[gaudi]

I have a 4 year old Sony PCV-RZ46G, 3.2 Intel Pentium 4, 200 GB hard drive, 1 GB ram, 128 MB GeForce FX 5600 graphics card and I'm thinking of either:


1) replacing the CPU only and retaining the monitor...but find few CPUs with XP.
2) purchasing a new computer...only VISTA PCs seem prevalent.
3) upgrading the ram?


I would like to do video(Pinnacle 11.0) or Sony Vegas and Photoshop....I'm still stuck on Photoshop 7.0. I have 30 gb of space open in the C drive and 20 gb in the D drive. I believe I need to do something dramatic before I install any of the programs. Not sure if oldish Photoshop 7.0 is compatible with VISTA. And, I've heard of Pinnacle crashing some computer systems...it may be processing hungry. What should I do that's best for my operations and sanity?I do archive stuff on DVDs and my portable external storage unit. Haven't been very lucky with the Maxtor external storage unit.

[rgreen4]

Your system started life as a fairly high end machine, and still has good specifications. According to the user guide I browsed through quickly on the Sony website, you should have 4 memory slots on the motherboard. While 1 GB of memory is good in a system, 2 GB is even better and will speed the machine up. Here is a link to a document|d-1175] on replacing or adding to memory in a desktop. The user guide doesn't give any information as to matching the current memory, just installing it. As pointed out in the article, pull out a module and match the specifications.

You are concerned about running short on disk space. You mention drive C: and D:, but don't say whether that is one drive that is partitioned or two physical drives. The basic specification for your machine is 1 250GB drive, so if you have one partitioned, you have 200GB used, if two drives, you have 450GB used.

If you already have two physical drives in the machine, then you can increase the size of the second drive by adding a 500GB drive (around $100 on Newegg), or Seagate has a 750GB ATA100 IDE HD ($150). If you only have one drive when you install the new drive as the secondary drive and using Acronis (purchased for $36 when you buy the HD), you clone from the system drive to the new drive. If you have two drives, the by snaking the IDE cables around you might be able to connect a third HD or you can invest in this IDE to USB [adapter for $10 or this universal device good for 3.5" IDE HD's, 2.5" IDE HD's or 3.5" and 2.5" SATA HD's for $20.
You should be able to purchase a two pack of 512MB memory modules for your machine for around $50 or less on Newegg (depending on your current memory module specifications). So, for around $250-$260 you can upgrade your secondary drive to 750GB, clone it from the current second drive, and upgrade the memory. If you have only one drive, then you can install the 750GB as a data drive, move all the data to the data drive off the current drive and devote it to the OS and applications. You can postpone the purchase of Acronis and the adapter until later. After you start filling the drive up, you will want to get a second drive, maybe a large external USB drive to back up your data to.
Upgrading the CPU would be the most difficult on an manufactured machine for some of the settings may not be adjustable. There would not be a large increase in performance and finding faster P4's would be almost impossible (Newegg has 4 P4's left and they are all slower than yours). I don't think the Core2Duo would mesh well with your MB for the same reason I gave as difficulty in upgrading the P4's- setting and also periphial support chip compatibility. Of course you could build your own with reasonable spec's for around $1,000.
Of course I would build the new machine, install Vista Home Premium (which I love) keep the old machine until I had all the new versions of the programs on the new machine and the data converted over, and then keep the old machine as backup. You can run both machines to one keyboard, video monitor and mouse through a KVM switch which connects two machines that way; I have used one for over 10 years and love it.
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[gaudi]

thank you for your prompt and lengthy response...you know more about the "ins" of my computer, than I do. I know my cousin suggested I buy a PATA about 2 years ago after he tried to partion my C drive. He tried with the Symantec Partitioning program...forget which one, but to no avail...it just refused to separate. With the PATA thing installed, I kind of had things working...but I do believe, the original with the computer, C drive got inserted into a slot that is no longer accessible. By that I mean, when I had to return my computer to factory settings, the other drive(s) just dropped off. It's not findable but I know it's physically there(in the CPU). My Sony crashes about once a year...the last one was in December 2007, when the Maxtor One Touch rubbed things the wrong way and flushed out my emails and jpgs...there was really nothing else that mattered then the aforementioned. As you can see, I don't want to tempt loading any of the video programs till my computer is survivable.

I checked the size of the C & D...and it's 150 gb & 130 gb respectively...so it leads me to believe that the PATA I bought must've been 300 gb which he partitioned. Sorry, I don't remember what he did exactly. Lacking the savy-ness, your advice is helpful, since it gives me more options to ponder...although I wouldn't mind indulging in a new CPU that suits my needs. Do you know who and where I can find a buildable to specs CPU? That would just mean re-loading my programs which I do anyway...yearly.

[rgreen4]

I take it that you have never taken the cover off the machine.

I have sent you a Private Message (PM). To access, click on the "Your Stuff" heading in the upper gray band and then on Private Messages.

[coastie65]

Hi rg, You covered that pretty well. As far as the PATA HDD goes, I have one in here and I'm still on the fence. I remember way back when in the days of Commodore and etc. they used to say that the parallel interface was more efficient than the serial interface as the Data flow was in both directions as opposed to a serial interface which data flow was in one direction. Again, you covered the bases pretty well including the HDD usage, which appeared to be at a point of causing a slow down. coastie

[mphenterprises]

Hi Gaudi and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




I received your Private Message and responded to it. Before we begin, I believe we need to clarify some terminology:

"replacing the CPU only..." From the context of the sentence, I do not believe you are actually referring to the true CPU (Central Processing Unit). I believe you are referring to the computer itself. Upgrading the CPU itself is a rather tricky situation for someone who does not know what he or she is doing. If I am mistaken, please let me know.

Outside of what you asked within your Private Message, if you want to go the upgrade route, the only things I would suggest upgrading is the memory and hard drive, as RGreen mentioned earlier.

Regarding the memory, here is a list of all compatible memory chips available from Newegg.com:

184-Pin DDR SDRAM Memory Chips

Within your Private Message, you mentioned that if you purchased a new computer, you would want a case that gives you the flexibility of four (4) USB ports in the front of the computer. If you only do an upgrade, the other alternative is to get an internal USB PCI card with multiple ports. The standard is a 4-port card but there are cards with 6 USB ports in one.

Other than that, RGreen pretty much covered everything. Since you have this Discussion marked as "Answered," please select the posts that you feel were "Helpful" and/or "Correct."