important question is can I just stick those in with my current RAM for a total of 3GB? This RAM has 2 CAS latency, I'm not sure what my current RAM has. I'm also unsure if the voltage differs from mine. Would either of those things matter?

As for a video card, I don't really know what to go for there. There are like a hundred different possibilities, and I don't know what's good bang for the buck. Someone recommended an X1950 Pro. That looks pretty reasonable, but what about the GT version? Or 256mb vs 512mb? Which is better? *confused* I'm also open to nvidia options. I don't care about ati vs nvidia crap heh. Whichever individual card is better, is fine with me regardless of brand name.

(I'm also going to get 1 or 2 320gb Seagate SATA drives to replace my current one.) Would these upgrades be too much for my 430W power supply?




Or would these minor upgrades not give me any noticeable performance boosts? Is this computer too old to put money into? I'm not trying to play Crysis or anything, like I said, just WoW/TF2/Photoshop stuff, most of which run pretty well as it is.

 

[MegaVovaN]

As far as I know Photoshop does not benefit from fast video card, and I am not familiar with Lightroom.
Your video card is ANCIENT, so yep, an upgrade would be good.

To make Photoshop run fast, you want
1. Lots of RAM
2. Fast CPU

edit: and your link does not work. Just paste http://blahblahblah
and it will automatically become a link.

 

[JackMDS]

Memory you have to buy DDR (Today Mem is DDR2)

Video Card is probably AGP (Today Video is PCIe):brokenheart:

CPU is P-4 (Today CPUs are in an other Glaxay as compare to the P-4).:shocked:

These are too old if you upgarde any of the above, you waste your money cause it will Not be compatible with any future upgrade.:|:roll::frown:

So the only thing that is sort of left and can be useful in the future is to Upgrade to Vista Retail, thus when you build a real upgrade you would have already a new OS.

You did not mention the Monitor.

If you have an old monitor, or a small LCD Screen.

Get your self Nice 20" or larger Screen, it would make it easy for Photoshop and games, and will be useful for any future upgrade too.

 

[Andvari]

Bah, sorry about the bad link. Fixed.


Yeah I know it's old stuff heh, modern day ram is DDR2 and soon to be 3, and my mobo doesn't even have a PCIe slot on it.

Most people seem to be telling me to just save the money and not spend any more on such an old rig. I suppose I'll do that, and just save up for a whole new system in the future. This computer still suits my needs quite well, so I'm not aching for a new system just yet. As far as gaming goes, the only game I can even foresee being interested in is Starcraft 2. For all I know, my current rig might run that. Either way by the time that comes out, I'm sure I'll have another PC heh.

My monitor is fine. It's a 20inch flat panel, Dell 2001FP. Actually it IS having some odd burn in issues from time to time... It's very temporary, but it's weird. Maybe it's going to die soon. *shrug*

As far as Vista goes, I wouldn't want to upgrade to that because I figure it wouldn't run quite as well as XP does on this system. Plus I figure I'd wait until a SP is released for Vista before upgrading. I'll just pick up a new hard drive or two and be done with it.


Thanks for the advice.

 

[Andvari]

On the subject of hard drives, is there any point in using more than a single hard drive if I don't plan to RAID? As I mentioned in my first post, I was thinking about getting 2 320gb drives because I was thinking about RAID 1. Instead, I think I'll just get a single 500gb drive and an external 320gb drive to backup data and store some Acronis images or whatever.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136073 Lookin at that one. Any good?

And can my mobo use that hard drive? I just realized SATA 3gb/s is different than the SATA that was probably out when my mobo came out heh. Do I need to get an IDE drive?

From my manual:

"The current Serial ATA interface allows up to 150 MB/s data transfer rate..."

Does that mean the mobo won't accept faster than that? Or does that just mean 150 was as fast as SATA drives were back then? *confused*

I guess I could play it safe and get an IDE drive, but that'd be disappointing heh. Sad day when I realize my computer's so old I can't even buy a hard drive for it lol.

 

[JackMDS]

Keep in mind that "Old" is Not the issue, but that any investment would go down the "drain" when you finally get some thing new since it is Not compatible with any of the New Mob/Chipset/Video that is the current stat of the Art.

In theory CPU can probably Go on your system to max of 3GHz.

Mmory with Win XP max at 2GB, and you can find a faster AGP Video.

You would invest about $200, and you would get 10 - 15% percent functional improvement, you probably would even notice the difference when using the ""Upgraded"" computer.

P.S. As for the WD SATA. Yeah it is one of the top choices in current SATA if you can use a new drive that would be a good choice.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Having 2 drives makes a lot of sense, you can backup stuff on one and you will have your data in case main drive dies.

SATA I, SATA II, SATA 3 gb/s are all unimportant. If your mobo has SATA connector any sata drive will work.

Thing with SATA 2 or 3.0 gb/s is max speed of connection was improved from 150mb/s to 3000 mb/s.

Tell you what, single hard drive will be lucky to push 50 mb/s, so it is irrelevant what max speed is, 150 or 3000.
You MAY exceed 150 if you have like 4-6 drives in RAID 0, all reading at same time.



edit: As Jack says, get rid of your old computer. If you really need a boost, sell it and buy low end, cheap dual core computer with decent video card and you will notice difference for probably same $200+$$ from selling your old parts.

 

[Andvari]

Yeah, I won't waste any money upgrading then. I still need the storage though, for this computer or my next, so I'll go ahead and get the hard drive(s).

 

[DSF]

The only thing I might do if I were you, is see if I could find some inexpensive used DDR. Check the For Sale/For Trade threads here, or postings on sites like craigslist. When I needed DDR for a computer for my girlfriend, I got a 512MB stick for $11, not too shabby. The storage is a fine purchase, it's something you can carry with you to your next build. Other than that, I wouldn't drop any money into your old computer, especially since your apps are generally running well from what you've said.

 

[Denithor]

DSF :thumbsup:

See if you can pick up another 512MB or 2 used on the forums here ($20 or so for two). That will have an appreciable impact on performance.

And only get one new drive, drives are constantly getting bigger/faster/cheaper so it doesn't make sense to buy more than what you need today. Get a 320GB for around $80, use it as your primary drive for the moment, then switch to storage drive whenever you get around to doing a complete rebuild.