old PC ratings on Window 7 32bit

[CoolCat]

Wonder what some inputs might be, specifically, is it worth getting a video card upgrade for this old system?

Im thinking this is a 2004 ish pc...the HD is grinding a bit, and this low score on the video seems to have me wondering.
Theres so many ads these days I think its really pushing this cards ability with multi- advertisements playing at once etc..
Im thinking I could upgrade and be able to see all the pop-up ads faster and stream advertisements better so eventually I can watch the program material faster.

 

[Mo Facta]

Time to upgrade, dude. At least your graphics card.

I have a dual core Celeron B815 in my laptop that smokes that PC on all fronts.

Cheers

 

[CoolCat]

yeah..maybe.. heading to 8-9 yrs old on this thing.

reading video card forum posts, around 2010 upgrades..then some say "oh youll need a better power supply too...

probably a new tower, but its also odd so many other pc's dont show the cpu to be faster than this old 2.2ghz? wtf?

 

[RWhite]

yeah..maybe.. heading to 8-9 yrs old on this thing.

reading video card forum posts, around 2010 upgrades..then some say "oh youll need a better power supply too...

probably a new tower, but its also odd so many other pc's dont show the cpu to be faster than this old 2.2ghz? wtf?

That's because newer PCs gain their speed primarily not by faster clock speed, but by having more cores. A duel core CPU is essentially two CPUs in one. So long as your PC is doing only one thing you might not see much difference between a newer CPU and your older P4. But as soon as it needs to do something else as well, the multi-core CPU just puts another core to work on that process while your older CPU splits up the workload among its single core.

The software has to allow for this multi-core design to work properly, but newer programs generally work properly in the multi-core environment.

Also newer PCs benefit from faster memory, more cache in the CPU, faster SATA disk access.... just newer technology in general.

And you should be able to get a much faster video card than what you have for not much money. You might want to check this out:

Best Graphics Cards For The Money: February 2013 : Best Graphics Cards For The Money, February Updates

 

[CoolCat]

ok, thanks for the explaino'
thats a go for getting a new tower...
this thing is too old for a new video card, then a higher wattage power supply upgrade, then the 10yr old hardrive is making grinding noises...

 

[Mo Facta]

Plus, that old AMD 3500+ 2.2 will not perform the same as an equivalent intel chip. FWIW, it only has a cpu benchmark average passmark of 539, which is pretty sad.

Cheers

 

[MrWrenchey]

ok, thanks for the explaino'
thats a go for getting a new tower...
this thing is too old for a new video card, then a higher wattage power supply upgrade, then the 10yr old hardrive is making grinding noises...

That grinding means your hard drive is PROBABLY about to fail. I'd back up all your important data and then upgrade, ASAP

 

[MotorheadPete]

Glad I clicked on this topic good info thanks all!!

 

[DogmaticVox]

As some have mentioned above, don't worry about the graphics too much. If you're talking about using your machine purely as a DAW host, then you really need to be more concerned with everything else.

I actually use a laptop for my recording DAW since it smokes my old desktop and I like the mobility. I have a Intel Core i5 with 6GB RAM and it runs all of my Sonar X1 projects perfectly - and that's with multiple instances of Amplitube, Waves plug-ins, etc. Your processor is going to be most important because all of your effects are going to be processed in real time during recording or playback unless you are applying/bouncing down the wav's as you go (not recommended imo). And get an external firewire drive while you're at it.

 

[CoolCat]

good inputs..thanks

i'm looking at $70~ HD and $? video cards (need a bigger power supply$?), and then its still pretty old CPU etc..2gig Ram....

a new Tower for $288 or a Laptop $350ish, will probably smoke this old thing. I dont want to throw money in to this old thing.

Trying to do a backup now, to my portable HD and then decide on tower or laptop. not much cash for this right now...

DogMatic thats some great recordings...SHoot ME Down and the pics are cool, some of the older stuff is great too Down the Line..