Would upgrading my cpu make my dual monitor setup run smoother?

Question

Ok, let me try to make this simple.... in list form..

My computer only supports two 2gig DDR2 sticks, it currently has 2 1.5 gig sticks.
I run a dual monitor setupvia HDMI and VGA with my GEForce 8400GS, it gets jumpy.. a lot.. I considered upgrading the cpu AND RAM to help
On a 32 bit system it only addresses 3.5 gigs. It doesn't seem logical to upgrade to upgrade to 64 bit if I can only get a 1 gig increase..

Will a .5 - 1 gig increase in RAM help me with my performance issues, or will simply updating the CPU from a Dual Core to a QUAD core help?

In short, here are my options:
Upgrade to 64 BIT OS, upgrade from 3 gigs to 4 gigs. Also upgrade the CPU to a Quad Core
Keep 32 bit os, upgrade to 3.5 gigs ram somehow, AND upgrade to Quad Core
Leave RAM and OS Alone, keep 3 gigs of RAM, and JUST upgrade to QUAD CORE.
Or unless you have a better suggestion.. LET ME KNOW!! THANKS!!

Here's everything I have:

Compaq Presario CQ5100
MotherBoard:http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01701270&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&lc=en&product=3978592#N155

Nvidia GeForce8400 graphics card

Symptoms:
It plays HD video perfectly when it plays from my hard drive, rather than off of youtube or some other page. (I tested playing a youtube video ON youtube, and downloading it and playing it directly from the hard drive)

Answer 1

i don't quite understand what you're writing.



With your current motherboard you can simply get 8GB (2x4GB) or 4GB (2x2GB) of memory after you upgrade your OS.

Yeah go look for AMD Phenom quad processor. 945/965. Don't buy anything AM3 or Intel cause your motherboard only supports AM2.

Answer 2

The RAM upgrade won't help you, and the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit systems doesn't really matter with the uses you described. If you're running something like Windows XP with all the latest patches (which I'd drop by the way and move to Win8 as patching for WinXP will be dropped next summer) you've likely got a bunch of extras you don't need in the background.



Most applications don't take advantage of multiple CPUs and setting CPU affinity doesn't matter to a lot of programs. 64-bit only matters when dealing with memory and/or IO intensive stuff like rendering, SQL (or NoSQL as well), large scale (multi TB/PB sized) number crunching.



Your largest bottleneck is your video card. Even when it was released it was barely midrange. The current versions of Flash and most modern browsers use (or try to use) you video card for heavy lifting. The issue is that it's not up to it and you're wasting money on the other stuff.



If you've got the cash to toss at that stuff, just simply build a new system. Even a $300 entry level system would stomp that specification into the ground (I went and looked at HP's site). If you're spending more on a system than it's worth it's time to move on.



In the meantime a clean OS reinstall (no builtin crap), a good lightweight AV solution like Avast, and up to date drivers and patches can make a lot of old systems act like new ones. Just do yourself a favor and lock your Pagefile to the highest number that Windows is asking for (there's no magic number, what size that needs to be is based on a LOT of values than just how much RAM you have, just trust us on this one unless you REALLY want to know a lot about IO Scheduling, set theory, and caching algorithms). The point behind that is to keep your disk from thrashing and when you allocate a large chunk of space to your pagefile BEFORE you add a bunch of stuff it won't get fragmented unless your disk starts dying and Windows moves pieces of it to healthy sectors.



You should also review your services. Do you HAVE a wireless card in your desktop? No likely, so you can disable that service in Windows services (tread lightly here as turning off things that you don't understand can break your OS but wireless won't... unless you've got a wireless card you're using and even then it'd just stop working).



Disable all eye-candy as well. Do you really need transparent Windows and such? Your goal is sort of like a race car, design everything as light as possible without sacrificing safety or power. Sometimes that means you need to get rid of spinning rims... but they weren't helping you go faster right?



Hope this helps!

Answer 3

first without running 64 bit youre wasting that ram and jacking with whatever os youre running and I would say a new ivy bridge core i3 or i5 would do the job but personaly I always say optimizing your OS is the FIRST thing you should do have fun though wish I had money to spend like that (being 13 sux)