Upgrade CPU?

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rscole86

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Reply # 290683 17-Jan-2010 12:06

Check the Nvidia's being loaded at startup, some of them, if not all, could be dropped as they are used for over-clocking. If you are not doing anything special with your graphics at start up, then they are not needed.

BiggusDoggus

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Reply # 290684 17-Jan-2010 12:21

Thank you for all the advice and info, people. That's what I like about GZ - a person can start off with what they think is a solution to a problem, only to find out they may in fact have a completely different problem instead!

Going back to my original question - assuming I change hard drives, would an upgrade from a 4200+ to a 6000+ show any noticeable improvement in performance?

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

BiggusDoggus

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Reply # 290710 17-Jan-2010 15:18

rscole86: Check the Nvidia's being loaded at startup, some of them, if not all, could be dropped as they are used for over-clocking. If you are not doing anything special with your graphics at start up, then they are not needed.

So just to confirm. I don't need:

NVIDIA Media Center - Taskleistensymbol
NVIDIA nTune Command
NVIDIA graphic card utility program

loading at start-up? I don't overclock my card at all.

Seagate diagnostics came back all clear, so I guess that it's just the fact it's an older generation HDD that's causing the lower than ideal performance, plus maybe a couple of auto-start programs that aren't required.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

browned

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Reply # 290901 18-Jan-2010 15:32

Not many shops will stock the older AM2 socket CPU's these days and the ones that do might charge a premium for them.

I have found that with all the Windows Updates, Service Packs, driver updates over time most computers slow. In some cases this can be quite dramatic.

My first port of call would be a second hard drive for a complete image based backup, then a complete reinstall but use a Windows XP CD with SP3 integrated into it. Reboot after each install.....I know it is a pain but you can watch the performance after each install. Once you have the software done then do the Windows updates.

Otherwise if you are not afraid of losing some hard drive space the best and most noticable performance increase you can get will be from using a SSD as your Boot drive and use your current drive as a secondary disk for large programs and data.

You have plenty of options for Windows XP compatable SSD drives as it doesn't support TRIM like Windows 7 does so needs a seperate Wiper tool to be run once in a while. A-RAM, Corsair, Super Talent, A-Data, Transcend, Kingston, G.Skill should allo have SSD's with a wiper type tool to keep the SSD performance up on older operatings systems like XP and Vista.

Home Server: AMD Ryzen 2700, 64GB, 56TB HDD, HP Smart Array P420, Define R5 Case, 10GbE, ESXi 6.7, NextPVR, Emby Server, Plex Server, 2 x HDHomerun.
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BiggusDoggus

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Reply # 290977 18-Jan-2010 21:40

Thanks again for all the advice.

A quick poll and I'll consider this thread closed.

If you had $130 to spend on either a 6000+ CPU or a new HD (say a Seagate 1TB), in my situation (where it appears my existing HD isn't faulty, simply old), where would you spend the money?

CPU or HD, vote now!!

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries