Upgrading my PC, don't know what the fuck I'm doing

[I_Smell]

Right, I adopted this PC from my brother about a year ago. He initially bought it for minimal business: MSN, Myface, all that shite.

CURRENT SPECS:
Processor:Intel Pentium 4 CPU (3.06GHz)
Ram:488MB RAM
Graphics card: Oh, God knows. It's the default one that's built into it.
Hard drive space: 68 GB all together

Comparing that to the standard now (Checking round Currys n Argos etc) I think I need to get my shit sorted. Especially the 488MB of RAM.

COMPLAINING:
I make games. This computer can't even play games, it's just not made for it. Last night I had to restart the program every ten minutes cos it'd slow down to a snail's pace. Then wait another 20 for it to start up again, it stretches the last week of production into another depressing month or two. I'd punch it in the face if it had one. God knows what it's gonna be like when I put the audio in.
Also 3D. I'm no 3D maestro, but when it's struggling with the simple business I'm on, it's gonna really piss me off a couple months down the road. I think I'm overdue for updating this.

SUMMARISATION:
Is the solution to buy some RAM? That seems to be what people do, and it's actually pretty fuckin affordable. Should I buy a new PC all together? Am I an idiot? etc

[Mirrorman]

You need more RAM and a new video card, the ones built into the motherboard suck ass and some more space probably, because thats not alot at all. Maybe you'd be better off buying a new one just in case though.

[I_Smell]

Why a video card?

[mohaas05]

Why a video card?

because the one built in isn't meant for gaming. Just for casual PC usage. You need a 3D Graphics Card with at least 512MB of video memory for serious gaming. And make sure its PCIe or AGP. Because PCI ones are horrible.

[Spastic]

That's only if he has the corresponding slot to fit an AGP or PCI-E card.

[I_Smell]

I'm not buying any new games for my PC by the way. That's not why I want to upgrade it.

[Spastic]

For the most part if you want to play games that were made from 2003 and upward you are going to need a new graphics card. There are a few pretty good cards for under $100 that can run most anything thrown at them, if you wanted to look into that.

You would need to know what type of graphics slot your motherboard has though.

[CharlieH]

This site does everything for you, if you don't know what you are doing. (http://www.crucial.com/uk/index.aspx?cpe=CHAWKuk)

EDIT: Even if you don't want to buy it from there, you can just Google the exact type of RAM you need.

[I_Smell]

This site does everything for you, if you don't know what you are doing. (http://www.crucial.com/uk/index.aspx?cpe=CHAWKuk)

EDIT: Even if you don't want to buy it from there, you can just Google the exact type of RAM you need.

MINT. I've got 512 in one slot, and the other's empty. I might just buy a gig to put in the empty one.

[CharlieH]

With free shipping to the U.K mainland. :P

[Spastic]

It's not good to mix RAM sizes, you should try to keep the two slots holding the same size and speed of RAM in each slot.

[CharlieH]

I beg to differ. I have 256Mb in one of my R.A.M slots, and 1GB in the other, and i have no problems. :ahe:

I_smell, don't listen to spastic man, he just follows me around, disagreeing with everything i say.

[Spastic]

You can beg to differ all you want, the fact is you shouldn't mix RAM sizes and speeds, it decreases the overall RAM efficiency and in some rigs can cause BSOD's.

[CharlieH]

BSOD's? Whatever they are, i've never had any.

And how do you mean decrease the efficiency? I can use all my RAM.

[Spastic]

You are an idiot, if you use dual channel you can get blue screens of death and random crashes. If you don't it will sometimes use your slower piece of RAM to do something when it could be using the faster one. Don't act like you know what you are talking about when you have no clue.

[CharlieH]

O.K. I did get this BSOD thing when i managed to get TF2 running on my laptop. I just cut out all of a sudden, flashing a blue screen beforehand. However, Attempting to run anything more demanding than CS:S on my laptop is bound to end in fail.

Tom, if you have 2 free ports, Just buy like, 2 gigs. If you use it all, which it sounds like you will then your gamemaking potential wil increase thousandfold.

[I_Smell]

Right, I'm keeping both equal.
Does dual channel mean managing two seperate DDRs independant of each other?

[Spastic]

You can take a look at what dual channel is here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture).

[Mirrorman]

And about the video card, you need it for making games and stuff too if you need to run alot of graphics, like when making games etc.

[I_Smell]

The problem isn't having alot of graphics onscreen at once, it's working in gigantic files.

[Mirrorman]

You can try buying ram, and if it works, its cool, but if it doesn't you might go and look for some video cards, since the processor seems good enough.

[Gudizere]

Yeah, it would be best to just buy some RAM seen as you can get it mostly cheap, and if that doesn't sort the problem, then go looking at Video Cards. And I would have thought that processor is easily powerful enough.

[opn4bzns]

The problem isn't having alot of graphics onscreen at once, it's working in gigantic files.

In that case I would buy more ram, 2gb is a good amount, and preferably a new cpu, Core2 Duos are excellent.

[OoooF4LiFe]

I agree with the above. Some more ram (another 512 stick, or what I'd really suggest is two 1gb sticks), and any sort of cpu upgrade will do everything your looking for.

Also, what program are you using for your 3d tinkering? Cinema?

[mohaas05]

also if you really do a lot of video editing/graphics, you may want to consider upgrading to a 64-bit architecture. That way you can use up to 4gb of ram.

[Mirrorman]

With large files, you could use some more storage space too. Seems you could just buy a new one.

[hardcoresk8r69]

also if you really do a lot of video editing/graphics, you may want to consider upgrading to a 64-bit architecture. That way you can use up to 4gb of ram.

I was thinking of doing that with vista but I hear it's finicky because some software doesn't work well with it.

USER WAS PUT IN TIMEOUT FOR THIS POST. (http://forums.explosm.net/eventlog.php)
Reason: That's cool.

[I_Smell]

I'm usin 3DSMax.
I'm not gonna buy a new processor, I'd never know what I was doing. At least RAM's got numbers on it so I can tell 1GB's better than 512MB.
If I wanted to upgrade that (and architecture, which I didn't even think about) I'd just buy a new computer.
Never had a problem with hard drive space.

I should'nt have told my parents about it. My mum went down to some crappo PC place and almost payed like £20 extra for someone to install it, cos obviously I'm too stupid :indiff:

[Clerlic]

I believe all 3DSMax versions above 7 support 64 bit CPU's, but you'd need a 64bit version of OS aswell.
I suggest you get a new CPU, something at least dualcore, in the price range of 200 +-50$, motherboard compatible with that CPU, just check which socket does it use, 4 gigs of ram, DDR2 is pretty cheap and fast, DDR3 is newer and expensive, but somewhat faster, your choice, make sure it's also compatible with the MB.
I'm a Maxer myself and I'd say a 70$ graphics card would be sufficent for most maxing needs.
Motherboards description usually say all the compatibilities, like CPU socket size, RAM type and is it PCI-E or AGP. Good CPU and lots of RAM are crucial to fast renders, if you need to save money, save it on the graphics card, use the integrated, if there is one. Also tell your mom that building a PC is easier than building an IKEA couch.

[mohaas05]

I believe all 3DSMax versions above 7 support 64 bit CPU's, but you'd need a 64bit version of OS aswell.
I suggest you get a new CPU, something at least dualcore, in the price range of 200 +-50$, motherboard compatible with that CPU, just check which socket does it use, 4 gigs of ram, DDR2 is pretty cheap and fast, DDR3 is newer and expensive, but somewhat faster, your choice, make sure it's also compatible with the MB.
I'm a Maxer myself and I'd say a 70$ graphics card would be sufficent for most maxing needs.
Motherboards description usually say all the compatibilities, like CPU socket size, RAM type and is it PCI-E or AGP. Good CPU and lots of RAM are crucial to fast renders, if you need to save money, save it on the graphics card, use the integrated, if there is one. Also tell your mom that building a PC is easier than building an IKEA couch.
Unless he has a newer Pentium 4 that dates later than 2004, it will be using socket 478 and he'll have to update to a new motherboard that has socket 775.

[Indoctrine]

Knowing that most people don't have much money, I wouldn't be advising him to get the fancy shit like upgrading to DDR3 and 64 bit. My laptop has 2GB of RAM and has a slower processor speed than his and it can run almost any game.
So I have to agree with everyone here and say, buy RAM, if that doesn't work, get a new graphics card. (ATI or Nvidia, earlier models if you can't afford the newest. Don't bother with Intel cards, they can be annoying and they aren't the same quality as ATI and Nvidia)
Also, how large is a "large" file to you? Just wondering what size files are causing your computer to lag that badly.

[mohaas05]

Well if he has an older motherboard it would be wise to upgrade that anyways to be future proof. especially if it doesn't have SATA, PCIe, or LGA775.

[Indoctrine]

I still wouldn't be recommending highly expensive boards, because by the sounds of it, it isn't terribly intensive game making, especially if he's able to do it on his current computer (albeit slowly), he'd probably only need a mid-range board rather than a top end gaming board.

[mohaas05]

Yeah it doesn't have to be super souped up. It just should have all the newer standards.