do you have knowledge with XP? help!!

Guys, I'm very computer ignorant when it comes to specifics and would love some advice if you may be so kind. Here is the basic info about my system-

Emachines T3265
AMD Anthlon XP 3200+
2.20 GHz, 448 MB of RAM

Home deition version 2002
service pack 2
hard drive 150 gig

I dont store anything on my pc so most of it's hard drive is free.

My question is, I'm running CS2 and it runs okay but a bit slow at times which I'm sure is a common problem for lots of people because of the amount of Ram it's uses. So, If I get more ram, like say another GIG will that help the speed of which CS2 works? Does getting more ram help with waiting for pictures to open within the program?

Or, do you think my prosessor is too slow? I guess I just need some insight.

Blessings

i would say you just need more ram. i have an athlon 3000 i think and it runs just fine, since it's not incredibly old technology yet. my pc has 512MB of ram in it, i run photoshop CS and it's fine. cs2 definitely requires a bit more ram than that. if you got another Gig, you'll be fine

Yes, more RAM will help. Your system is low on RAM for Photoshop. I'd recommend at least 1 gig.

I'm running a 3Ghz dual core P4 and I've recently upped my RAM from 1Gb to 2Gb and it does make a difference to CS2, less use of the hard drive swap file, most things are now done in RAM (much quicker).

I installed the trail version of CS2 but at the time I only had 1 gig ram and it was sloooooooow, I had to go back to CS, now I have got 6 gig ram and my computer never slows down no matter what Im doing. so I would say if your running CS2 then you need min 2 gig ram.

Bruce

Thanks guys awesome info! Now, do you know where to get reliable Ram that will work for my PC? Is there anything thing that I will have to manually set in my pc or will XP (emachines) find the new memory after installed?

I've got 2gigs of ram on my P4 3.65ghz machine with 10K rpm SCSI drives and CS2 still runs dog slow, and sometimes pages the hard drive for no real reason.
I plan on putting Photoshop 7 back on as well so that when I need to edit something quickly, I can.

I've had good luck getting RAM from crucial.com. All you have to do is pop it in, and your machine will recognize it. Easiest upgrade there is.

If at all possible, take your current RAM card out of your computer, wrap it in some non-conducting material (be VERY careful of static electricity), and take it to a computer store. Swallow your pride and tell the store employee that you want this kind of RAM, either 1 gb or preferably 2 gb. Unless you know what you're doing, you're likely to get the wrong thing just by going to a web site - there are many different configurations of RAM cards.

Once you get the cards, plop 'em into your computer, fire it up, and your computer should automatically configure itself. I just went through this whole routine about 4 months ago, going from 1 gb RAM to 2 gb. Works perfectly!

Here are some items to pay attention to.

Generally CPU's run best when only the OS (operating system) and programs are on the C drive. What this means is buy having multiple hard drives your CPU is less bogged down (eg. by adding a second / third HD's that contain only data).

In your case I would add another physical internal HD and partional some of your C to make another HD. Giving you a total of 3 drives. Set PS swap drive to your HD's (1st to the new physical drive, 2nd to the new virtual HD on C, and finally use C for the last swap drive).

I've been told CS2 runs alittle differently from CS and that you shouldn't follow the old logic of allocating 75% - 85% of your ram to CS2 like you did in CS. I've been told to only set the physical amout of ram for CS2 to about 50%-55% is optimal. (I have 2 gigs and my CS2 runs best at 55% memory allocated to CS2).

Also a graphics card makes a big difference. A 128 /256 card will also speed things up quite nicely. And last but not least FAST hard drives are important. 7200 spin or SATA or 10,000 spin RAPTORS should also be considered (my CS2 loads in about 2 seconds after it's been initially loaded).

I would budget about $100 dollars and get this immediately and in this order:

- another 512 RAM ($50 approx)
- alteast 1 7200 spin hard drive ($50 approx)

The next $50 to $100 dollars I would put into a graphics card. Shop around and for less than $150 dollars total you can really "Trick Out your "E" Machine"

wow, lots of great info, I totally get what you are saying although partition a hard drive and allowcating is something I have know experiece doing. how many gigs is the spin hard drive? does it go in my pc internally? sorry for the dumb questions.

Well - generally HD's that come with CPU's are 5400 spin (RPM's). Some systems come with 7200's spin. I would guess you have 5400 but you should probally check "E" website for more detailed info. While your there also check to see the maxium amount of RAM you can put in your system. Generally you should have atleast 2 RAM sockets and generally you should not have any trouble putting up to 1GB (2 x 512mb sticks). And generally your should be able to add another HD to your system without changing any cableing.

As for the Partitioning part if your not sure how to do that just put that on the back burner for now. I only mentioned it because you said you have alot of room free on your current drive and I thought you could make some use of the rest of the 160gbs.

Are you sure about that? I didn't notice any difference when using the onboard graphics display on our portable onsite machine vs my main machine with a GeForce 6800 gaming card.

not sure how your hard drive has been partitioned, but if it's separate partitions, then i would recommend putting the virtual memory on that drive and putting a fixed amount rather than setting a max amount. this will reduce drive access when it needs more memory.

If you are going to do drive partitioning for the first time on a system already containing data on the drive, I would recommend using Partition Magic. I've been using it for several years, upgrading ever couple versions, and I wouldn't want to be without it.