what can I do to make my pc faster?

[eRaDicaTor]

I just upgraded from:
AMD Athlon XP 1900+
MSI K7T266 Pro 2 RU
1024mb ram(2100)
350w psu
to:
AMD Athlon XP 2800+Barton
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
1024mb ram (2700)
550w psu

I kept the same 2 WD HDD's (80gb 8mb cache) and the same I/O Drives. How can I squeeze more out of my computer (and don't say get a p4)? I don't think more ram would help. I'm running Winxp. Would a SATA Raid0 setting help? Any suggestions would be nice. Thanks, eRaDicaTor.

[vass0922]

What exactly are you performing poorly on that you need more?
You are correct more RAM would not really help.
You could look into tweaks (http://www.tweakxp.com/) or you could look into Overclocking.. depends on how comfortable you are and what exactly you expect.

Do you want better gaming?
Do you want better benchmarks?

If you want better gaming, what vid card do you have?

btw, there isn't muchyou can do with a system like that where you'll get a noticeable increase.

Also look into cutting back on Windows services.. there are a lot that can be stopped and are nothing but resource hogs.

[cbuddha42]

lol thats a pretty nice system, what are you doing that requires improved performance? depending on what you doing there are different thing you could try but you cant really make a system like that "faster" in genereal because its already top of the line for normal computing..........now what your doing might require huge amounts of ram or be better suited to a server style processor

[thekingofpain]

How much of a performance increase did you see from:
A~(old system) to
B~(new system)???
Was it worth the $$$ spent?

[Taz]

Sell it and buy a new one.
Biggest there is... should keep you there in front for a day or two.LOL

[Christian-Comp]

Originally posted by eRaDicaTor
How can I squeeze more out of my computer (and don't say get a p4)?

You ought to get a -mmph mphmgph.

Honestly,
I would have to go with vass0922's question...

If you want better gaming, what vid card do you have?

Also, do you have updated drivers for your perhiperals?
On the video, you don't have to worry about the most updated ones but actually ones that updated that work correctly.

(I have a video card that the newer the driver got, the more unstable the card got... of course this is about the time that nVideo got caught cheating - I didn't say that. I have since switched to the All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro with Catalyst 3.6 and can NOT complain at all).

[eRaDicaTor]

Thanks for the responses. I am running a AIW 9700 pro vid card and I would say I just want to be able to get the most out of the main system i have i.e. mobo, cpu, ram. I do a lot of gaming and benchmarking.
In response to your question thekingofpain, I have noticed a huge difference in the way my computer handles both apps and games. I believe it was worth the 485$ I spent. Everything loads faster, games play faster, benchmarks are way up (3dmark 2001 up from 11696 to 16213). I can run all games with details all the way up as smooth as butter.
So you may be asking why am i wanting more. I don't know. I just like tweaking things. I had my old system oc'd and it was fine. I don't know if I'm ready to do it to this system yet.
All things considered I love my system, am happy with it and am just trying to see if there is anything I can do to get the most out of it. The ram I have is kind of generic. I don't know what kind of increase I'll see going from it to say corsair high performance ram if I am not going to oc.

[jmichna]

With all the great gear you've got, best remaining bang-for-the-buck would be a top end video card, maybe the Radeon 9800, or whatever nVidia's next gen beyond the GeF5900.

[Toddly]

Well I suppose that you could consider using a SCSI hard drive system. They have faster seek times. Better performance. Its gonna cost you though.

[originel]

i'd listen to vass as well.

with hardware like you have you really can't get much better. the only hardware things you can do would be to scrap a lot of your current hardware. upgrading to pc3200 would help (requires new mem and mobo). getting a newer proc would help (like a barton 2 core). but that's about it...and IMO not worth the price given your current setup

Look into your windows services and cut out anything not needed. also make sure you're not running any extra software (like windowblids, comet curser, etc). most improvements you can do are software-sided