Reccomend me a processor..

[Overclocked412]

I dont know what processor I should get. Anything thats in the 478, and 400-533 fsb will work. I want to be able to play some mp3's in windows media player, run aol, kazaa and ..maybe.. do some photoshoping at the same time, periodically switching between them without much or any lag. I'd appreciate any advice . I set price of 200 to spend max (with s&h). Oh, I currently have a 2.2 celeron ( )

[tmx468]

In terms of processing, the better you get (in the P4 range), the quicker things will happen, and certainly avoid the celeron line in the future!

Of course, it depends on how much photoshopping you are planning to do, and with what sized images but I would have thought that anything you purchased would see significant improvements over your current PC...

But in terms of switching between apps, that is more down to the RAM - what have you got currently?

[Overclocked412]

I use a 1024x768 desktop resoultion, so im not a res. freak. And the images are usually under 800x600 in photoshop. Other than the few things I mentioned above, thats really all I do. Just mainly like to multitask.

[tmx468]

Well, certainly it would be better 'futureproofing' to get the best you can for you wallet size, but the RAM may also be important to your cause..

[Overclocked412]

I have 256 pc2100 now. and I just got the tracking number in my email for some 512mb crucial I ordered a couple days ago online. I got it hoping that it will improve the all around performance, but I just got a gut feeling it wont.... . What exactly does more ram help in what cases?

[HeadBand]

what motherboard do you have...will it support 800fsb newegg has a 2.8c for 183 one day sale but i'm sure that wont go up too much

also if your mobo supports it you might be able to get a 2.8 prescott for under 200

[Overclocked412]

Im definately staying away from prescotts, a couple benchs hit in the last few days, and the 2.8 northwoods are creaming the 2.8 prescotts in 95% of them. Have got to say, it is quite a let down. But anyways, my mobo supports 400/533fsb.

[Overclocked412]

Ive been doing some research and am thinking of maybe a 2.4/512/800. What do you guys think?

[tmx468]

The RAM is where applications are loaded when running - so if you have a few apps open, then they are loaded into the RAM.

If it needs extra space, it uses 'virtual ram', which comes from the hard drive, and is significantly slower.

When minimised, if space is tight then the app is moved to the virtual ram. When you open that app again to full screen, it has to copy that data from the hard drive into the main system RAM.

The less this process is required, the quicker switching between apps will be....

Did that make sense?

[Overclocked412]

hmmm... yea. makes sense. So do you think I should just wait and see if the ram is all I need then?
(.... then again, shouldnt 256 be enough, since thats what I have now... thus, making me think I need a new processor)