How to improve my PC performance? [HARDWARE]

[bornerwave]

by any chance does anyone know if i can add like a 600W power supply and put a palit gtx 770 on my motherboard? will there be any bottleneck or whatsoever?

 

[M_16]

hmmm i feel if u use virtual machine than 4GB not really enough.

So only if using virtual machine then will use more than 4gb if ram? How much performance improvement will a non-gamer feel if upgrade from 4gb to 16gb?

 

[Xreedom]

by any chance does anyone know if i can add like a 600W power supply and put a palit gtx 770 on my motherboard? will there be any bottleneck or whatsoever?

with your current set up?
there are some bottlenecks but the 4gb ram and 32bits windows will be a start, try and get 64 bits windows installed so you can upgrade your ram to something higher like 8bg(recommended) or 16bg.

after that you can change to a new PSU and GPU like i suggested in an earlier reply.
there are other minor bottlenecks but they are quite negligible for day to day use and gaming
you can also ignore my previous comment about SSD being bottlenecked by SATA 3gbps, they are also quite negligible for day to day use.

so its something like this
OS>RAM>other things(PSU+GPU/SSD)>the rest (MOBO+CPU)

 

[Nostalgiaa]

So only if using virtual machine then will use more than 4gb if ram? How much performance improvement will a non-gamer feel if upgrade from 4gb to 16gb?

It all depends on what you do, really. Usually, 4GB should be enough, it won't improve gaming performance or make applications run faster.

If you're one who uses ram intensive programs like Photoshop, VMware, Virtualbox, or do a lot of video editing then an upgrade will be justifiable.

 

[bornerwave]

It all depends on what you do, really. Usually, 4GB should be enough, it won't improve gaming performance or make applications run faster.

If you're one who uses ram intensive programs like Photoshop, VMware, Virtualbox, or do a lot of video editing then an upgrade will be justifiable.

i do use VMware very frequently to use my school virtual desktop for school work purposes. I also use sony vegas quite a lot due to the projects im having now haha

 

[bornerwave]

with your current set up?
there are some bottlenecks but the 4gb ram and 32bits windows will be a start, try and get 64 bits windows installed so you can upgrade your ram to something higher like 8bg(recommended) or 16bg.

after that you can change to a new PSU and GPU like i suggested in an earlier reply.
there are other minor bottlenecks but they are quite negligible for day to day use and gaming
you can also ignore my previous comment about SSD being bottlenecked by SATA 3gbps, they are also quite negligible for day to day use.

so its something like this
OS>RAM>other things(PSU+GPU/SSD)>the rest (MOBO+CPU)

hmmm thanks for the steps! I have taken note of it! just asking, what do you mean negligible, does it mean that i am not using the full potential of the new hardwares due to the bottlenecks? where do the bottlenecks occur if i have finished upgrading to a 64 bit OS?

 

[Nostalgiaa]

i do use VMware very frequently to use my school virtual desktop for school work purposes. I also use sony vegas quite a lot due to the projects im having now haha

Then you'll probably find the ram upgrade very useful. Especially if you've got multiple VMs running simultaneously, though for Sony Vegas it'll probably be more taxing on the CPU.

 

[Nostalgiaa]

hmmm thanks for the steps! I have taken note of it! just asking, what do you mean negligible, does it mean that i am not using the full potential of the new hardwares due to the bottlenecks? where do the bottlenecks occur if i have finished upgrading to a 64 bit OS?

What he probably meant is that, though bottlenecks will exist with your upgrades, there will be little impact when it comes to gaming and normal daily usage.

 

[Xreedom]

What he probably meant is that, though bottlenecks will exist with your upgrades, there will be little impact when it comes to gaming and normal daily usage.

yup

after win64 upgrade , the only bottleneck i can think of from MOBO are

PCIE 2.0(current one) vs PCIE 3.0( mainstream one) [GPU wise]

HARDOCP - Tables of Performance Advantage Percentages - PCI Express 2.0 vs 3.0 GPU Gaming Performance Review

jump to page 13, you can see that theres only a few fps different between those 2, difference becomes larger once you add more GPUs(SLI/CFX)

and

sata 3gbps vs sata 6gbps [if you are getting an SSD]

Real-World Benchmarks: Booting Up And Shutting Down Windows 8 - Is A SATA 3Gb/s Platform Still Worth Upgrading With An SSD?

Page 13,14,15 . again, a few seconds different between those 2..

Video test : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bj3QT0UODc&gl=SG&hl=en-GB

thats what i mean by being negligible..

they will be "bottlenecked" by ur current mobo... but they are so minor you won't even notice them being there..


CPU wise... well, thats for another time till you want to upgrade it.

 

[tony_ong]

So only if using virtual machine then will use more than 4gb if ram? How much performance improvement will a non-gamer feel if upgrade from 4gb to 16gb?

I don really see the need for you to go for 16GB of RAM. My laptop also running on 4GB and occasionally i run VM on it. Of course the VM's RAM usage must be set lower.

Like what Nostalgiaa said, unless using Photoshop or other program that use alot of RAM, i feel 4-8GB should be more than enough. Currently my laptop using 1.33GB of RAM now.

On my desktop, which have 16GB of RAM. When I run Photoshop and lightroom together, there is still quite alot of RAM that is free. So I think 8GB should be more than enough for normal usage.

 

[bornerwave]

yup

after win64 upgrade , the only bottleneck i can think of from MOBO are

PCIE 2.0(current one) vs PCIE 3.0( mainstream one) [GPU wise]

HARDOCP - Tables of Performance Advantage Percentages - PCI Express 2.0 vs 3.0 GPU Gaming Performance Review

jump to page 13, you can see that theres only a few fps different between those 2, difference becomes larger once you add more GPUs(SLI/CFX)

and

sata 3gbps vs sata 6gbps [if you are getting an SSD]

Real-World Benchmarks: Booting Up And Shutting Down Windows 8 - Is A SATA 3Gb/s Platform Still Worth Upgrading With An SSD?

Page 13,14,15 . again, a few seconds different between those 2..

Video test : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bj3QT0UODc&gl=SG&hl=en-GB

thats what i mean by being negligible..

they will be "bottlenecked" by ur current mobo... but they are so minor you won't even notice them being there..


CPU wise... well, thats for another time till you want to upgrade it.

What he probably meant is that, though bottlenecks will exist with your upgrades, there will be little impact when it comes to gaming and normal daily usage.

thank you guys!!! especially for finding the websites and specifying the pages for me to understand, i really appreciate it. I also appreciate you guys explaining these to me, putting it into simple words etc. i get it all now, im also doing a gaming PC project under a budget of 3.9k for my computer architecture, so this also facilitate it haha! thank you!!!! :>

 

[bornerwave]

Then you'll probably find the ram upgrade very useful. Especially if you've got multiple VMs running simultaneously, though for Sony Vegas it'll probably be more taxing on the CPU.

normally my RAM already runs almost full capacity or i experience lag when opening just one VMware haha, i guess i will really need the upgrade!

 

[tony_ong]

normally my RAM already runs almost full capacity or i experience lag when opening just one VMware haha, i guess i will really need the upgrade!

Most likely u are using the page file for the VM. Or maybe the VM RAM usage is set to too high. can try lowering it.

 

[bornerwave]

Most likely u are using the page file for the VM. Or maybe the VM RAM usage is set to too high. can try lowering it.

hmmm okay , i will try to google on it if not i will ask the IT support centre of my school

 

[junialum]

After trying this out on my mom's PC (which really crawls).. old AMD proc, 2GB ram (maxed out), etc.

Putting in a SSD made a HUGE difference. SSDs are getting cheaper. Try getting a 64gb or 128gb one. The difference in performance is probably the biggest jump if you are changing only a single component.

 

[bornerwave]

After trying this out on my mom's PC (which really crawls).. old AMD proc, 2GB ram (maxed out), etc.

Putting in a SSD made a HUGE difference. SSDs are getting cheaper. Try getting a 64gb or 128gb one. The difference in performance is probably the biggest jump if you are changing only a single component.

yeap yeap, i will start of with my OS , then RAM , then SSD , then GPU

 

[bornerwave]

does anyone know how to do a clean format of my harddisk while my OS is still inside this harddisk, im not using a disc or flash drive to reformat my OS

 

[bornerwave]

Project question , using a corsair 800w power supply bronze gaming series, can i SLI 2 gtx 770 with a asus maximus v formula z77 chipset with inteli7- 3770 processor? will the computer be able to boot up, im afraid that there is not enough power

 

[Nostalgiaa]

Project question , using a corsair 800w power supply bronze gaming series, can i SLI 2 gtx 770 with a asus maximus v formula z77 chipset with inteli7- 3770 processor? will the computer be able to boot up, im afraid that there is not enough power

Yeah definitely. You can always google for a PSU calculator just to be sure.

 

[bornerwave]

Yeah definitely. You can always google for a PSU calculator just to be sure.

hmmm alright thanks , but why do the compaines recommend like 600w power? if there are 2 cards wont that be a recommendation of 1200w power supply?