Postpone That New PC Purchase? Perhaps.

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,114740,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,114740,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"There are lots of good reasons to buy a new PC. But there's also a way to upgrade almost any old PC to match the performance of a new machine on any one of these parameters for a fraction of the cost of a new system. This month I look at common reasons for wanting a new PC and (in the case of valid reasons) tell how a new system compares with an upgrade satisfying each need. Note: If more than four of the reasons below apply to you, maybe you really do need a new system..."<br /><br />Thinking about upgrading your PC? This PC World article walks you through some of the factors to take into consideration. I tend to upgrade every second generation of hardware (CPU, hard drives, RAM, etc.) because that usually gets the most benefit. Sometimes special projects will also require special upgrades, but I'm generally not the kind of person that needs his arm twisted too much to upgrade. ;-) As I get older, however, I'm finding that I care more about stability and value than I do about having the fastest rig on the block. ;-)

[suchiaruzu]

I just upgraded my PC - mostly on the outside though. I got a nice new 17" TFT, a 5.1 speaker system with soundcard, as well as the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse set. A new case with display and everything is on its way as well, and I am eagerly waiting for my Radeon 9800 Pro to arrive. Up next is my RAM. If the Athlon FX gets cheaper, I might get that, along with a new mainboard :)

[ctmagnus]

fwiw, I use a (seriously tweaked) Pentium 200 on a daily basis. It does most things faster than the (untweaked) 1.8GHz P4 down the hall. In fact, about the only thing the P4 does faster than this machine is handle video files and media-heavy (really heavy) websites, hard drive space aside.

[Janak Parekh]

fwiw, I use a (seriously tweaked) Pentium 200 on a daily basis. It does most things faster than the (untweaked) 1.8GHz P4 down the hall. In fact, about the only thing the P4 does faster than this machine is handle video files and media-heavy (really heavy) websites, hard drive space aside.
8O Something is wrong, then. A Pentium 200 has a very slow bus, memory bus, PCI bus, etc. I tweaked my PPro 200 machines back in the day, but they're nowhere near the P4s I work on now.

--janak

[Philip Colmer]

For tasks such as video or image editing, memory is probably one of the biggest influences on a system's performance. If you look at some of the current products available, they typically suggest 1GB RAM for a good level of performance.

Windows certainly works better with more memory because (a) it doesn't use the page file as much and (b) the spare memory can be used for caching. In fact, with Windows XP and Windows 2003, you can actually tell the OS not to use a page file at all! Unfortunately, some applications like old versions of Photoshop don't like this, but it can be a performance boost if you can get away with it.

What surprised me, though, about this article was that, given the title of the article - "Can you postpone that new PC purchase" - there was no discussion of the technologies that are either here now or on their way.

For example, Serial ATA drives. OK, their performance isn't beating Parallel ATA just yet, but they are getting there and the cabling is a BIG improvement.

Or PCI-Express - the replacement bus for PCI. This will have a big impact on graphics cards (replacing AGP and going a lot faster) plus allow expansion cards go faster as well. For example, there has been a lot of debate about how the Matrox RT cards are currently being throttled by the limitations of the PCI bandwidth. A potential future RT card that used PCI-Express might be able to benefit from the higher bandwidth and thus allow more layers of RT editing.

From the demos & explanations I've seen, I think that 2005/2006 is going to be a good year for a complete refresh of a PC.

--Philip

[Suhit Gupta]

fwiw, I use a (seriously tweaked) Pentium 200 on a daily basis. It does most things faster than the (untweaked) 1.8GHz P4 down the hall. In fact, about the only thing the P4 does faster than this machine is handle video files and media-heavy (really heavy) websites, hard drive space aside.
Daaaamn!!! 8O Janak is right, what kind of crazy tweaking did you do that gives you better performance that a P4? BTW, have you done real benchmarks? It would be cool to see. I am sure the guys at HardOCP (http://www.hardocp.com) or Ars Technica (http://www.arstechnica.com) would be very interested :)

Suhit

[ctmagnus]

No benchmarks. Just tests like click on an icon and start counting Mississippis until the app's loaded, walk down the hall and do the same. ;)

[Janak Parekh]

Daaaamn!!! 8O Janak is right, what kind of crazy tweaking did you do that gives you better performance that a P4?
I think it's more a factor of something being very wrong with the P4 than the P-200 being that fast...

--janak

[ctmagnus]

Looking at the specs, these two machines have the same amount, type and speed of memory and same RPM harddrives ( :confused totally: ). But I do agree that the P4 should be much faster that the P(1)200. The P4 is still factory configured, with all the default Dell software plus NAV2003 and tons of extra stuff running in the tray all the time. I don't run AV software on this machine, due to the performance hit. But like I said, I haven't run benchmarks; they just seem to run roughly the same speed perception-wise.

[Suhit Gupta]

You should still perceive the P4 to be much faster, given that their specs are approximately the same. Perhaps you should check to see if the P4 has been clocked down in the BIOS or some such. Even then it shouldn't be that slow. Dude, reformat, and try again. :)

BTW, what OS's do you have installed on the two machines. That might make a difference.

Suhit

[ctmagnus]

That machine has XP home SP1, this one has 2000 Pro SP4. The bios reports the clock speed correctly. And I've been wanting to do a format/reinstall for such a long time but haven't found a convenient time yet. One of these days!

[Suhit Gupta]

Weird, I am totally intrigued. Let me know when you actually do the reinstall because it would be good to know that the P4 can truly outperform your P 200 ;-); at the very least the computer scientist will then be able to sleep peacefully.

Suhit