Up Date My Computer for Digital Photography, games not important.

[Seneca2]

At present, I have:
Gigabyte GA 7 VRXP F12 motherboard
Athlon 1 gig processor
All copper heat sink and variable speed fan
GeForce 2 MX video card
256 name brand DDR 133 memory
Antec tower case w/4 case fans

I am considering:
The same motherboard
A good price point, faster Athlon
ATI 9200SE video card
Another 256 stick of DDR 133 memory

Any comments or suggestions for a better value up-grade, more than welcome.
Keep in mind I need 2D performance with Photoshop and other graphics editing programs, I don?t need game performance.

 

[DaveSimmons]

For photoshop, memory is most crucial for large images, then the processor.

You won't see any speed increase from changing video cards, so only get the ATI if you're unhappy with the 2D image quality of your 2mx. More memory or a CD burner for backups would make more sense.

Most people here would probably recommend an nforce2 motherboard, xp 2500+, and 512 MB stick of PC2700 or 3200 DDR, see the "budget", "cheap", "$300" threads for recommended motherboards and RAM. You could then sell your mb/cpu/ram in the FS/FT forum to pay for part of the cost.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Well, since you are already in the Athlon world, you will probably stay there.
But the Intel P4 3.4c (northwood) is a good choice because it is meant for multitasking with its hyperthreading technology.
Basically, the CPU is split in half. I've run Folding and UT2K4 at the same time with the performance monitor on, and can see the multitasking happening, there is no lag.
I dunno, you can look at my rig in the sig to see what I've built. It's really nice, but for my next machine, it will be 939 with an AMD FX53.

 

[oldfart]

Welcome to the forums!

If you want to upgrade as cheaply and simply as possible, as above, you need more memory. Some more ram should perk things up. 256 Meg is a bare minimum for WinXP. 512 is very good, 1 Gig is better yet.

 

[Seneca2]

Oldfart, I thought 512 was the max XP can use. Am I worng?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Seneca2
Oldfart, I thought 512 was the max XP can use. Am I worng?

No, it makes good use of 2 GB, and can make some use of up to 4GB if running several very memory intensive programs at once. Each running program has a 2 GB address space, so PhotoShop running by itself likely won't gain anything over 2 GB.

 

[rbV5]

I don't see your monitor listed at all?

What's your budget?

 

[Seneca2]

My monitor is a 19" flat screen Samsung 955df CRT
My budget at this time is 250, 300CND tops. after 1600 bucks for a Nikon DSLR I am almost broke.