New CPU, what would you suggest.

An Intel i7 or a Quad Core Intel. Just make sure it has all the fancy features that Windows 7 supports.

Hi there
It depends on what applications you are going to run in any case.

Unless you are an inveterate gamer I would even suggest that a QUAD could be overkill - however since the lower end ones are cheap now there's no problem in getting one of these such as a Q9400 or similar.

Most cheaper boards only have 2 slots for memory - making 4GB the maximum realistic amount of memory -- (2 X 2GB) 4GB memory modules if you can find them are hideously expensive and for 99% of home user applications 4GB RAM should be more than enough.

Where users make a HUGE mistake is in skimping on the I/O system - Cheap and slow disks will kill any system STONE DEAD.

Get the FASTEST disks you can afford - at least for the OS. You can use slower disks for data archiving or user data that you don't need to load very often but for things like the OS itself, paging and swap space for Photoshop etc get FAST DISKS - this will more than pay you back in performance.

If you don't do this you won't really notice much of a difference between a QUAD and a DUO - for "typical" applications.

Even if you are a gamer the new graphics boards do all the processing AWAY from the main computer now so the above reasoning still holds.

Serious Video editing needs powerful CPU's but most audio editing (Music etc) doesn't need much extra in the way of humungous processing power.

Audio apps aren't really CPU intensive. Video is (and how !! although read the comment about the processing being offloaded to the graphics processor).

I swapped a really HORRIBLE disk in a laptop for a nice new really fast 2.5 inch 500GB drive. The Laptop now performs nearly as well as most desktops in spite of it having much more modest hardware. (Newer faster disks have larger capacities in any case and larger Buffers).

Cheers
jimbo

:) Thanks for all the replies.

I have settled on the Q9400 on a Raisin City motherboard with 2 Gig DDR 800 Ram. I shall 1st upgrade to 4 Gig of Ram next month and then maybe a new motherboard in December when I might have some Money again.

To be honest I don't do that much on my PC, so the CPU will have more bragging rights than anything else. I do a bit of gaming on it (GeForce 9600GT Card) and thats about it.

Unfortunately my HDD's were acquired for space and not speed. So my OS is on a Sata Seagate 7200 and then all my goodies on 2 Samsung 1Tb 5400.

I would love to OC the CPU a bit, but as normal with Intel boards, it does not seem possible.

Hi there
good choice of processor - it's cheap and performs moderately well.

Unless you need to I wouldn't bother overclocking that CPU - the main reason its one of the cheapest in the Q9xxx range is that its internal buffer width is half that of the other processors in this range. Overclocking won't buy you much in this type of situation. It's still of course a QUAD so cpu intensive apps should get the benefit of this.

Performance even with your current RAM should be MORE than adequate.

(Now if you are talking about VR apps or want to build things like Aircraft simulators - then thats another matter).

On a similar size rig I've managed to run 6 XP Virtual machines concurrently all with more than adequate performance.

I can't advise on serious gaming as that's an activity I really have no interest in but with a decent graphics card I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Of course on that setup run the 64 bit version of W7.

Cheers
jimbo