28-11-2012, 08:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 28-11-2012, 09:22 AM by Radio Fixer.)
Think its true Colin ... the hardware stays the same but the applications and what we want to do doesn’t. 5 or more years has been a long time for hardware, it’s evolved hugely in that time. Whether it will continue to do so over the next 5 I'm not sure. But by the sound of it you are trying to run sophisticated software on an old, and probably not even a top spec machine at the time, with a new larger screen (more pixels) and its simply not up to the job.
I go with you: don’t spend any money on upgrading the current PC, new video card etc. Put that towards a new one. The old maxim of buying better than you can imagine needing is still good … may mean a bit more of a gulp on the spending though.
I cant advise what Dell PC to go for as I always build my own. I would get W7 (and in 64 bit) though and not W8. I like W7, its Vista made to work. I run it in XP ‘look a like’ mode and it’s a big improvement over XP, although a lot of the things are subtle … So I have read W8 is a mess up of trying to make an OS that’s good for tablets and fingers and works for the mouse pushers (or tablet and pen like me).
Would def recommend a machine with an SSD (the biggest improvement for years). Some come with a small one and a big HDD for mass storage, although I'm told this can give probs. I just went for a 256 GB SSD and an external USB 3 HDD. (USB3 another leap forward, impressively quick).
To give you an idea of the improvement of PCs in 5 years my old one (and a pretty decent spec machine for the time) took 4 hours to render a 20 minute video from still images. The new one (middle of the road, 6 core, games player spec) does it in 15 mins; so 16 X faster.
It plays streaming web video, full 24" screen and depending on the resolution that it was saved in the quality is very good. There is a tennis site down in Aus and they have an archive of all the old top matches. I watched the classic 6 hour game (Aussie open 2012) and I remember it as TV quality … no stutters, jumps just sit back and watch.
Gary
I go with you: don’t spend any money on upgrading the current PC, new video card etc. Put that towards a new one. The old maxim of buying better than you can imagine needing is still good … may mean a bit more of a gulp on the spending though.
I cant advise what Dell PC to go for as I always build my own. I would get W7 (and in 64 bit) though and not W8. I like W7, its Vista made to work. I run it in XP ‘look a like’ mode and it’s a big improvement over XP, although a lot of the things are subtle … So I have read W8 is a mess up of trying to make an OS that’s good for tablets and fingers and works for the mouse pushers (or tablet and pen like me).
Would def recommend a machine with an SSD (the biggest improvement for years). Some come with a small one and a big HDD for mass storage, although I'm told this can give probs. I just went for a 256 GB SSD and an external USB 3 HDD. (USB3 another leap forward, impressively quick).
To give you an idea of the improvement of PCs in 5 years my old one (and a pretty decent spec machine for the time) took 4 hours to render a 20 minute video from still images. The new one (middle of the road, 6 core, games player spec) does it in 15 mins; so 16 X faster.
It plays streaming web video, full 24" screen and depending on the resolution that it was saved in the quality is very good. There is a tennis site down in Aus and they have an archive of all the old top matches. I watched the classic 6 hour game (Aussie open 2012) and I remember it as TV quality … no stutters, jumps just sit back and watch.
Gary
