[cofe]

so my computer seems to be getting ever slower and i need a new hard drive as mine is rapidly filling up with photos etc. So I'm thinking I need two things; new hard drive space and more RAM, and then at some point in the future I'll just have to get a whole new computer.

Obi wan... suggested getting two hard drives and setting up a RAID. This should be faster and backs up automatically, right? Sounds like a good idea. I think I have two spare thingys for two drives (the wide ones - IDE?).

Also, I have just 1GB of RAM, but in two sticks, do I need to whip this out and put e.g.  2 x 1GB sticks in? Or more? Will it be compatible? What is best RAM?

Current HD is 160GB partitioned. Dunno what RAM is. It's AMD Sempron processor.

Any advice appreciated. Ta.

[dave]

God knows what you've done to that machine, i've got the same HD and half as much RAM and mine still runs fine and has plenty of space (though admitedly still not the astronomical levels of performance required to run keith's video).

Maybe some kinda defrag/cleanup shit might get you sorted? machines will naturally slow down over time if you don't maintain them. they're not like cars, you've actually got to look after them. new HDs are piss cheap etc. i would recommend an external HD for backing up etc. had be easily synced whenever you want with something like synctoy etc.

[slackline]

so my computer seems to be getting ever slower and i need a new hard drive as mine is rapidly filling up with photos etc. So I'm thinking I need two things; new hard drive space and more RAM, and then at some point in the future I'll just have to get a whole new computer.

Obi wan... suggested getting two hard drives and setting up a RAID. This should be faster and backs up automatically, right? Sounds like a good idea. I think I have two spare thingys for two drives (the wide ones - IDE?).

Also, I have just 1GB of RAM, but in two sticks, do I need to whip this out and put e.g.  2 x 1GB sticks in? Or more? Will it be compatible? What is best RAM?

Current HD is 160GB partitioned. Dunno what RAM is. It's AMD Sempron processor.

Any advice appreciated. Ta.

RAM == Random Access Memory and its where everything thats running at a given time on your computer is stored.  If you've lots of things running simultaneously RAM gets full up and when one application wants to use a bit more it might not be available.

If you've got a 1Gb (2 x 512Mb) RAM at the moment, you'll probably find that you have two spare slots next to it that you could populate with 2 x 1Gb chips giving you 3Gb of RAM, but you need to know what speed bus your motherboard has (bus is the term used to refer to the speed at which data can be passed between components, the faster the better).  Alternatively you can rip out the current 1Gb and bung in as much as you want.  Note though that M$-Windoze won't address more than 2Gb of contiguous RAM and XP won't utilise more than 4Gb total, so theres no point in going for more (unless you upgrade to Vista or a decent operating system   )

RAID is complex, there are lots of different sorts of RAIDs (they have levels 0 through to 6).  The basic idea (for levels 1 and above) is that you have two (or more) identical hard-drives setup in parallel, and when you save something it gets saved to both (all) disks simultaneously.  Thus should one drive fail the other still has all the data and you've lost nothing.  It also improves access time as different 'bits' of data can be read from each drive at the same time, so your pictures will open faster.

As mentioned, HD's are cheap as chips these days, so getting a couple of 500Gb or even 1Tb to throw into the computer won't cost the earth, but its a good idea to back everything up, so get a caddy to house the 160Gb your taking out and consider getting some external USB drives or better still get a NAS (Network Attached Storage, not a rapper in a box I'm afraid).  Ignore the expensive options, the Western Digital MyBooks are fairly neat and reasonably priced.  Personally I picked up a Linkysys NSLU2.  These little boxes are brilliant, you can bung all your music and movies on there and turn them into media centres of uPnP so if you have a PS3 or Xbox it will be able to see all your music and videos that reside on your NAS.

One thing to consider is if your doing lots of picture editing and manipulation is uping your processing power by upgrading your GPU (graphics card).

You could also upgrade your processor, but to investigate that you'd need to know a) what socket type it is; b) the current speed or processor in there.  There are lots of different options for both of these for Sempron's.  You can find out what speed processor you have by right-clicking on My Copmuter and selecting properties.

In the mean time you'd be worth doing as Dave suggests and defragmenting your hard-drive (all partitions) and having a general clean-up, go through the list of installed programs and remove those you don't use, or recognise.  Run some spyware detection stuff and several different anti-virus' to make sure there's nowt nefarious on your computer (a good free AV is ClamAV).

I rate ebuyer for buying shit, but was recently put onto scan by Uncle, see this thread for other people's views and reccomendations.

[GCW]

Obi wan... suggested getting two hard drives and setting up a RAID. This should be faster and backs up automatically, right?

Depends on your RAID.  If you go for RAID 0 (striped it'll be quicker, but will not back up so isn't safer.  If you do RAID 1 (mirroring), it won't be quicker but it will back up everything.  However, you'll need 2 eg 500GB drive mirrored, and will then have 500GB HDD space.
You could go for a RAID 1+0 or 0+1 system, but if you're serious about it you'd do better with something like RAID 5.  But you'll need more drives.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Since I recommended Cofe set up a RAID, I've read up a bit more about it as it's something I have been thinking about.
The type I would recommend is RAID 1, which simply mirrors the content of one drive on another and purely backs up in case of hard drive failure. It can make a small bit of difference to speeds as one drive can be reading data if the other is busy, however not as much difference as the top end RAID 5, which requires 3 or more drives so is a little overkill for anything other than a server.

You can have software supported RAID and hardware supported RAID, WinXP only does software supported RAID 0, but your motherboard may support RAID 1 (mirrored), if it doesn't you'll need a RAID controller card. I found this one on Ebuyer for £10 so it's not going to break the bank. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/60610/show_product_reviews
 I have read it is HIGHLY recommend that you get two identical drives to run a mirrored RAID 1 setup.

So although it's reasonably easy, and not too expensive here's the thing...I'm not sure I recommend it.  

I read a few articles and the most thought provoking said basically it ONLY backs up for a hard drive dying, which you may argue is the most likely and catastrophic, however it doesn't back up for theft, fire, accidental deletion, corruption of data. Remembering that any errors will also be mirrored! Any virus' will be mirrored. Hmmm, I'm going off the idea (as I type!).

There are lots of external harddrives with backup software, the WD My Book I have at work comes with backup software and has a  big blue 'backup' button on it. I'm not sure if RAID is all it's cracked up to be for home PC's.

Oh yeah, and run CCleaner before you do anything! http://www.ccleaner.com/

[GCW]

I farted about sorting out a RAID 1 system on the new system, which has 3 x 750GB drives.  In the end I sacked it.  I now run one as the active drive (partitioned for system back up), then use the other 2 drives for backup.  Works fine, even if it's a little more long-winded.  It also has the advantage that you don't mirror everything, just the important stuff like videos that I don't want to lose.
Super important (irreplaceable) stuff I also back up onto an external 1TB drive which lives in the attic until back up time is due.

And yes, you need identical drives to RAID stuff.  Don't risk trying it with mismatching.  And I would argue it's easier to do with S-ATA.

[cofe]

thanks for responses so far. I'll digest this lot and see if I get it.

RAM: I have two slots, 512mb in each.

i already back up externally.

[cofe]

interesting. sounds like RAID might not be the answer.

if i get a new internal hard drive as mine is filling up should i move all the none system stuff (the larger partition) - will this make reading info faster for the computer as it's reading it from a separate rather than partitioned drive?

most of the intensive stuff us running Lightroom and Photoshop simultaneously, plus often itunes and firefox.

how do i find our the bus speed re: RAM?

[GCW]

Have you tried a quick Google for the MoBo, it should give you the Bus speed answer.
At work, so have to give a better answer later.....

[slackline]

interesting. sounds like RAID might not be the answer.

My friend is constantly raving about how he's going to setup RAID, but never seems to get anywhere (could be 'cause he's trying to finish his Phd though).  It always seemed like a bit of an overkill to me for a desktop set-up (and thats coming from a nerdy computer geek!).

if i get a new internal hard drive as mine is filling up should i move all the none system stuff (the larger partition) - will this make reading info faster for the computer as it's reading it from a separate rather than partitioned drive?

Possibly, depends how fragmented things are at the moment on your current drives/partitions.  You might get a bit of a speed increase, but unless its exceptionally large files the sort of differences are unlikely to noticeable to you as a user, and you'd need to be using a specific app to time the milliseconds it takes.

most of the intensive stuff us running Lightroom and Photoshop simultaneously, plus often itunes and firefox.

More RAM will definately help out here.

how do i find our the bus speed re: RAM?

If you've got the manual/paperwork that came with the computer dig the one out for the motherboard, that'll tell you the bus speed for RAM.  If you don't have that to hand your best bet is to open up your casing (and if you're paranoid make sure your earthed before you start poking around) and look on the MB itself for the make and model then google it for the specs.

[unclesomebody]

Save yourself some time, some headaches, and gain some efficiency by upgrading your whole shabang today. Better investing your money in a completely new setup rather than dribs and drabs going into an old setup. You can get an Intel E7200 processor for abour £60 if you look around, a motherboard for about £40, and 2gb ram for £30. You'll be shocked by how much faster this set up would be. Probably 10 times faster or something ridiculous. A new hard drive could set you back about £50 if you go for something around 750gb. You can get a 1TB for under £80 if that takes your fancy.

If you want to be thrifty, then have a look at this ebay page for this E7200 processor ending later today. A potential bargain.

I've just upgraded my computer too, and whilst doing so have come across some amazing bargains on ebay. They're not easy to find, but they are out there.

[dave]

if you do upgrade jiggaman, i'd be happy to dispose of your old RAM for you.

[slackline]

And anything left over.....Weee, possibly easiest to use one of these.

[cofe]

suggesting processor and muthaboard upgrades is all well and good but i have no idea how to do it. is this basically like starting from scratch - reinstall windows and all programs etc? i'm not keen for that.

[slackline]

suggesting processor and muthaboard upgrades is all well and good but i have no idea how to do it. is this basically like starting from scratch - reinstall windows and all programs etc? i'm not keen for that.

Pretty much, but theres no need to change your notherboard/processor if all you want to do is bung in a larger HD and RAM, they are very easy to remove/replace/install.

Was going to suggest just buying a new system in the first instance as components are dirt cheap.  Building from scratch isn't that hard really, its akin to building a lego model, you just need to match the right bits up and make sure theres enough space for air to circulate so things don't over-heat (plus the manuals tell you where everything goes).

[Johnny Brown]

Jim assured me I could rebuild a faster pc for 'fuck all'. It sounded good, so I went for it, and £170 or so later I had a much faster computer. What's £170?

[slackline]

Jim assured me I could rebuild a faster pc for 'fuck all'. It sounded good, so I went for it, and £170 or so later I had a much faster computer. What's £170?

Nothing 

[cofe]

i'm not going to do anything too drastic (££$$$$). the RAID isn't going to happen so I'll just pick up a bigger drive and maybe some RAM.

Thanks for helpful replies.

[Jim]

I'm selling my machine word.
e6400 core 2 duo, abit ab9 mb, 2gig ram, 500 gig HD, graphics card, asus case, dvdrw.

I think the main problem is that you need to clean up your machine, you've probably got lots of things that you don't need or didn't even know you had running in the background and just needs tidying up / re-installing and it'll run fast again (best of re-installing and starting again). Another HD will be cheap - £50 for 500gig+
Back up photo's to DVD is cheap option

[Johnny Brown]

Back up photos to DVD is a shit option. Buy another hard drive. I'll be swapping one of mine for a bigger one soon so you can have that. It'll cost you 'fuck all'.

[cofe]

thanks jim. i won't be reinstalling. that sounds like a major pain in the arse. i try to limit stuff running/installed etc and clean it fairly regularly.

[Jim]

doesn't sound like it.
Re-install will only take 2 hours tops and makes a massive difference. I do it ay least every 6 months.

Try running this
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

[slackline]

thanks jim. i won't be reinstalling. that sounds like a major pain in the arse. i try to limit stuff running/installed etc and clean it fairly regularly.

Re-installing shouldn't be too painful by the sounds of it as the impression I get is that you already have your Operating System on a separate partition to your data (pics/vid/music/pr0n).  If you limit the stuff you have installed it shouldn't take too long to re-install M$-winblows and then install your other apps (itunes/photoshop/Lightroom/etc.).  The crux is just to make sure you have everything you really want to keep backed up somewhere.

Personally I'll never understand why people put up with, and indeed pay for (sometimes), an OS that the best solution to many problems is to re-install regularly 

[Jim]

give me an example of an OS that wouldn't be improved by an occasional re-install which is used by your average computer user

[dave]

DOS?