[RESOLVED] Worth upgrading?

[Nightwalker83]

Hi,

At the moment my pc:

• Windows 7 32bit
• 4GB ram
• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2Duo CPU E6550 @2.33GHz 2.33GHz

I have my current setup backup all my files and programs backup every Sunday at 7:00pm incase I stuff my system again. I just finishesd setting up the backup system at Christmas and was wondering if it is worth upgrading to 64bit or continue using 32bit? I was talking to my dad about it and he said that if I upgrade the CPU I will not be able to use the backups I have created so it would be for nothing. Is that correct?

I mainly use my pc for playing games but they sometimes to run slowly and I understand that the lag might alsio be caused by Windows loading everything into memory to begin with rather as needed.

Thanks,


Nightwalker

[JuggaloBrotha]

You can run all 32Bit software you use now on Win7 x64.

Right now by using a 32 Bit OS you're not even using your CPU to it's full potential and you're not able to use all 4 GB of the ram you have in your system either. I would suggest upgrading to Win7 x64 when you get a chance.

[Nightwalker83]

You can run all 32Bit software you use now on Win7 x64.

Right now by using a 32 Bit OS you're not even using your CPU to it's full potential and you're not able to use all 4 GB of the ram you have in your system either. I would suggest upgrading to Win7 x64 when you get a chance.

Ah ok! What about the backups I have created will I still be able to use them?

[Witis]

Says your cpu is already 64bit http://ark.intel.com/products/30783/...z-1333-MHz-FSB)

That cpu is fine for now, although a quad core might be a decent upgrade for around $100.
Eg q8200
http://ark.intel.com/products/36547/...z-1333-MHz-FSB)
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_n....c0.m270.l1313

[JuggaloBrotha]

Ah ok! What about the backups I have created will I still be able to use them?

I don't see why not, I mean a file is a file is a file, when I went from XP (which is obviously 32 Bit) to Win7 Ultimate x64 all my files on the 2 other partitions of the hdd where read/executable just fine, I was able to install all of my programs on Win7 just like I'd restored it as an XP machine.

Same thing for my backup drive, win7 backs up to the same external hdd like xp did.

[Nightwalker83]

So you had a backup of your WinXP system and ran that on your Win7 machine and it installed everything as it was on WinXP only on Win7?

[JuggaloBrotha]

So you had a backup of your WinXP system and ran that on your Win7 machine and it installed everything as it was on WinXP only on Win7?

I don't backup the whole OS.
I've got 3 partitions on my HDD:
C:\ is the OS and installed programs
D:\ is my personal files (yes I have the MyDocuments, MyMusic, and MyPictures folders redirected to this drive in windows to respective folders on this drive)
E:\ is where I keep the installers and ISO images of cds/dvds for re-installing my programs, games, etc..

Whenever I do a format and reinstall (be it a clean install of the current OS or going to a new one), I back up D:\ and E:\ to their respective external HDD's as a fail safe, then wipe C:\ and do the install. When I went to Win7 from XP I was able to re-target the Documents, Music and Pictures folders to the one's on D:\ just fine even though they were from WinXP originally, everything worked fine. As for the programs on my E:\ drive all but one program installed fine on Win7, the one that didn't was because it was a 16Bit app and Windows x64 (XP 64, Vista & 7 x64) doesn't do 16Bit at all, but it was a program I was needing to find a new one of anyways and I did.

Though one thing to recommend when you do go to Win7 x64, install the 32Bit of Office 2007/2010, you'll get far better performance for the same reason MS is not going to make a 64 bit Visual Studio anytime soon.

[Nightwalker83]

@ Witis,

That just goes to show how much I know about the hardware side of things. The way I have my pc setup at the moment is:

C:\ is the OS and installed programs
G:\ is for games and programs like steam
S:\ is for backups

@JB,

Yeah, most of the programs I use are 32bit seeing as I've always had a 32bit pc (my Win7 lap is 64bit).

[Witis]

Just to add, I don't think it is worth spending a lot of cash on buying the latest 64 bit system when the performance of the system you already have will be very similar especially once you add quad cores. I would save most of my cash for when 128 bit cpus are released unless you have a very specific need for upgrading sooner; moreover, the core architecture as the first quad core from Intel is my pick as the classic relative to Nehalem, Sandy Bridge and Haswell. Also at this stage there are no details regarding the development of Skylake, which might translate to mean clouds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake...oarchitecture))), which means you should be good to go with the q8200 core 2 processor until 2016-2020.

Moving on to the HDD, you might think about upgrading from a regular drive to a SSD as there have been some really good speed developments over the last few years for example:
IOPS = Input/Output Operations Per Second
7,200 rpm SATA drives, Regular HDD, ~75-100 IOPS, SATA 3 Gb/s
Intel X25-E (SLC), SSD, ~5,000 IOPS, SATA 3 Gb/s
Fusion-io ioDrive Octal (single PCI Express card), SSD, 1,180,000+ Random Read/Write IOPS,PCIe
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOPS

[Nightwalker83]

Well, the only reason I need to upgrade at the moment is because of system speed. I think I will leave upgrading the hardrives for now. The current hard drives I have:

1. ST3802110A ATA Device
2.WDC WD10EACS-00D6B0 ATA Device

One hard drive is 1TB and the other is 74.5GB (The smaller drive is the older of the two which, I currently use as my system drive)

[B61Nuke]

I'd toss a few bucks at it and bump it up a bit. Go 64 bit and max out it's ram capacity.

[Nightwalker83]

I'd toss a few bucks at it and bump it up a bit. Go 64 bit and max out it's ram capacity.

Well, according to the link posted by Witis in post #4 my cpu already 64bit. So that hopefully, means I only need to spend money on more RAM, plus a lot of time re-installing everything on the 64bit version of Windows 7. What is the max RAM capacity of Windows 7 64bit?

[B61Nuke]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...mits_windows_7

[DataMiser]

My opinion, it depends on how much money you want to spend and what your main board can support. The most cost effective thing you could do that would provide a noticable increase in performance is to upgrade the CPU. the core2 quad cpus are resonably priced now and will give you a boost especially if you get one that runs at a higher ghz.

Your backups should work fine if you change the CPU, if you change from 32bit OS to 64 bit OS you will not see much if any increase in speed unless you also boost your ram and you may run into issues with backups depending on what is on them. 32bit can make use of 3 gigs amd manages memory differently than 64 bit. From what I have saw there is little if any difference when running either 32 or 64 with 4 gigs of ram. Even with 8 gigs of ram on a 64 bit os there is very little increase in speed running most software.

When it comes to games you may see a much bigger increase in performance if you upgrade the video card instead, depending of course on what video card you have now.

[Nightwalker83]

Well, when I decide to upgrade I will have to use some of the hard drive space as an archive drive. It appears that my MAXTOR 6L200P0 usb device (drive) has just about given up the ghost. The transfer rate to/from the device is shown as 0bps although, I've had the drive from 6 and a bit years.

[chris1990]

If you want better performance from your pc consider using the newer drive as your primary drive. It may have a better file access speed.

[DataMiser]

A drive may help an SSD woudl help for sure but is a bit pricey. When it comes to increasing performance on games the Video card $ for $ is the best upgrade you can make but be aware in doing so you may need to upgrade the PSU as well.

The question is what games are you tryign to play and what video card are you currently using?

I had a friend who was playing the Sims2 on her PC and she told me that when she told the Sims to go downtown that she literally had enough time to take a shower and return before the downtown area would load.

It turned out that she had the onboard SIS video. I had a GE Force 7100 card laying here that I threw in and she was thrilled with it, Load times were 1/10th what they were before and the whole game played much better.

[Nightwalker83]

Well, I just re-ran the Windows Experience program and it gave me a 3.9 down 1 from 4.0 although, at least it is better than on my laptop at the moment where for some strange reason the system won't even allow me to run the WE program.

Edit - here are my current pc score:

Processor: 5.6
Memory(RAM): 6.2
Graphics: 3.9
Gaming graphics: 5.7
Primary hard disk: 5.7

[DataMiser]

Yep you want a new video card, It will do wonders for your performance on games. Any decent video card should put you above your highest number there and bring your Windows Experience rating up to that of the CPU i.e. 5.6

The good thing is a video card upgrade is fairly simple and not very expensive provided that one you keep the card within reason and 2 you have a power supply that can handle the new card.

A GE Force 8600 or better should have a higher rating than anything currently shown on your report there and has supprot for DX10. A 9600 or better would be even better but they require a heavty power supply ( 20-25 amps at 12v) They also require a PCIE power lead whereas the 8000 series and before do not. Even a 7300 possibly even a 6600 would be much faster than what you are using now.

Just make sure you know what yoru power supply is and what the card requires before you buy and power up or you could smoke your power supply.

[Nightwalker83]

I bought:

• AMD FX 4100 x4 3.6Ghz AM3+CPU
• Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 AM3+ SATA3 USB3.0 DDR3
• G Skill RipjawsX 8gb kit (2x4gb) DDR3 1866mhz Memory
• Gainward GTX560 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit (which, I don't need)
• Seagate 500GB Barracuda SATA3 7200rpm 3.5'' 16mb (I think this might be the same as the one I use for school)

Hopefully, that will make a more noticable difference to what I currently have.

[DataMiser]

For sure, the video card was killing you before that alone would have made a big difference on games. On the new system you should see a windows score of around 6.9 with the HD and Ram being the bottle neck.

[Nightwalker83]

For sure, the video card was killing you before that alone would have made a big difference on games. On the new system you should see a windows score of around 6.9 with the HD and Ram being the bottle neck.

If my dad doesn't need my current 4GB when upgrading my sister's computer I will ask him if I can have it in mine possibly giving my upto 12GB RAM.

[Nightwalker83]

We have upgraded my pc to Windows 7 x64bit and A WEI of 5.9 with the following:

Processor: 7.2
Memory(RAM): 7.5
Graphics: 7.7
Gaming graphics: 7.7
Primary hard disk: 5.9

Thew new components we used were:

New power supply (around 860)
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad Core Processor 3.60GHz
RAM: 16.0 GB
System type: x64 bit
System: Windows 7 Home Premium (could have installed professional but we used the OEM version instead)

[DataMiser]

That Hard Disk number seems a bit low for a sata 3 drive.

Edit: Never mind, I was thinking I was gettign 6.9 on my Sata 2 drives but they are 5.9 as well so that is about right,