I'm wanting to upgrade my computer, time/tiny performance essential value 1800, it was the second biggest availalbe when i bought it, but that was a long time ago.
currently running.
intel pentium 4 processor 1.8 GHz,
512 MB RAM,
80 GB hard disc,
64MB NVIDIA geforce 2 graphics card.

how do i find out what ram chip i am running without taking the puter apart?

i could buy a 100GB external hard drive (still have 33GB spare) but would that be enough to speed things up, or would i need to vamp up the RAM and the other bits?????
i'm sure others would be interested in knowing this too

you have many freebies that give you all the system info you need to identify your ram.

if you get a second drive, then you need more power to control it...I'd say go for ram, but still you may have plenty of ram and have PS and windows get slow because of the slow/busy hard drive.

I think I'd start with a processor upgrade, then hard drive.Ram would be secondary then...


am I right, pc owners ?

RAM type can come into play. I bought my computer when SDRAM and Rambus (RDRAM) were competing standards. I put my money on the wrong pony. Now a RAM upgrade for me is literally more than it would be to buy a whole new computer.

I'd answer this by asking what your upgrade budget is first. The budget will often times determine what you can even do to the computer. Also are you going to install the parts or pay someone else to? Finally before you consider a processor upgrade you have to know if your motherboard will even support a faster chip.

Hey Splodge,

To upgrade your computer you first need to know what the bottlenecks are for the computer's speed. That will mean you have to know how a computer works with its hardware.

You have data on your harddrive. That data will go through a cable to your mainboard and sends it to your processor. The processor will calculate what it will do with it and sends it to your RAM. From your RAM it can send it over the mainboard back to your CPU or it can send it to the GPU (graphics processing Unit) to let you see what you are doing on screen.

The most of the data you are working with, will be send to your RAM because your harddrive is one of the slowest parts in a computer. (besides diskdrive, cdrom drive and external parts) From your RAM it will send the data to your CPU because it works so much faster then directly from the harddrive.

When you keep that in mind, the easiest way to upgrade your system is to get some more RAM. That way your computer doesnt have to search long to find the data you are working with and it can proces it much faster.

One problem you will have when you want to do a bigger upgrade is...
The newest processors use other slots (or sockets) then the older ones wich means you need a new mainboard.
Since a while they started using a new graphic slot standard called PCI-Express. Your AGP graphics card won't fit on that mainboard. Because of that you are pushed to buy a new graphic card. Next problem you will find is that the newer mainboards use another type of RAM too. called DDR-2. That RAM will work much faster but it is more expensive too. When you going to use your old harddrive in that new system, your harddrive will be much to slow to get the performance you want so you need to buy a new harddrive too (at least a S-ATA drive) So you need to buy a complete new system wich will cost between 800-2000 dollars (or euro's).

I don't know your budget but if you will search the internet or some local computer shops you could get lucky.
A while ago i bought a new mainboard, processor and RAM (for a friend). It was an old type of mainboard with AGP slot. it is a 800Mhz FSB(front side bus) mainboard from ASUS. with that i bought a AMD 3000+ processor and 1GB of RAM and a new cooler for the CPU. All of this costs a little over 150 Euro's (about 180 dollars). that way he got a computer upgrade from a pentium 1800 with 256mb RAM to a AMD 3000 with 1Gb RAM. that will be a great upgrade for little money.

I hope this helps you.

(the way i told you how a pc works is a simple way to explain, it really works a lot more complicated but i think this way you can understand it much better)

Greets,
Goeny

I just upgraded from 512 to 1g ram....ya just hit any office supply store--
cost $25. (real easy to do-by it-open pc-you'll see right where to plug it in)
I got 2.6g processor...I think the new ram slowed it down a good bit.
I think external hard drives are a stinking fantasic idea..I wanna get two..
one for all my static images and non-program files and
one for all my programs (PS and junk)
You can check your pc's performance accurately and worry free in a few minutes
(LESS than ten) at www.pcpitstop.com.
They will tell you very clearly and simply show you just how well your pc is functioning.
Been using pspitstop for about 3 years--you WANT to go there.
G'd Luck
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.Right now, personally,I am waiting for Windows Vista to come out before I upgrade....
I figure taht's what we're gonna be stuck with anyway and it'll give me time to decide for sure if I want to switch to MAC.

thanks guys, i'll buy a new external hard drive first, 200GB (£70) see if that helps, then i'll double up on the RAM, i cant see that slowing down the processer, but what do i know, i'm just a thick electrician/telecoms engineer

wooo hoo, found a shiny glowy one, must buy it,
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&item=280019757968&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
basicly i have £1,000 to buy a new computer, or a new jeep, baring in mind i have a life away from computers, and my computer is still working well, the JEEP is a good idea, the computer is the only way i can make money, what did i say, Oh yes, computer or jeep

Thanks for the PCPitstop link, Scion.Definately worth doing, Very detailed info it gave me. Very useful