PC upgrade advice.

[megido-rev.M]

I've talked with others about my computer.  They also think I should try changing my HD first.  Thanks for the opinion, guys.  That's what I'm going to do then.

Now that I've thought long about it, I just want this problem fixed.  My computer is performing very well with whatever I run.  I guess I was so peeved with this frequent problem, I could only think of upgrading as a solution...

And today, I've checked with a few computer shops.  Not one of them sells HDs that use IDE cables .

So the machine is still working generally?

[kitamesume]

I've talked with others about my computer.  They also think I should try changing my HD first.  Thanks for the opinion, guys.  That's what I'm going to do then.

Now that I've thought long about it, I just want this problem fixed.  My computer is performing very well with whatever I run.  I guess I was so peeved with this frequent problem, I could only think of upgrading as a solution...

And today, I've checked with a few computer shops.  Not one of them sells HDs that use IDE cables .

So the machine is still working generally?

seems like it, based on what he said its just the OS drive keeps disappearing which makes the system crash BSOD. possibly cable issue or the harddrive itself is dying.

[megido-rev.M]

Then concerning upgrade, why not just copy the stuff onto an external and get a new HDD/PC?

[kitamesume]

Then concerning upgrade, why not just copy the stuff onto an external and get a new HDD/PC?

HDD swap would be the better idea, if it works then good, if it still crashes then its time to upgrade with the new-drive migrating over the new system.
deal?

usually the stuffs you can swap that are able to migrate over other systems are HDD, PSU, GPU(PCI-E) and Case.

[megido-rev.M]

HDD swap would be the better idea, if it works then good, if it still crashes then its time to upgrade with the new-drive migrating over the new system.
deal?

I thought the replacement drive required an IDE interface?
But otherwise that could be easier.

[rathoriel]

It could also just be cable I have run by that once where just replacing the cable fixed things

[OnDeed]

You *should* really post information about the PC in question, BTW. You won't get any meaningful advice as to what to do about it else.

That means motherboard used (or model of the PC if it is a Dell/HP/etc box) at least. And at least the CPU used if you want to hear opinions regarding whether to keep it or buy a new one.

[kitamesume]

HDD swap would be the better idea, if it works then good, if it still crashes then its time to upgrade with the new-drive migrating over the new system.
deal?

I thought the replacement drive required an IDE interface?
But otherwise that could be easier.

possibly theres a SATAII header in the motherboard, unless its a pentium3 but most of pentium4 to core2duo motherboards does have SATAII header, and since it isn't any older than 6years it must either be an LGA775 or an LGA1156, its possible that its an AMD board though... AM2 socket.

[OnDeed]

K8 boards (socket 754, 939 and up) would have SATA too. Even many later K7 (socket A) motherboards did. [hint no. 56 to post specifications]

[N2O]

Turns out my PC can use SATA, too.  I'm now using SATA HDs (one was lent to me).  So far, everything is working fine.  It's also running faster than how I remember it.  I still have to see if this will fail like with my previous HD.

As for my PC information, is this what you're looking for?

(click to show/hide)

Other than model names, I honestly don't understand any of these.

[kitamesume]

yeah thats a spec, although missing some key parts like PSU and Case(atx or matx), but that pretty much nailed everything else.

seems like you're going good, if you ever need to upgrade though you'd need to aim for a minimum of i3, anything else would be a downgrade.

[OnDeed]

I would upgrade from that PC either, unless you go for a fast quadcore (i5/i7 in Intel range) or something even more expensive (not recommended). If you don't need it for playback of anime, no need to upgrade, right

At this point, new video formats are coming that might need more cpu power to decode.

We don't know yet how slow will decoding H.265 be in practice, and we also don't know if fansubs will use the 10-bit profile (if a usable encoder supports it...). I get PC hardware for several years, and right now it is not clear how strong CPU will be needed, so not a good time for upgrading, unless one really has to. Hopefully we will see in 2 years

[kitamesume]

I would upgrade from that PC either, unless you go for a fast quadcore (i5/i7 in Intel range) or something even more expensive (not recommended). If you don't need it for playback of anime, no need to upgrade, right

At this point, new video formats are coming that might need more cpu power to decode.

We don't know yet how slow will decoding H.265 be in practice, and we also don't know if fansubs will use the 10-bit profile (if a usable encoder supports it...). I get PC hardware for several years, and right now it is not clear how strong CPU will be needed, so not a good time for upgrading, unless one really has to. Hopefully we will see in 2 years

no it seems like H.265 will be easier to decode than H.264-10Bit, the part that makes H.265 hard is encoding it. plus H.265 will have hardware acceleration sooner than 10Bit having one.
Core2Duo E7400 is still plenty for a couple more years that i guarantee, other than slight bottlenecks here and there its still plenty for the most part.

[Saras]

Turns out my PC can use SATA, too.  I'm now using SATA HDs (one was lent to me).  So far, everything is working fine.  It's also running faster than how I remember it.  I still have to see if this will fail like with my previous HD.

As for my PC information, is this what you're looking for?

(click to show/hide)

Other than model names, I honestly don't understand any of these.

It should be faster. A PATA interface is slow enough to limit a mechanical drive, SATA isn't. If you want it speed up more, get an SSD.

[OnDeed]

Turns out my PC can use SATA, too.  I'm now using SATA HDs (one was lent to me).  So far, everything is working fine.  It's also running faster than how I remember it.  I still have to see if this will fail like with my previous HD.

As for my PC information, is this what you're looking for?

(click to show/hide)

Other than model names, I honestly don't understand any of these.

It should be faster. A PATA interface is slow enough to limit a mechanical drive, SATA isn't. If you want it speed up more, get an SSD.

That's just for burst speeds. That old drive likely had lower sequeantial read rate than the 100 or 133 MB/s maximum of ATA interface. I don't think that random access performance (the real sore spot of HDDs) suffers much. The speedup is very likely just from the fact that the newer drive is faster due to being newer and having denser platters (in theory, it could be 7200rpm while the older one was 5400rpm, but who knows).

[Saras]

Turns out my PC can use SATA, too.  I'm now using SATA HDs (one was lent to me).  So far, everything is working fine.  It's also running faster than how I remember it.  I still have to see if this will fail like with my previous HD.

As for my PC information, is this what you're looking for?

(click to show/hide)

Other than model names, I honestly don't understand any of these.

It should be faster. A PATA interface is slow enough to limit a mechanical drive, SATA isn't. If you want it speed up more, get an SSD.

That's just for burst speeds. That old drive likely had lower sequeantial read rate than the 100 or 133 MB/s maximum of ATA interface. I don't think that random access performance (the real sore spot of HDDs) suffers much. The speedup is very likely just from the fact that the newer drive is faster due to being newer and having denser platters (in theory, it could be 7200rpm while the older one was 5400rpm, but who knows).

Fair enough.

[megido-rev.M]

Turns out my PC can use SATA, too.  I'm now using SATA HDs (one was lent to me).  So far, everything is working fine.  It's also running faster than how I remember it.  I still have to see if this will fail like with my previous HD.

As for my PC information, is this what you're looking for?

(click to show/hide)

Other than model names, I honestly don't understand any of these.

So, has the problem been resolved?

[kitamesume]

i wonder how much efficient Penryn would be if they did it on a 22nm tri-gate transistor manufacturing process, well ofc with the integrated DMI instead of FSB.

[LillyTown]

Then concerning upgrade, why not just copy the stuff onto an external and get a new HDD/PC?

HDD swap would be the better idea, if it works then good, if it still crashes then its time to upgrade with the new-drive migrating over the new system.
deal?


usually the stuffs you can swap that are able to migrate over other systems are HDD, PSU, GPU(PCI-E) and Case.

Now days the ram too, no? Everything is using DDR3 and it appears there's little point in using anything over the 1333 that everything can use other than benchmarking. Aaaand might as well borrow the optical drive(s), no sense spending unless you're gettin' a Blu-Ray burner

[kitamesume]

that depends, since the system we're talking about is pre-ddr3 then i doubt you can recycle ddr2, no?

and no, ram speed does add quite a bit of worth even up do DDR3 2400mhz has some noticeable effect.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ivy-bridge-ddr3_4.html#sect0