I am looking to extend the life of my computer(Dell precisions work station Pentium 4 1.75 ghz) for another year I put a total of 270 GB of hd space and have 512 MG of ram. I know ,I know get rid of it but I have to deal with it for now. I currently have been working on Acad 2007 and 3d Max 9.
I don’t have much money but I was wondering if more Ram would help(Ram is expensive for this machine and it takes memory in sets of 2) or a better graphics card for I have only about 350.00 to spend. I know the ideal thing is to get both but it does not make sense to invest more money into this older computer. I just don’t know which will further enhance the speed for I really don’t know the tech side of the graphics card.
That machine is so old you'll end up spending 2-3 times the cost of a new one to get it to perform decently (and that's not even considering how slow the 1.75 must be when rendering in Max!).
I assume that it is one of the old machines that used RDRAM? I have a workstation that uses that. I found a decent deal on ram on eBay, but it still cost as much as a new computer that would be better than what you have (and my machine is a dual 2.2 with a nice graphic card, so it was worth investing in).
A better machine will cost you probably $700 or so. If it is rdram, you'll probably spend $250-500 (you would want to get two 512mb cards). I assume your graphic card stinks, too? That will make working with Max horribly slow.
Time is money. For a few hundred more you could have a completely new machine, new warranty, new everything!
If you can't afford it, wait and save. Don't eat out for a month or two, stay in a night or two. Kill your cable, sell a few video games, whatever.
It really ain't that much money spread over a few years, probably the best investment you can make.
Time = money = life
mauOne is right about it being fine for cad and very primitive modeling, but Photoshop or rendering will kill it pretty quickly (esp. the newer programs that just suck the ram up)
Thanks for the impute!!! I think I will go for the Ram…it is true that it is expensive about 500 for 2 cards at 512 MB each. Yet I need to save up I plan to spend a good chunk in the future 2k. In about a year all the prices for dual core will go down considerably and they will have Quad core on the market by then (scheduled 2008). So prices will go down. I can handle things running a little slow.
As Trace and mauOne mentioned .things do run slow with photoshop and I am sure things will run even slower with the newer programs. But if I do get more Ram say a total of 768 MB will it run ok..say “not to bad” ? Or do I have to make the jump to 1280 MB total and at that amount it will run …say “ok” but not “great” ??
BUT, I do have the rdram that came with my Dell (that I upgrade years ago).
I think it's two 256 cards. If you have 4 bays, they might work. I had upgraded my workstation to 1.5 gigs - I always surpassed the 768 that it came with when rendering, causing everything to crash (GI eats tons of ram).
I'll give you a great deal if it does work out, they just been sitting for years. Let me know and I'll try to find them.
Grafix cad or more memory on a tight budget
I am looking to extend the life of my computer(Dell precisions work station Pentium 4 1.75 ghz) for another year I put a total of 270 GB of hd space and have 512 MG of ram. I know ,I know get rid of it but I have to deal with it for now. I currently have been working on Acad 2007 and 3d Max 9.
I don’t have much money but I was wondering if more Ram would help(Ram is expensive for this machine and it takes memory in sets of 2) or a better graphics card for I have only about 350.00 to spend. I know the ideal thing is to get both but it does not make sense to invest more money into this older computer. I just don’t know which will further enhance the speed for I really don’t know the tech side of the graphics card.
go for the RAM, it will make things better overall, the Gcard will mostly improve when modeling high poly in max otherwise you wont notice much
that computer can be good for a long time for cad and modeling
That machine is so old you'll end up spending 2-3 times the cost of a new one to get it to perform decently (and that's not even considering how slow the 1.75 must be when rendering in Max!).
I assume that it is one of the old machines that used RDRAM? I have a workstation that uses that. I found a decent deal on ram on eBay, but it still cost as much as a new computer that would be better than what you have (and my machine is a dual 2.2 with a nice graphic card, so it was worth investing in).
A better machine will cost you probably $700 or so. If it is rdram, you'll probably spend $250-500 (you would want to get two 512mb cards). I assume your graphic card stinks, too? That will make working with Max horribly slow.
Time is money. For a few hundred more you could have a completely new machine, new warranty, new everything!
If you can't afford it, wait and save. Don't eat out for a month or two, stay in a night or two. Kill your cable, sell a few video games, whatever.
It really ain't that much money spread over a few years, probably the best investment you can make.
Time = money = life
mauOne is right about it being fine for cad and very primitive modeling, but Photoshop or rendering will kill it pretty quickly (esp. the newer programs that just suck the ram up)
RAM...
Thanks for the impute!!! I think I will go for the Ram…it is true that it is expensive about 500 for 2 cards at 512 MB each. Yet I need to save up I plan to spend a good chunk in the future 2k. In about a year all the prices for dual core will go down considerably and they will have Quad core on the market by then (scheduled 2008). So prices will go down. I can handle things running a little slow.
As Trace and mauOne mentioned .things do run slow with photoshop and I am sure things will run even slower with the newer programs. But if I do get more Ram say a total of 768 MB will it run ok..say “not to bad” ? Or do I have to make the jump to 1280 MB total and at that amount it will run …say “ok” but not “great” ??
i think if you go to 1024 (2x 512) you'll be fine.
I think spending $500 is a waste of money.
BUT, I do have the rdram that came with my Dell (that I upgrade years ago).
I think it's two 256 cards. If you have 4 bays, they might work. I had upgraded my workstation to 1.5 gigs - I always surpassed the 768 that it came with when rendering, causing everything to crash (GI eats tons of ram).
I'll give you a great deal if it does work out, they just been sitting for years. Let me know and I'll try to find them.
Trace
I sent you an e-m
Thanks
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