Need help on buying new D.I.Y PC

[MaMister]

I have a friend who uses excel speadsheets heavy duty type, he will open up like 20 plus worksheets at a time.....

It started to hang and crash after the 20 sheets onwards....

So he upgraded to 768MB RAM, before that was 256MB, and it crash a little less time but still crash sometimes and slow too...

Currently, he is using :
P4 2.4Ghz (478)
768MB RAM
80GB harddisk with 8MB buffer
Onboard VGA with 32MB

Please recommend me a super computer specs. that can help him work with breeze.....

I would like to get a powerful machine that handles office work well, not on gaming....

 

[Anon_F]

How much do you want to spend?

 

[MaMister]

As long as it works I think he is willing to pay.....

 

[muckshifter]

I have a friend who uses excel speadsheets heavy duty type, he will open up like 20 plus worksheets at a time.....

It started to hang and crash after the 20 sheets onwards....

So he upgraded to 768MB RAM, before that was 256MB, and it crash a little less time but still crash sometimes and slow too...

Currently, he is using :
P4 2.4Ghz (478)
768MB RAM
80GB harddisk with 8MB buffer
Onboard VGA with 32MB

Please recommend me a super computer specs. that can help him work with breeze.....

I would like to get a powerful machine that handles office work well, not on gaming....

Well this is a classic ... you already found out how to 'cure' the 'problem' ... bung in the ram.

You don't actually "need" a new PC, just some more ram, however, something with a little more oomph will help.

 

[TriplexDread]

Yeah take it to 2GIG that should sort him out hehe

 

[MaMister]

Thanks guys,

Now I think I have some idea but please correct me if I am wrong.

1. Still get single core cpu lilke : P4 3.0 640 (775) and above as excel its single threaded and doens't benefit from dual cores or multithreaded cpu" (Actually, I wanted to get dual cores.... )

2. Get at least 1 GB of RAM. (will dual channel helps? or just normal type?)

3. Is PCI-Express Video card needed or just onboard 64MB S3 video can do? Or better to have AGP 128MB or 256MB?

4. Will the harddisk buffer size help if higher? Like 8 or 16MB?

 

[Covenant]

It's sounds as tho' your friend's machine is running low on resources. Check the hard drive space, and perhaps increase the amount of virtual memory, and see if the hard drive needs defragging.
Check the Microsoft site for any updates for your friends version of Excel. There is, for instance, an update for Excel 2000 which tries to solve this exact problem.

If you want to buy new bits then a new graphics card may well help, but for your particular application I don't think there's any advantage in having a Pci-E card over an AGP card except he would be future proofing his new machine to a certain degree.

More memory always helps. Dual channel will not offer you any more stability than a conventional setup, but seeing as many mobo's have the facility you might as well take advantage of it - it won't cost you more.

Instead of Intel, how about one of the 64 bit Athlons on a Skt 939 board?

Covenant

 

[Me__2001]

just stick 2GB of RAM in there, it may benefit from a CPU upgrade but if he really wants to get a new system then

go for an AMD dual core with 2GB of RAM and a nice stable motherboard like an Asus A8N-E, a decent size SATA hard drive like 160GB Samsung one, the graphics arent much of a concern if its office work only and if you get that motherboard your going to need a PCI-E card something like an X300SE will be fine then use whatever CD/DVD drive and case etc you want

 

[MaMister]

Thanks,

May I know is all ms office single treated software, what about winxp?

What software will get the benifit out of dual core processor?

 

[TriplexDread]

There is a version of XP For Dual Core CPU's Called XP (64bit) x64 Which will benefit apparently. It is only installable if you have a Dual core CPU tho.

Not actually installed it myself yet so cant comment of performance difference

 

[murdoch]

Can you not install 64bit XP with any 64bit processor whether it is dual or single core?

 

[muckshifter]

Can you not install 64bit XP with any 64bit processor whether it is dual or single core?

Yes you can ... although 64bit XP is still a pig to get driver for.

WinXP, 32bit if you like, does understand dual core ... dual core is basically a "sales hype" in that an average home user will never need its capacity to process two things at once ... maybe further down the line when a few more "games" insist on it.

However, always get the best MB you can, if that can take a DC then even better.

 

[Me__2001]

ignore XP 64 bit, its not worth the hassle yet