Heckler 147 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 My HTPC currently has an Athlon II running at 3ghz. Since moving the server to this computer as well as using as the main media centre... and because it's only got 4GB of DDR2 memory, and the cost of upgrading it are ridiculous... be cheaper to replace the motherboard and ram. So.. it's running a little slower than I like. It's over 4yrs old now and could do with an upgrade, but I can't afford a new build. By slower I mean scans are taking longer, pauses browsing media collections in MBC and so forth. A friend has offered me his old Radeon 5850 video card... it's 2nd gen model and has a much smaller heatsink and fan, and would easily fit in the case I have. It's also a lot better than the passive 4350 I currently use... 10 times more powerful a card and twice the video memory. So what would give me the best upgrade... that card or replacing the CPU with something like a Phenom II quad core 9xx series (not the 8xx series with limited cache). Can't do both... so which one is the best option for the immediate future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef 3746 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I recently updated a video card in my htpc which had pretty much the same specks as yours, only on the intel side of things. I put the new video card in my machine and instantly I found things running faster and better. But, a new motherboard with a bigger CPU is always a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginjaninja 537 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 In general MB3 terms the cpu will help with transcoding and general performance to some extent, the new video card wont make any odds. But specifically you may want to run a performance monitor to see what your bottleneck is (generally and in regard to 'pauses browsing'). I suspect its disk subsystem or RAM..(possibly network if your data is remote),. On windows perfmon.exe. I would look at Disk Queue Length if >=2 regularly/consistently then get a faster hdd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heckler 147 Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 Of course... the hard drive... (looks around sheepishly), on this system it was originally built on a very tight budget and the OS in installed on an IDE drive. I'll have a spare SATAII 500 gb drive spare later today after some reworking of the raid array on my desktop. So I'll clone the drive onto that over the weekend. That should help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koleckai Silvestri 1150 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Transcoding is done by the CPU so if you're using clients that require transcoding, the CPU is the best upgrade at this time. If you only have the one client, you can use hardware encoding of the newer GPU for a better experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leebo 8 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 If you are going to replace your system drive with that SATA drive, I HIGHLY recommend you DO NOT clone. Yes, I know, if you have a lot of programs installed, and have made many, many tweaks over the years, installing windows fresh will be a major pita. But if something in your system (software related) is contributing to the slowdown, you will simply be bringing it over if you clone. You probably have more time than money, so really think about this. Sent from my generic not my computer device. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heckler 147 Posted February 14, 2014 Author Share Posted February 14, 2014 The install on my media centre has been a barebones one since the day it was built... It's never been used as anything other than a HTPC, so it's never had loads of programs installed and uninstalled. Just win 7 Pro 64bit, stripped back to essentials and a few essential programs like anti virus, remote access, a browser and so forth... it's never even been used for email. It's been well maintained, and in spite of it's lower spec CPU... actually loads just as quickly as the much quicker desktop that's got a 3.2ghx Phenom II 955BE and 8gb ram... but loads of programs and games installed. The HTPC isn't running slow because of the OS, it's only when using MBC in conjunction with the server on the same system... that things have begun to seem sluggish. Mate is dropping the card round tomorrow, so I can test it and see if performance improves. I have no problems about cloning a drive in this situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leebo 8 Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 I too, reasoned like you, and ignored everybodys advice not to clone. I then spent a year regretting it. I finally formatted my drive last month and have spent time ting my programs and settings back. You said things "have begun" to feel sluggish, which suggests your issue is not hardware related. Sent from my generic not my computer device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heckler 147 Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 Yeah... because I am now running both server and client on an underpowered machine.... It was fine before I moved the server to it. If no other changes have been made, then logically it dictates that having the extra load on the system is too blame for that occasional sluggishness when using the client. I'll be installing the replacement card this weekend to test... not making any other changes until I see what that does. After that I'll clone the drive onto a faster one and test again... I have cloned drives in the past without any side effects or loss of performance... Quite the opposite in fact. A properly cloned drive will be better optimized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heckler 147 Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 After a week of running the new card I can report a whole lot of improvement. The extra memory on the card has helped no end... and it was a 5670 not a 5850 as I thought... So not as big a jump over the 4350 as I thought... But a huge leap none the less. I refreshed the windows performance, and although it's not a great indicator of performance... It gives a basic look at improvements. Desktop performance went from 3.8 to 6.9 and gaming performance from 4.8 to 6.9 Everything else remains the same as expected, and te overall score is pulled down by the hard drive to 5.9... Which is the same for every one not running an SSD. The onlt downside is that the card is not passive and you can hear the fan a little.... So I think I'll have a look for a passive heatsink for it and see about swapping it over... Or I might see about replacing the rather small fan with a much larger one that will be more efficient at a much lower rpm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusselo 220 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 BEST UPGRADE HANDS DOWN: Solid State Drive for OS / mb cache. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heckler 147 Posted March 8, 2014 Author Share Posted March 8, 2014 Unfortunately that's not on the cards at the moment. I'd need a 240GB one and they're still too pricey over here. Besides, if I could afford an SSD it'd be going in my gaming system first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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