performance boosting

[venkman]

My roomate has a Dell Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz with a built in Intel video card, 256MB RAM and it's running windows XP. He's been having a lot of performance issues. I've already defragged the disk so I don't think that's the issue. As a linux person, I'm tempted to say it's all Microsoft's fault, but I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm thinking the best thing is to upgrade some of the hardware. We're going to put more RAM in no matter what, since it's so damn cheap. I was wondering about a couple of other things though:

1. Does the chip clock speed make a big difference? In other words, should we look into buying a 2.4 GHz P4 (I think that's the max his motherboard takes)?

2. Does the video card make a big difference in normal windows operations (like logging in, downloading music, word processing, etc.)? He seems to be satisfied with the performance while playing games, but it's very slow to load programs and in general operation.

3. Regardless of question 2, he's thinking of getting an agp video card anyway. What's the difference between all them? is there a good site out there that really describes the difference between GeForce4 TI 4800 vs. GeForce FX 5600 vs. GeForce FX 5200, etc. ?

Thanks,
Venkman

 

[crisc]

This may be a shot in the dark, but have a look at this and see if he has this "hotfix" installed:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;819634&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[venkman]

I believe I set his PC to auto update with the Windows Update every week. Wouldn't this have been caught by this? It's a good suggestion though, I'll check out what he's got installed when I get back to our apartment.

Thanks,
Venkman

 

[jhlee99]

venkman, i would first into crisc's hotfix link.

if you still want to upgrade the HW, i wouldn't buy a faster CPU. also, if he has no issues with game performance, better agp gpu won't really help either. sounds like he has problems loading programs, but fine in games which leads me to believe it's more windows related so the "hotfix" might solve the problem. if it doesn't i would look into your friend's hw config. what speed hdd is it? i would think with a P4 1.8 dell should have shipped it with at least a ATA100 7200rpm drive. also, find out which northbridge and southbridge the mobo is using. instead of cpu upgrade, you might want to swap out the mobo and use the same cpu. then again, if he a lot of extra $$$s to spend, then upgrade away!

oh, for video card reviews goto

http://www.tomshardware.com

and video card will not a big impact on loading programs, word processing, downloading music, or windows startup time.

good luck!
jhlee

 

[crisc]

venkman,
not all of the MS hotfixes are good and this is an example of one that many times causes performance problems. That you have his PC setup to automatically update wouldn't "catch" anything, it would just make it retrieve hotfixes that it probably doesn't need.

 

[venkman]

Yeah, but according to the link that was posted above, a more recent hotfix fixes the performance issue with this one:

RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, install the corrected version of the 811493 security update. For additional information about how to obtain and install the corrected version of the 811493 security update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
811493 MS03-013: Buffer Overrun in Windows Kernel Message Handling Could Lead to Elevated Privileges


-Venkman

 

[Tarwn]

Try running something like AdAware or Spy bot search and destroy, it could be that your roomate has bogged down his machine with large amounts of spyware or other unwanted mess. The addition of the RAM will be helpful. MS says that XP can run with much less than 256, but just because the OS can run with less doesn't mean it does it very well or that your applications are running well on top of XP running on 256.

As an example load time, I believe my gf's machine (P4 1.8, 512Mb DDR) actually loads XP pro about as fast as it does RH8, if not faster.

Another thing to check is what all is loading when windows starts, if it is starting with 50 programs running in the background then you could easily have performance issues

-Tarwn

 

[nlm9802]

1. processor speed won't make a difference, at least not until you find the source of the problem. Even then upgrading a 1.8 to 2.4 isnt worth it. for the same 150-200 you'd spend on a 2.4 you could get a 120 GB ata133 7200 rpm hard drive and a decent agp video card.

2./3. if he's "satisfied" with intel's crappy onboard video, a good agp card would be an fx5200, kind of a bridge between last generation and present gen cards, its only about $80-100 and will without a doubt improve gaming quality (unless he's playing doom or diablo or something)

I would try either saving his files and reloading windows, or buying a cheapo 10Gb hard drive and swapping it out to load windows on and see if performance is any better.
I would wager it is software related, possibly windows, but more likely something running in the background.

as far as the differences between cards
try

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/index.html

 

[braddds]

All the advice given is sound and would follow most, if not all, provided. Then, I would look at the OS and programs.

Goto:

http://www.tweakxp.com

Look up "performance", in there are several tweaks that can get things running quicker than they are currently. Take special note of the services tweaks. Personally, tweaking (not overclocking) your systems, to get the best and most stable enviornment, is the first thing you should do! After tweaking you'll be better able to see what hardware/software slow-downs and bottle necks you need to address. This way you can make informed hardware purchases, based on on actual measurements.

Cheers

 

[venkman]

Thanks all. I bet he's got a lot running in the background, especially Kazaa. I've pointed him to this discussion and recommended that he boost his memory up to 512 MB and try to disable the auto start options on Kazaa and other programs that are listed in the systray. I'll reply back with what works or doesn't. I'm still a firm believer in the windows half-life, so I'm not sure how far we're going to get without a windows reinstall.

-Venkman