Time to upgrade

I have been reading the computer posts and I am thinking of upgraging.

I currently have a Dell Dimenson 8250 with an Intel Pentium 2.4g processor and 1gb ram etc. It really bogs down when I have Adobe Bridge and cs3 open at the same time.

I am confused on the Intel i5 vs i7 - when looking through the specs I noticed that some of the i5 processor speeds are as fast or faster than some i7's. I am not that computer literate and just get by by my research/self taught and just thought I would ask?

Thanks

I am deciding on parts for my own rebuild now, but just wanted to tell you, most of your problem is with that CS3. It has a well known and unfixable memory leak that can only be fixed by upgrading to CS4 or CS5. You can open CS3 and do nothing, and in an hour, your computer will lock up. It's not the computer.

Wow, just goes to show you how in the dark I am (well known to everyone but me). Thanks Mitch and good luck with your build.

Yeah, do a search on Google for CS3 Memory Leak. Why they can't fix it is beyond me. They did fix it in the next upgrade, so it sounds like they just had everybody by the short hairs and saw a chance to make more money by forcing people to buy another version, instead of fixing the trash one they put out before it was ready. Sounds like some camera companies I know of. LOL

Well, I love spending money on good stuff, so I am going to enjoy this rebuild.

Even CS4 and CS5 will run slow on that machine so definitely a good time to upgrade.

What you are seeing in the i5s is a higher speed on the dual core chips vs the slower speed of the quad core chips. For most photo related tasks the speed benefits come from the number of cores first followed by clock speed (in the same series of chips). So you would be better off buying the i5 750 over the i5 670 (more cores but slower speed). You can use this chart to help, the higher the score the better. http://www.cpubenchmar​k.net/cpu_list.php

So what you should look for in a new machine is i5 or i7 quad core, 6-8GB RAM, 64 bit OS, large 7200 RPM HDD or an SSD, good quality PSU and case, minimal graphics card unless you plan to do any gaming.

Thanks Mike; that's exactly what I was referring to and I appreciate the link. As always it would be nice to have that #1 i7 980 but that's way beyond my budget. I guess anything i5 or i7 will be light years ahead of what I am currently using. Not much of a gamer mostly photo editing.

CameraBuff wrote in post #10516754
Thanks Mike; that's exactly what I was referring to and I appreciate the link. As always it would be nice to have that #1 i7 980 but that's way beyond my budget. I guess anything i5 or i7 will be light years ahead of what I am currently using. Not much of a gamer mostly photo editing.

Yes, the i5 or i7 will be much improved over your present system. We would be happy to assist you with some more detailed specs if you need the help!

Go for a midrange i5 chip for performance and value, i7 for performance, or i3 for value. Just get enough RAM, 4GB min 12GB is heaps. Any of those will blow the socks off your old PC.

Tim, "Thanks mate"(I love to say that). I am hoping for an i7-860 with 8Gb ram; that's about max on the budget with 1tb hd and a low to mid range video card.

Check benchmarks - you might find the i5 will be almost as fast, and could be quite bit cheaper when you take the motherboard into account.

tim wrote in post #10523811
Check benchmarks - you might find the i5 will be almost as fast, and could be quite bit cheaper when you take the motherboard into account.

i7 860 and i5s all use the same motherboard, socket 1156. Only the i7 9xx use the 1366 boards. So in this case the only difference in price is for the CPU.