Is a processor upgrade worth it?

[NooNoo]

I think you might enjoy Ultimate then... it has a couple of good features, like full image backup...

Make sure you have 2gb RAM and the video card is 256mb video ram and DX10 native support.

[MorseLady]

Ultimate is a bit pricey for now Noo, maybe upgrade later.

Going back to the lounge and my XP Pro computer now because this one is in the spare room and the chair and position of monitor shelf are not to my liking but this was my Husband's room and computer and I don't want to change things yet I will take this great big heavy tower into the lounge tommorow so I can play with Vista in comfort and at the same time I can check out my printer and other things with Vista before I get my new computer.

[NooNoo]

sounds like a plan

[MorseLady]

I have been round the various computer stores online and Mesh is by far the best for price and choice. I have just been on Live Chat to ask about the RAM brand and it is not as I hoped Crucial but would be Nec or Samsung, are these OK?

[NooNoo]

Yes, they are fine, Mesh is guaranteeing them anyway.

[MorseLady]

Thanks Noo. Still trying to decide which configuration to buy but the advice given on here yesterday really helped and thanks

[MorseLady]

I just cannot decide, there are so many options from Mesh. I now have to decide if a m/bd with Intel or Nvidia chipset is best?

It's driving me mad, I need this new computer like now

[NooNoo]

I have a personal preference for Intel... What's the intel mesh model? I can look at the specs and see if there is anything that will make a difference to you....

[MorseLady]

Thanks Noo. I would prefer Intel but the m/bd with the Intel chipset appears not to have firewire. The computer is the Elite Pro A6600 and the m/bd with the Intel P35 chipset is PCI-Express Mainboard - Core2Duo/Quad Core/Penryn ATX. Is the onboard audio good enough not to need a Creative card?

Tried to give you a link but when I tested it came up with DNS error. Been having problems with the Mesh site this evening. Let's try again

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...UCT&KEY=359120

If you click on customise you can explore the components including the m/bd

Here is the configuration I have saved and which I think is the one I want.

System Base Price: £ 594.89
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor(2.4GHz,8MB Cache,1066MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition with SP 1
Digital / Analogue TV Tuner PCI Card [upg £ 25.53]
New MESH Midi-TowerATX Case + 550W PSU
PCI-Express Mainboard - Core2Duo/Quad Core/Penryn ATX
8GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (4 x 2GB)
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer [upg £ 35.00]
LightScribe Super Format 20x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM [upg £ 5.00]
LightScribe Super Format 20x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM [upg £ 25.00]
512MB nVIDIA GeForce 9600GT - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV Out [upg £ 90.00]
Without 22" Widescreen Monitor [upg £ -90.00]
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card [upg £ 49.00]
Logitech Desktop Keyboard & Optical Mouse
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + Limited Microsoft Office Trial
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
6x USB 2.0 Ports (8x possible on motherboard)
Network Ready integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Multi-format Memory Card Reader (ATX)
1 Year Hardware Warranty - Back to Base (UK Mainland only)
Price £862.94 incl VAT and free delivery

[Matridom]

MorseLady, there are a few concern i have with that build;

Look at going slightly higher end with the processor. i would look at the Q9300. It's slightly more expensive, however it will give you 1333 bus and that will more than make up for it's lesser cache. It's also the new revision of the core, so will be slightly more efficient and consume less power and put out less heat.

With 8 gigs of ram, you would need to go to a 64 bit operating system (which is specked), that means that your hardware choices are even more restricted for peripherals and you may encounter issues with some specific applications - Minor issue, but one you may want to consider. (example, Assassin's creed needed a patch to make it 64 bit compatible, out of the box it would do nothing but crash)

Go down to 4 gigs of ram, revert to 32 bit OS and use the saved money get the Q9300 Processor.

[slgrieb]

Eh, MorseLady, you didn't specify whether you OS was going to be 32 bit or 64, but a 32 bit Vista Home Premium is only going to recognize 3.5 GB (about) of your 8 gigs of RAM. I just remember from a previous thread that you had some driver issues with 64 bit Vista and some of your hardware. A scanner or two?

I'd go ahead and get the 9300. I think since you do some stuff that is CPU intensive, it would be worth the money.

[MorseLady]

slgrieb not me never had 64 bit Vista or driver issues with Vista or XP.

Matridom I was going to have the faster processor but someone else on here said it was a waste of mopeny because it would be waiting on the DDR2 800mhz Ram.

Now I am totally confused. By the way the 8megs RAM the lower end processor and Vista Home Premium 32 bit are part of the basic build of this Mesh computer and they would not offer incompatible upgrades. However the Mesh Live Chat Agents are sales people not techies and I probably know more than they do so no good challenging them. Yesterday I asked a very simple question on Live Chat ie the brand of RAM and he left me waiting for about quarter of an hour while he found out.

One of the reason I chose the Mesh was for the free upgrade to 8MB from 4MB RAM but maybe I will look at Evesham and Dell again even if tehy do not offer more than 4MB RAM at the best.

I might just drive down to PC World and buy an HP or Compaq but NOT Advent off the peg, I am really confused now

[MorseLady]

OMG I forgot to reply to your question do we have custom builders in our area. Yes there are two shops which are very expensive and chap who trades in the Market and is just as expensive. I must watch the cost because I am on State pension and benefits and already paying off one credit card for my car and the computer will come off another credit card. Common sense says buy another 1MB stick and Vista Upgrade for this computer but I really want a new one. This computer even with just 1MB RAM checks out with Vista Advisor as capable of running Premium. It has an MSI m/bd 256MB Nvidia card, Creative Sound Card two optical drives one is DVD writer and a Pentium 4 3.4mhz Prescott processor. However I have had problems with this machine and my 200GB hard drive is nearly full and I want another 500GB because I do a lot of digital photography and the files in the Library/Archives are very big. Vista Home Premium Upgrade SP1 is on offer at Amazon for under seventy quid. It would seem that even the cheapest new Vista Home Premium ready computer is a better option than upgrading this one but I am greedy and want better than bare minimum. By the way I am quite happy doing my own hardware upgrades but not building from scratch.

Before I do anything else I think I should go and talk to the very helpful people at the local small branch of my Bank to advise me how much I can spend without getting myself into debt I cannot pay back! I am/was normally a very cautious person but losing my Husband has altered my personality. I get days when to hell with it I want to blew all my credit cards and days like today when I reflect and worry about getting into debt.

[Matridom]

Matridom I was going to have the faster processor but someone else on here said it was a waste of mopeny because it would be waiting on the DDR2 800mhz Ram.

One of the reason I chose the Mesh was for the free upgrade to 8MB from 4MB RAM but maybe I will look at Evesham and Dell again even if tehy do not offer more than 4MB RAM at the best.

I might just drive down to PC World and buy an HP or Compaq but NOT Advent off the peg, I am really confused now

In regards to RAM, let's take an objective view rather than opinion..
Here is a review from Tom's Hardware

The results must look disappointing for the memory vendors, as the largest performance differences we found amount to 7-8% with DivX and WinRAR, while almost all other benchmarks and applications perform alike: a 1-3% performance delta cannot be noticed at all.

I would not worry too much about the speed of the ram.

Now, if i was buying from Mesh, here is what i would build (cost conscience)
Elite Power
System Base Price: £ 390.64
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9300 Quad Core Processor(2.5GHz,6MB Cache,1333MHz) [upg £ 80.00]
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition with SP 1
Digital / Analogue TV Tuner PCI Card [upg £ 25.53]
New MESH Midi-TowerATX Case + 550W PSU
PCI-Express Mainboard - Core2Duo/Quad Core/Penryn ATX
4GB DDR2 800MHz Memory (2x 2GB) [upg £ 10.00]
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer [upg £ 60.00]
LightScribe Super Format 20x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM [upg £ 5.00]
512MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800GT - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV Out [upg £ 125.00]
5.1 High Definition onboard sound card - 6 Channel Cinema sound
Logitech Desktop Keyboard & Optical Mouse [upg £ 10.00]
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + Limited Microsoft Office Trial
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
Multi-format Memory Card Reader (matx)
1 Year Hardware Warranty - Back to Base (UK Mainland only)

Subtotal: £723.18
vat: £126.56
Order Total: £849.74

A few subtle changes from your build.

The Processor got upgraded

Ram got moved down to 4 gigs

I got ride of the creative labs sound card. In all honesty, you will have a very hard time telling the difference between onboard and creative, save the money and go onboard.

One optical drive should be more than enough. The current drives are very fast at burning and unless you do a LOT of disc to disc copying, it won't be needed.

Upgraded the graphics to an 8800 gt 512. With some money saved in other areas, let's spend it where it counts.

Moved your second hard drive up to 500 gigs.. it's amazing how fast space disappears on you.

you'll find that these last two items are missing from my build, but they are auto-includes in 99.9% of motherboards.

6x USB 2.0 Ports (8x possible on motherboard)
Network Ready integrated 10/100 Ethernet

Finally, if you have questions regarding the build components or any other technical details, call tech support and ask them.. NOT sales

[MorseLady]

Thank you very much Matridom. Although there are one or two things I would change your build and comments give me a very good idea and I am clearer about what I need now but I can't see myself needing 1TB of storage but then when I bought this computer three years ago I thought I would never nearly use up 200GB!

With regard to the sound card I like to have the extras that go with it because I am into music technology. I like having two optical drives not just for copying but for multitasking ie listening to a CD whilst using another disc for a game or something like WWTBAM requires you to insert the disc before you can play.

I have read articles online about why you can have too much memory and the upgrade to 8MB must be a sales ploy by Mesh. I am going to read up more on the topics discussed on this thread and my mind is beginning to clear and things are coming back to me. By the way Mesh do not give pre sales technical support something to think about because Evesham were very helpful both before my late Husband and myself bought our machines in 2005 and very good support afterwards.
.

The on site or not warranty is not important and I do not have an issue with going into the box, only with building from scratch or replacing power supplies. I have upgraded or installed memory, cards, optical drives etc.

I have a much clearer idea of what I need now so many thanks everyone