I have hardware problem as well... How much money do I have so spend to get an acceptable PC performance... (I am rather poor... since I've spend most of my money during the last upgrade... ) This is what I have:
CPU : PIV 2.4G 533FSB
MB: Intel D850EMV2
Memory: 1.0G RDRAM
RAID : Adaptec 1200
HDD : 2 X IBM 60GB (RAID 0; OS XP)
1 X IBM 50GB
Video: GeForce Ti4200; Voodoo 5500
+ some extra such as DVD; CDRW...etc
total of USD 1,000.00
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This might sound like a rather good PC (about six month old), but it running very slow when I work on it.. (ED; flashget; Media player; Visio or AutoCAD + some other applications all running at the same time ~_~) The situtation get worse when I run VmWare. It has terrible delay... I am wondering if I didnot configurate it right, because the least PC I use work is much smoother than the one that I have now. (Compaq Proliant 5500; 4 x Xeon 450 with 2M L2 & 1G ECC EDO memory)
I have spend all my money (well that is how much I can afford..) on my computer, but the performance doesn't improve as much as I expect. Intel is really good at making people from person like me. ~_~
I guess, if any of you want an upgrade in the future, and have several application running at the same time, do not buy PIV processor. Consider the future useage, go for Xeon or even give up on Intel completely. (AMD might be a good choice..)
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Conclustion: After spending so much money on a PIV system, I discover I should not trust the processor speed. (although I know this, it is first time I realize the importance of this issue.) A slower Xeon processor run a lot smoother than a much faster PIV CPU.
--- DO NOT BUY PIV processor!!! ---
